May, Jim's Mom, will be selling her home of 50 years and moving in to an assisted living facility. At 97, the time for her to be living alone is over. She'll have about 500 square feet of apartment, so she's very limited in what she can take with her. Jim and I spent some time wandering around the bottom floor of May's house last night, looking in closets and drawers. We're in a heap of trouble. There is stuff everywhere. She has her deceased husband's discharge papers from WWII. What does one do with documents like this? We're struggling with how much to involve her in a massive downsizing. We have to respect her boundaries, but then again, it's going to be a massive downsize that needs to happen in short order.
The real estate agent refers to the house as a "period piece". I like that. It is pretty classic mid-century modern architecture. We'll see how it goes. The fact that there are five other houses for sale in close proximity is not encouraging.
The force of the internet here is erratic, I'll post our adventures as the force allows.
The real estate agent refers to the house as a "period piece". I like that. It is pretty classic mid-century modern architecture. We'll see how it goes. The fact that there are five other houses for sale in close proximity is not encouraging.
The force of the internet here is erratic, I'll post our adventures as the force allows.
Every time I come across a thought like this I know that I want to handle these things before I leave that chore to my children. Another reason to downsize to RVing.
ReplyDeleteHi, I stumbled your way from Betsy's blog and I'm mesmerized. I feel your pain. We've been trying to get mom to downsize for a decade, but the harder we try, the tighter she clings. It's pitiful, but the effort when she can no longer live there will be monumental. I wanted to say that those papers? If you feel odd disposing of them, you could take digital photos of them and then recycle. I work for a community college, and they scan and recycle almost all hard copy paperwork. I was shocked at first, but why not?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, good luck with the overwhelming decisions involved in cleaning out someone else's things.
Nice to meet you,
Mel