I have a thread going here about hiring a declutterer. Having an unrelated person helping is a God send. We need to reconnect after my long trip as I have a long ways to go yet.
We sort into four piles, keep, donate, recycle and trash. She takes the donate bags and boxes at the end of each session. My son and I take the trash to the dump the next day, plus the recycling. I have to find room for the keep.
What has surprized me is that I have not really missed anything at all. It is just stuff, it is not the memory, the person etc.
At the same time my brother and I are trying to sort through my Dad's place. Dad is a hoarder, luckily not rotten foot, but shelf stable food, years past the BB date, more tools than a hardware store, many broken, books and paper galore. We took 6 gallon jugs of vinegar out of a bedroom. 50 pounds of split peas, many 9+ years old. I cleaned out a medicine cabinet of pills dating to 1999.
There are 4 derelict vehicles, 2 derelict travel trailers, a 20X12 storage shed that racoons have made their home. He has a collection of every appliance that came onto the property in the last 70 years. Must have 8 phones, all but 2 do not work. There is a 9x24 shed full a 10x10 shed full and piles outside.
I do not want to leave my kids the mess Dad is leaving us.
Tomorrow I start to sort through fabric. I will be donating it to a woman who had a Home Ec. program at an inner city school. She runs it 100% on donations.