[Seahawk]

I should have mentioned we just did the purge with my wife's mother.

We moved her to a local care facility as signs of dementia gathered unmistakably.

Standard story: 3,000 sq ft house packed to the gills with "stuff", a good deal of it valuable, some sentimental and lots of ordinary debris. Her 2nd husband was a tool guy so there was also a large garage full of even more "stuff".

It takes A LOT more effort than you first estimate.

My wife set up her Mom's apartment first. Beautiful one bedroom place. We hired packers and movers.

Then the real work got underway. After a month of working weekends we had barely made a dent. My daughter, happily, had accepted a job in NYC and came home early from Scottsdale to help. We had her for six weeks and she worked full time.

She was the difference maker: Set up the garage sales, packers, movers, worked with Habitat and Thrift Stores, dump runs, all the interest from relatives, etc., etc.

Every closet was full of her clothes, many never worn, hundred of shoes, dozens of hats and other accessories: The Thrift Store and the "Vintage Values" store were delighted. Instead of taking books to the local used book store - a great place, he came to us and picked up what he wanted.

We ended up not liquidating a lot of what were once very valuable china sets, formal wear, serving sets, etc., that have fallen out of style. We rent a climate controlled storage room for those type of things.

The punch list goes on my friends.

We experienced all of the same cautionary tales described by others.