Quote:
Originally Posted by Baz
I don't know about you folks......but I have too much stuff!
I know I need to work on this and am trying to figure it all out.
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I've been working on this with my parents quite a bit. They are in their 80s and have way too much junk. I've offered to help them clean up a few times over the years, but they did not want any help.
I'm currently in between jobs, so I went to my father and said that I have plenty of time right now, let's work together to clean out his study and the garage. He surprisingly agreed. I told my other siblings that they should mostly stay away because my father did not want a bunch of different voices and ideas coming at him, and asked my siblings to take the lead on other parts of the house once we had finished these first two.
We started with his study and went through every single thing, about 20 hours of work. we found a bunch of stuff to donate and even more to trash. I was patient and only had to challenge him a few times on stuff that he should get rid of...like all of his worn out shoes.
He complained a lot but was very happy with the result. When we started talking about doing the garage next he told me that I would need to get a large dumpster and some day laborers....when he brought up those points I knew he was invested in the idea and looking forward to a cleaned out garage.
Between my dad, me, my kids and a few day laborers we had a total of about 125 man hours into the garage. We filled a 40 yard dumpster, donated a dozen car loads of stuff and did a bunch of cleaning.
After all that, he is now at the point where the spaces are organized and workable, but he still has far too much stuff he will never use. I'm not pushing him on that...he has the space now to work with what he has.
Here is the garage after the cleanup:
