I'm sorry, Theo. How's his mom doing?

I'm so sorry, Theo. It's never easy, but it shouldn't ever have to be that difficult.

We lived in the house my parents built, the house I grew up in, the house where H and I raised our kids. After we moved my mom into AL, it was time to clear out decades of stuff. I have never been so grateful for H and StY for sorting through all her and my dad's stuff, hauling most of it off to either the landfill or Goodwill without me ever having to see it or deal with it. They kept the things I'd mentioned that I wanted to deal with, a few pieces I kept, the rest I gave to a friend with an ebay store. She sold it, we split the take, she did all the listing monitoring, packing and shipping. Anything she was still holding after a year was hers, entire.

The thing was, if it had been left up to me, I'd still be doing it. Aside from pure procrastination, everything I touched would have required a decision. And I don't have another lifetime to decide the fate of the set of click-clack blocks from the Arizona tourist trap bought when I was eight, and hundreds of other items of equal importance. It was great having someone deal with it all for whom it had no significance.

If you're facing a houseful of "family items" from older generations, it might be worth hiring someone who deals with hoarding. Or calling in a picker, or several, to go through, remove, and pay you a small amount for anything they can take and sell themselves, either on ebay, or to antiquers. Letting go of the notion that picture frame is worth hundreds of dollars, to get it out of your space and $6.00 in your hand, brings lots of peace of mind.

Yes, condition matters(I know too much about that stuff, even though I'm not interested in it) I miss fun. I hardly ever have any anymore and that's sad. I have things I literally don't know how to best get rid of(Old peripherals, discs, broken electronics) Some I've even moved)

I've moved my Too Much Stuff many times. But only I know if it is important Stuff or not. The last house move resulted in a number of broken items. DH says he will never tell me some of the stuff that ended up broken in case I never figure it out. Bad times. Ugh.

Good times are tales from New Orleans! Smiling here at the thought of so much foaminess in one place. Wishes for no hangovers ever.

To be honest, even when I do cull, what's left would probably still give that Jeff Lewis guy an attack, because I'm just not big on sleek, empty surfaces.

Oh Theodosia, I am so sorry to hear about the ordeal with Minet.

Minet's Mom pretty much cried through the whole thing, and on tge way home. She was still hoping to get enough money together to take Big M back.

Poor thing. Many virtual hugs all round.

I'm sorry for all of you guys.

On the Stuff, my mother frets about all the shit in the attic and basement, and finally I told her not to worry about it -- when she dies, I'll just hire someone to haul it out. I mean, I guess I'll look at and want to keep some of it, but really not very much. I have no idea what most of it even is!

Ugh, I'm not making as much progress on my one big work thing as I would have liked, although I have done lots of little things I wasn't getting to -- the upside of procrastination! I guess I'll take one more run at it and try again tomorrow.