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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We had to clean out my mother's house to move her to independent living in a CCRC. She has moderate-grade hoarder tendencies -- it was a nightmare. It was like the Portrait of Dorian Gray, except more like the Three-Car Garage of Dorian Gray -- clean public spaces in her house, and then you'd open a closet or a back bedroom or the garage and do some primal screaming.

My mom still has all her intellectual faculties, but has physical limitations. We also ended up telling lots (and LOTS) of white lies. Like, "we took these old mildewy books that were in the garage and the mice got into them to the library." Or "we took this 40 year old bedding that NOBODY will use to Goodwill." Or "we took those 30 year old godawful decorative wreaths and your broken-down cat tree to the loading dock of your new CCRC because people come take stuff from there (but really this crap is going to the dumpster at the loading dock)."

Lie if you have to, throw it out if you have to, whatever you need to do to make your life easier. I'm on the freakishly green side IRL and I threw stuff into the dumpster like my life depended on it. The sad truth is that the best thing we can do to cut down on waste and landfill use is make sure in our own lives that stuff doesn't come into our houses that we don't need. With respect to our parents' stuff, there's a limited amount that's actually useful to anybody.[/quote]

Did I write this post?!? lol! The sale of my parents' house just closed on Monday and I will never forget the 6 months I spent cleaning out their place (6 hours away from MD) in between managing their transition to IL after my dad's stroke, caring for my own kids and working a FT job. So.many.dumpsters.

OP, what about moving your mom first (thus ensuring she has everything required) and then hiring a junk removal place to get the rest? I realize that's more expensive as her rent payments will be double, but maybe it will make cleanout of the old place easier? [/quote]

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