Watty's Awakening

savingholmes

I dread when my parents go as although there home is clean and tidy - they have a lot of storage and it is rammed. I feel for you both.

greenbee

My mum is busy giving things away, which I'm encouraging. My great aunt used to do something similar - she'd give her pictures/china/silver/jewellery away to her kids and grandkids instead of buying them Christmas and birthday presents. It got them out of her house, meant there was less for them to deal with when she died, and she got to see them using/wearing/enjoying things they would otherwise have inherited (and would have formed part of her estate!). 

savingholmes

greenbee said:

My mum is busy giving things away, which I'm encouraging. My great aunt used to do something similar - she'd give her pictures/china/silver/jewellery away to her kids and grandkids instead of buying them Christmas and birthday presents. It got them out of her house, meant there was less for them to deal with when she died, and she got to see them using/wearing/enjoying things they would otherwise have inherited (and would have formed part of her estate!). 

I did a one liner suggestion along those lines to my parents in the context of me giving something of his paternal grandparent's side - but anything more and I'd be disinherited! Families are weird.

Slinky

I'm facing the fact if I don't go first, I'll have to sort out my sibling's home, that is still full of my father's stuff, including his clothing I'm sure, and he died 16 years ago. Plus my sibling hasn't sorted out probate for my father either.......  The house is full of 60+ years of junk and is semi derelict. Plus trying to uncover my secretive sibling's financial affairs...... and this is all over 100 miles away from where I live. I'd quite happily hand everything to the taxman if someone else would deal with it all.  We don't speak, as you might have gathered. It keeps me awake some nights.

beanielou

Slinky said:

I'm facing the fact if I don't go first, I'll have to sort out my sibling's home, that is still full of my father's stuff, including his clothing I'm sure, and he died 16 years ago. Plus my sibling hasn't sorted out probate for my father either.......  The house is full of 60+ years of junk and is semi derelict. Plus trying to uncover my secretive sibling's financial affairs...... and this is all over 100 miles away from where I live. I'd quite happily hand everything to the taxman if someone else would deal with it all.  We don't speak, as you might have gathered. It keeps me awake some nights.

Blimey. That sounds grim. 

Watty1

Slinky said:

I'm facing the fact if I don't go first, I'll have to sort out my sibling's home, that is still full of my father's stuff, including his clothing I'm sure, and he died 16 years ago. Plus my sibling hasn't sorted out probate for my father either.......  The house is full of 60+ years of junk and is semi derelict. Plus trying to uncover my secretive sibling's financial affairs...... and this is all over 100 miles away from where I live. I'd quite happily hand everything to the taxman if someone else would deal with it all.  We don't speak, as you might have gathered. It keeps me awake some nights.

That sounds really hard.  Perhaps you can just pass it to a solicitor and tell them to get on with it?    

Today I cleared a cupboard and stood back and wondered what someone would think and concluded it would be "why did she have so many light bulbs?"  but they all are replacements for some bulb or another in the house and honestly I rarely have the one I want still.  Since when did lightbulbs become so complicated      Everything else has a purpose and will be used although all the different "coffee alternatives" and hot chocolate latte alternatives are on the side in the kitchen. Untidy but this will inspire me to at least try them and use them or simply throw them away if, as I expect, they are revolting.   It was only one cupboard but my goal in January is the kitchen so this was my start.  

beanielou

Absolutely the same on lightbulbs 💡 

Cherryfudge

Co-incidentally to a couple of things in this conversation: a couple of weeks ago we replaced a light bulb in out house with an inherited one. My parents stashed 100W light bulbs when they stopped being made on the grounds that they liked strong light. This is so much better in the situation we now have it that I'll have to look out the rest of the stash (yes, I kept them!)

Then this afternoon, a family member had to pay for something by cheque and doesn't have a cheque book so DH agreed to write one for them. In searching out the cheque book, he found two wallets he'd forgotten and one was from his Dad's estate, just pre-pandemic, with a £20 note and two gift cards in it. And we thought that estate had been sorted out completely.

The kitchen is a very sensible and achievable goal Watty. Of course you may find a coffee habit you didn't know you had.

ajmoney

I am the same with lightbulbs too. I am not sure they are all compatible with fittings in this house though...

debtfreewannabe321

I fitted a new light in DD room over Christmas. I have TWO boxes of lightbulbs 💡 💡 I moved to this house. Not a single one in the boxes fit her light 🤦🏻‍♀️ ordered a box of two so now I have added another (the extra one) box to the already full boxes of lightbulbs 🤣