Having to relocate from an old residence

[Rob]

Hi everyone-

Does anyone on the forum have to relocate from an old, deteriorating house that your NT siblings wish to sell? Does the experience seem overwhelming?

I do not actually own the house, but I have a huge task in getting rid of clutter. Most of the decluttering has been done already with my sisters, but I still have to sort out stuff to donate or throw away. Plus, my sisters have a lot of stuff here to go through themselves whether they want or donate their stuff.

Is anyone on the spectrum going through their own "moving out" experience? Your feedback is welcome!

 

[Streetwise]

Yes, I've been through this three times. Once with my family home, and then twice with my two grandmothers.

It was a little overwhelming, each time, especially the family home which is on the market, with pictures that I painted as a child still hung on the walls in the real estate photos. Many items have some sort of memory associated with them. They hold a value beyond a monetary one, a kind of memory trust that's difficult to forget, or treat as unimportant in the history of families.

The most difficult parts, were finding things that someone kept for reasons that were unknown, that you wish you could ask them about. My grandmother kept a great deal of material and wool, for her loom. She did lots of sewing, lacemaking, knitting, rug making, had several sewing machines, looms.

An extensive collection of photographs, stamps, coins, postcards. Every bill in a filing cabinet beginning in the 1920's, every notebook of patient symptoms (she was a nurse). Grandfather's things were all related to the railroad, and he had several hobbies as well, including many hundreds of negatives, I purchased a negative scanner and am about a quarter of the way though the negatives.

The difficulty was throwing away certain things, like the old bills and selling or donating other things. I have yet to go through the stamp collection or the coin collection. The negatives of certain local photographs I've donated and the nursing items I've also donated. Some 1920's clothing and hats I gave to a theater company in the area. The war items, have been given to a museum. Including a pristine WW2 sailor's wool dress uniform, kit, blanket, hammock, greatcoat, lightly used, that I found wrapped and in mothballs in a trunk.

With the grandparents things, I've been very careful. Some of the items belonged to their parents. So it's been difficult to access their historical value to the family, of the letters, cards, books. There were things I knew nothing about, and had to do some research on. Sifting through someone else's life is difficult, it's quite intimate, you somehow learn who they were before you knew them as parents or grandparents. Their early lives, that you had no real knowledge of. It can be fascinating, but also difficult.

If you put photographs of them on the forum there will be probably somebody who knows a lot about them

 

[SusanLR]

Yes. After living most of my life in the same area, I am planning the steps of moving to a different section of the same state by the middle of next year.

The clean up and clear out phase has started and I felt a bit sad today doing this. I went through cleaning out my mother's things when she died in 2013. It was rough and sometimes I was just so upset I threw a lot of things out near the road in front of the house for anyone to take.
Some I wish I hadn't now, but, then it just felt right to fit how I felt over the loss.

Now it's a matter of clearing out mostly.
Don't have a lot left that I want to get rid of and my photos and rock collections will certainly be kept.
It will be a two part move which is stressful.
As soon as this place is cleared out I will rent an apartment for a few months and this house will be for sale empty.
Probably better to sell that way.
Then the look for the right place in the new area I've chosen will go full force so when I find what I really want I can just move in.

I don't like change, but, once I get through it I think it will be for the better. Lower expenses and a lot of wilderness preserves and privacy away from the city.
I'm sure I will love that, once I survive the journey.

 

[watersprite]

I've moved from a house that was owned by siblings. This took place a while ago. They had put furniture and other things in the house ("given me treasures") which, basically, they didn't want to store at their houses. No one wanted to go through the decision-process requried. I had to find ways to get rid of lots of items large and small.
Adding: I found out that I had become kind of buried in stuff, and now have a more organized approach to my house keeping. (subsequently, my husband has helped me a lot)

Then when I'd gotten rid of the items I started a brand new chapter in my life. It turned out great, but took heaps of energy for 6 months or so.
Best of luck to you @Rob.

edited this to give kudos to husband