Part Five: Disposing of your parent's belongings

I understand that there are many options for how to dispose of your parent's remaining belongings after you and other family members have decided what to keep. In our case we are limited by the rural location of our Mom's home, my living far away, and our lack of interest in trying to get every last dollar out of selling things.

So here is how we decided to triage this task.

- We gave a painting back to the widow of the artist who was delighted to have it and was also my Mom's best friend. She said she will think of Mom and her departed husband every time she looks at it.
- We donated her clothes to a charity, two chairs to the local library and are trying to find someone who couldn't afford to buy one to donate her electric recliner (helps you stand up) to so that they can live a better life now.
- We identified silver, jewelry and some antiques to try to sell. I get the fun of trying to sell the jewelry. My brother gets the silver and antiques as I couldn't easily bring them home in my car.
- We identified someone who will buy the contents of houses. After the house is under contract we will get an estimate. We may need a second buyer for what they don't want.
- What remains will be donated.

That is it. We like to keep things simple and since there was little of significant value we can do so. If there had been valuable items/furnishings that would be another story.