I realized I haven't made a post since I arrived in Florida. I did leave a week ago Tuesday and arrived Wednesday evening. I had a nice drive down and even got to detour in North Carolina to visit my cousins who just moved there a couple weeks earlier from Connecticut. I got to see their new house and have dinner with them.
Since arriving, I've been working every day to clean out the house. I've taken out 7 or 8 bags of trash, about 6 bins of paper for recycling, and packed 10 cartons of documents to be shredded. I've also sold his tool chest, tool boxes, and most of the tools, a mini bike, and just tonight sold his floor jack on Marketplace. Oh and I've taken half a dozen boxes of stuff to the thrift shop along with 6 garbage bags of clothing plus several suits and some assorted loose items.
I think I'm pretty much done with the debulking. I've been through every drawer, cabinet, closet, and file. Although it's been time consuming, that was the relatively easy part as it didn't involve too much in the way of personal or sentimental stuff.
Now I'm getting to the harder part with the more personal items. A lot of that will end up being transported home with me. There are a bunch of things that need to either be sold or donated. I'm sure I'll do a mix of both. I'll need to decide what to do with furniture - sell or donate. I'll probably at least try to sell some of it and if I don't get any bites fairly quickly, I'll give it away. There is a large local thrift shop that will pick it up.
I'm not sure how long I'm staying. I finally got the death certificate on Friday and have an appointment with the lawyer on Monday to start the probate process. I'm not sure all that's involved with that or whether or not I need to physically be here to do anything.
There are 2 cars, one antique and one regular, that need to be sold. I've been doing some word of mouth advertising for the antique but if nothing comes of it in the next couple of days, I need to actually start listing that at a few sites. The regular car will be no problem as I'll probably go to Carmax, Carvana, and the dealership and take the highest offer. I don't want to get rid of the car until we're pretty much done as we may need it to get around if I drive home and fly back.
I guess that pretty much sums it up for now.
June 6th, 2021 at 01:55 pm 1622987738
June 6th, 2021 at 03:24 pm 1622993086
June 6th, 2021 at 04:12 pm 1622995950
Hopefully the lawyer can help you make a plan to close out the financial stuff. With my mom, I visited her ‘local’ banks - she didn’t have a huge amount of money, but she used a lot of banks. We had ‘school bank accounts’ in the 1960s and she kept them open for sentimental reasons! But other than that, I did everything by phone. Financial Organizations usually have departments that specialize in deceased clients and they are very compassionate.
The ‘stuff’ is so hard. If you are driving home, seems like you have a limit of ‘what will fit’. I know you are practical and will factor in any costs for renting a trailer or shipping over potential profits. Also, there is an emotional toll of adding the task of dealing with things to your everyday life and space. Getting rid of things doesn’t, in my experience, get easier...
Best wishes.
June 7th, 2021 at 03:23 pm 1623079417