A Tale of Two Clients
Your loved one has passed away
and has left a house full of items that need to be dealt with. You need to sell the house. Your grief has energized you and you feel like it could be good therapy to tackle clearing the house. The process of going through everything will bring closure and you will have a sense of accomplishment in seeing daily progress. You feel confident that you can handle the situation. You don’t need the money from the items. You just want things to go to a good home.
You contact the family members. Who wants what? The grandkids claim a few things but don’t have time to take them now. No problem – you can pick them up another time. The neighbors stop by. You offer them some of mom’s things. After all, you appreciate that they looked after mom in her aging years and you definitely don’t need more stuff. You get rid of the clothes, you get rid of the food, you start throwing away trash. You are making great progress. You have cleared a couple of rooms and then. And then, there’s a crisis. There’s a work crisis or a health crisis or a family crisis. Or maybe it’s not a crisis but something else. A family vacation, a house repair project, maybe a promotion at work.
And suddenly, the energy that you had been devoting to clearing out mom’s house has been diverted to more urgent situations. That’s ok. Things will “go back to normal” and you will be able to finish clearing mom’s house. A few weeks go by without a visit to mom’s house. You have to get over there! You stop by her house to get a game plan for moving forward. You pull in the driveway and notice the yard could use some attention. You walk in the house and notice the kids haven’t picked up the things they wanted. You text them. They’ve changed their minds. They don’t have room for Grandma’s hutch, or antique curio cabinet, or her collection of hummels. You start looking around. Did this stuff multiply while you were away? You box up some stuff that you are sure no one wants and make a couple of trips to Goodwill. You look at your watch. The day is half over, and you still have several errands that you need to run. You decide to go home. And you start thinking – what am I going to do with all this stuff?
Your loved one has passed away.
They have generously left you the house AND all the contents. You know that you will miss mom, but you also know that she lived a full life, and you are happy that you could spend time with her in her declining years. You arrange a day for the kids to take the things they want. You go through the filing cabinets and clean out the fridge. You walk through the house. Mom loved her collection of hummels. She was a good cook and enjoyed kitchen gadgets. Her bookshelves are overflowing with the books she loved to read.
You look in the closets. You didn’t realize mom had all those clothes. You look in the medicine cabinets and start collecting all her prescription meds. You look at your watch and can’t believe what time it is. What are you going to do with all this stuff? You certainly don’t want it but surely someone can use it. You decide it’s time to go home. When you get home you go to the internet and start researching ways to get rid of stuff. You remember that a friend was in a similar situation a few years ago. How did she handle the situation? You send her a text and she refers you to an estate sale company.
That’s when you realize you don’t have to do this alone. At Crossroads Estate Sales, we specialize in stepping in when life is too full, emotions are too fresh, or the to-do list is just too overwhelming. We take care of sorting, staging, pricing, and managing the entire sale with professionalism and compassion, so you can focus on what matters most. We simplify the process, respect the memories, and give you back your time helping you move through this transition with clarity, confidence, and peace of mind.