How do we even start clearing out 50 years of our parents' lives?
Start with the irreplaceable, not the furniture. Documents, photographs, the letters in the desk drawer — gather those first, before anything else in the house moves. Everything else can be sorted, sold, or given. Those can't be re-bought.
Then make it survivable. Begin in the room with the least gravity — the garage teaches you the rhythm before the bedroom tests it. Give family a real deadline to claim what they want, so "I might want that" stops freezing the process. Photograph the things that carry memory but won't make the trip — the memory survives the donation. And hear this part clearly: wanting it finished isn't disloyal. Walking past your dad's chair every weekend is its own kind of weight, and putting it down is not betrayal. It's being human.
There are crews who treat a family's things like they matter — I know which ones, because I've watched them work. Ask, and the names are yours. Just call.
I wrote this answer, and I stand behind it. I'm Chris Deutsch, a Minneapolis Realtor (MN #20382264). Twenty-five years of walking these neighborhoods, checking basements, and sitting across kitchen tables from people making exactly this call. I re-check every answer and date it — this one was last verified .
If your situation is more specific than the market, that's the one worth talking through. Email me at chris@lakesarearealty.com.