Packing Up The Family Homestead One Last Time
Packing up the family homestead as the elders in the family lose their ability to take care of themselves and maintain the home where they've spent so many years of their lives is hard — it's hard physically and it's hard emotionally. Here, you'll find a few tips to help you get through this difficult time with as much ease as possible.
Contact a Packing Service
All of those years of things will need to be cleared out of the home. This can take quite an emotional and physical beating on you. Instead of doing it all yourself, you can hire a packing service to come in and pack up the contents of the house for you. At that point, you can decide what to do with it all. You can have it all moved into storage until things get a little easier for you and your family, or you can have it sent to charity to be donated to those in need, such as veterans.
When talking with the packing service, ask about the services offered through their company. Some will pack and stack the contents of the house, while others pack, move, and unload the contents of the home into storage. You'll need to find the service that offers the help that you want and need, but also one that will work with your budget.
One Big Happy Family Party
Host one more big family party at the homestead. During this time, you can all gather and tell stories of years past as you go through the home and remove all of the sentimental or valuable items that you don't want to put in storage or lose.
One thing to consider is how emotional a time like this can be for a lot of folks. Because of this, it's important to carefully consider how much alcohol to serve at the party — you want to use this time to create a few more good family memories, not memories of Uncle John putting Uncle Charlie in a choke hold because he wanted the stuffed deer trophy that's been in grandpa's den for the past 50 years. If your family tends to get into heated discussions, limit or eliminate alcohol at the party.
Start by talking with the packing service. They'll help you find the services and supplies that are needed to carefully and properly pack up the contents of a home to clear it out completely.
For more information, contact a packing service near you.