The saying “you can’t take it with you” holds true—when we pass away, our earthly possessions stay behind. When our parents pass, we inherit their belongings. Objects that demand our time and care. Tangible memories. Homes, apartments, or even storage units filled with items. Sorting through a parent’s possessions after their death can feel overwhelming.

What do you keep, what do you get rid of? At certain age you already have too much of your own stuff and then …you have to decide what to do with your parent’s stuff.

So that is what has been happening. My mom had a lot of stuff; she loved to decorate her home and things often changed with the seasons so…for me once I get stuff where I want it …that is where it stays.

And my mom had good stuff, so that made it even more difficult. But we went ahead and selected stuff we wanted that had sentimental value etc. and then had an estate sale last weekend.

As the sale went on through the two days we would see more stuff that started to look good to us and so we ended up with even more stuff.

My mother liked to sometimes hide nice jewelry …maybe in the toe of a shoe? So if anyone bought shoes …take a look.

And speaking of hiding things, a few years ago when my aunt Betty was in Long Term Care it was time to clean out her house to get it ready to sell. She remembered that she had some very old baseball cards but she had put them/hid them somewhere, she thought, and she did not know where.

As we took each room apart to clean my sister moved a gun cabinet and there was a set of small baseball cards affixed to a poster board. There they were and they were cards for…Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, and Christy Mathewson. Other known Hall of Famers in the set, included Grover Alexander, Eddie Collins, Red Faber, and Rogers Hornsby and more.

My sister contacted a baseball card dealer back east and was told that the cards were from around 1921 and were very rare. Only one other set of 14 had been found before and my aunt had 16 in her set.

Eventually the cards were put up for auction. It was during COVID so it was an online auction. We watched online the day of the auction and Babe Ruth alone went for over $15,000. The money raised from the cards helped my aunt with her stay at LTC.

So a lesson …it is never an easy job taking care and cleaning out a loved ones home whether they have gone to the nursing home or if they have passed …but take a good look at stuff before you toss it out …it might be worth something.

Christi Baron, Editor