Downsizing after Death

Cremations are among the cremation services offered in Sun City, AZ. After cremation of our loved one, we go back home. Whether our loved one was a spouse or a parent, home will be different now that they are gone.

Homes have memories, whether they are a few months old or many, many years old. Some people live in homes for 40 or 50 years, while others move every so often for jobs or to be closer to children and grandchildren. But, for most people, wherever home is, so is a lot of stuff that’s been accumulated over the course of a lifetime.

If our loved one was our spouse, then the stuff includes everything we each brought into our marriage, plus all the things that accrued as the years passed us by. Some people have a tendency to save everything, while other people tend to just collect specific things, like craft supplies, tools, sewing accessories, magazines, kitchen gadgets, dolls, and knick-knacks.

Year after year, in our married lives, we find places to stash all these things we’re keeping or collecting, with the promise that we’ll clean it out someday. But someday never came, and now we, as the surviving spouse, are left with all the collective stuff.

If our loved one was our parent (perhaps the last surviving parent), we will be faced with having to either downsize for our surviving parent or, if our last surviving parent died, then clean out the house completely to either sell it or pass it along to a designated heir.

There are memories for us in our parents’ houses. We may have grown up in the same house until we left the nest. We may have moved a lot growing up, but when our parents retired, they settled into a house that we have come to know as home.

In any case, downsizing can be hard. Things have sentimental value, while they may have no literal value. We may be tempted to keep too much because we’re still in the process of grieving for the loved one we’ve lost. We want to hang to them, and because they’re not here, we hang on to their stuff.

But it’s important to downsize after death, because the home that has been home may not be home anymore. Although spouses are wisely advised not to make any major decisions, including selling a house, in the first year after they’ve lost their spouse, the reality is that they will probably want to move within a couple of years. This is especially true if the house is too big for one person and demands too much care.

If we are the children who are cleaning out our parents’ home after our last parent has died, we need to consider that the house will either be sold or it will go to a designated beneficiary, so it’s imperative to downsize.

Get help to downsize, and get organized. Work in one room at a time, and have designated areas for things you want to keep, things that are trash, and things that can be donated. Be sure, if you know someone in your immediate family or extended family wants or would like something, to set it aside for them and offer it to them. This can avoid major family conflicts.

For more information about cremation services provided in Sun City, AZ, our compassionate and experienced team at Simply Cremation & Funeral Arrangements is here to help. You can come to our funeral home at 16952 W. Bell Rd., #303, Surprise, AZ, 85374, or you can contact us today at (623) 975-9393.