How To Sort Through A Loved One’s Belongings After Death
Losing a loved one can be a very challenging time in our lives. Having to sort through a loved one’s belongings can add to the grief and may seem like an overwhelming task initially. Below are some tips on how to take on the task of sorting through their possessions.
Prepare yourself emotionally
It’s important to emotionally prepare for this task - sorting through your loved one’s belongings may bring back lots of memories that are both happy and sad. You may even learn things about your loved one that they kept a secret or never talked about. All in all, it could be quite draining and may be worth doing in stages.
Give yourself enough time
If your loved one owned a lot of possessions, it could take you some time to sift through them all. Consider whether you need to free up a weekend or even take time off work to get the task done. You don’t want the added stress of having to rush the task. If you don’t have time to sort through items now but need to get them out of the property, moving the items temporarily into a secure storage unit could be a solution, allowing you to sort through them at a later date.
Consider getting some help
Don’t be afraid to ask for a helping hand. Having a friend or partner to help you sort through your loved one’s possessions could help you to be more pragmatic, as well as potentially reduce the amount of time it takes to tidy everything up. Alternatively, there may be relatives who can help you share memories with. You could also consider hiring a professional removals company to help take items to a storage unit, charity shops or the dump.
Sort items into categories
Consider taking an organised approach to sorting through items. One option is to declutter room by room and sort items into the following four categories:
Keep: Certain items will be of sentimental value to you or could be useful to you. Set these aside in a part of the house.
Donate: Other items may not be of use to you, but could be of use to someone else, such as clothes or books. These could be worth donating to charity shops.
Sell: Some items could potentially be valuable, but of no use to you, such as furniture or antiques. Set these aside to sell them.
Throw away: Not everything is going to be worth selling or donating. Consider hiring a skip to throw away items that are no use.
Take photos of cherished items
There could be lots of items that carry cherished memories. As much as you may want to keep them all, this may not be practical. A great way to help you ‘let go’ of these items is to take photographs of them. This gives you a visual reminder of these objects that you can still keep without having to keep the items themselves. You could create a photobook of these items along with photographs of your loved one as a way of honouring them.
