What do we do with all this stuff?

Auctioning of the household items is a helpful suggestion. I wonder if that is available in this town. Thank you.

I'm still rereading The Art of War!

Stuff is stuff! Some may appeal to our kids, grandkids, friends, neighbors...
But in the end, "you can't take it with you" and you should not be offended if nobody else values it as you do.
At the same time, nobody should "shame" you into getting rid of it before you want to or must.

What have I done?
Curated what I want to keep and enjoy, or things I still use, to fit the space I have. If I can't see it or find it, I guess I don't need it.
Of the excess, I have offered my "treasures", first to my kids, then to other family members.
No takers? I offer it on "Buy Nothing" hoping to find an eager owner.
Finally, donate to a local organization equipping people to move into their own place if appropriate, or to a "vintage" dealer.

As I repeat my decluttering each year, I will follow the same path.
Happily, I now have empty drawers, shelves and closet space.
By the time I actually downsize (or my kids remove everything) I hope the job will be easy.

If you have an exceptional collection of books, art, artifacts or other material, you may also need to consider finding a "forever" home for it with a museum, library, historical society, etc.
Sue

Great suggestions, Sue!
Responding now to @ckkk, I'd like to chime in:
My husband and I started downsizing before we bought a smaller home and we STILL had way too much stuff when we moved. The kids had taken what they wanted, including furniture, and the rest was given to Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc. I'm not sure who the author was, but the idea of looking at an item and determining if it makes you feel joy or not, was extremely helpful. I'm not a "keeper" but my husband was. The unnecessary things I kept over the years, being an only child, were mostly of sentimental value, but not necessarily my sentiments. I knew that there were things that meant a lot to my mom or dad. It was easier to part with things when I considered the "joy" aspect, the cost of insuring it, the bother of dusting it, or the uselessness of storing it.
You could concentrate on one closet each week, or one room each week, etc. - whatever works for you. It's amazing how you can feel the "burden" lifting as you have less to maintain. I would suggest that if you have someone who would be willing to physically lift, transport, and deliver boxes or bags of articles in their vehicle every so often, you will not find yourself overwhelmed or possibly injured with the project. Be sure to reward yourself every so often - your efforts bless others and make your life more manageable, too!

@cekkk, and others trying to find a way to divest themselves of property and personal belongings. I thought I would tell you what I did in 2018. One of the main reasons I decided to leave my beautiful mountain village was the constant threat of fires every summer. I had been evacuated three times. While living there for 23 years, I owned an American Craft art gallery so my home was also filled with some very original pieces of glass, ceramics, art jewelry, and two-dimensional wall pieces. I decided to sell my home after another summer fire. Here is how I handled it. I closed the gallery and then sent a note to my customers offering to let them select a piece in my house after the house was sold and my daughter/granddaughters had made their choices.

My local MFR therapist lost her entire home and everything in it during the fire so it was wonderful to let her be the first one to make selections. My most frequent customers were rewarded for their loyalty. And I was able to bring a few of my favorites to a new abode in MN. Do I miss my house and the art treasurers? Yes, I do. I try not to look at the pictures the realtor had taken by a professional.

I do find joy in every day, especially when it is time to check in with Mayo Connect.

May you hold yourself in great compassion.
Chris

This is a problem of balancing two seemingly incompatible needs:
Our mementoes and beloved objects give physical embodiment to our identity, which is itself a kind of "self" built of our past life. My library of books, music scores and tender memory objects holds the details of things I have thought, learned and done over decades. They support me by helping me remember who I am. But they also require space and caretaking: they require a price paid in current energy; they are a kind of tax on my current and future life. My particular goal is to maximize the benefits and reduce the tax.

Similarly, my shop collection of tools, wood and nuts, screws and bolts offer unknown creative opportunities, if I don't spend excessive time searching for the right little bolt, which I could also buy for 75 cents.

When I retired from piano service work, I consigned all my piano tools to an organization that serves young technicians. Opening that space in my shop set off the most creative instrument building of my life, because there is room to move and shape new things.

I'm working hard to retain some of that space as I build new instruments. How important is it to keep my old prototypes? Once again there is the danger of hours spent curating the museum of my life.

I would rather be creating more new life experiences than saving my past life!

We had a similar experience. We were out of our home for 16 nights during the Hayman fire in 2002. After that there was very little if any danger of fire as the fuel was already spent.

This is so pertinent for me. Sorry this is so long. My mother passed away in 2020. My Dad passed away when i was young. I was an only child and had to empty her house which was about an hour and a half from where i lived. I had help from a nearby cousin. The house was built by my grandparents in the 1950s. When my grandparents passed away, my aunt took some furniture and other things, but there was still almost 70 years of living . My children took some housewares, paintings, and furniture, but there was still a houseful to empty. My cousin took some things.I was able to donate some of the furniture and housewares to a nonprofit that helps people setting up a household. I donated the cash register from my 2nd great grandfather’s general store to the historic society museum. There was still a lot left. We had part of the garage designated for items to donate. After all that when i finally sold the house in 2022, I had a small moving van of furniture moved to my house. Luckily we have a “guest house” in our backyard that i am using for storage. My husband and i are planning to put our house on the market and downsize. I have been telling my three children to come get what they want. I will bring some things to our vacation house. We plan to have an estate sale once we know the size of where we will live. I have some items that i will hold onto. A chandelier that was a wedding gift to my great grandmother from her parents. My grandfather electrified it and it was in the living room, an oak buffet that my second great grandmother gave to my grandparents. My mother was a ‘keeper’. She didn’t worry about what would happen after she was gone. After my experience, i am trying to minimize what my children will have to deal with. My mother did have lists about the furniture and where it came from. I am doing that for my children. I also plan to do that with my jewelry. I have started giving some of the less expensive jewelry to my granddaughter. It is a process and i am finding things i never knew about and remembering past times.

I’m like you, moving to assisted living. Where do we get help?

Can you ask the assisted living facility for a local recommendation, as they deal with this issue all the time?
Sue