Organizing the Unwanted Inheritance

Organizing the Unwanted Inheritance

By Kartar Diamond

When a parent or any family member dies, there can be mixed emotions, especially if an inheritance is attached to it. While we may not have any issues with accepting cash, stocks, or real estate, what to do with all the inherited personal possessions can be a challenge for someone who already struggles with organization and clutter. It’s not just some stranger’s stuff: it could be cherished items from mom or dad and things you may have seen in their home for decades. And sometimes it is just little things; for example, I kept my mother’s driver’s license for a few years.

When my own mother died, I was not interested in absorbing her furnishings or art work. None of it was my taste. I didn’t need a second set of kitchen appliances or cookware either. And yet I did keep a few symbolic items, such as a four foot tall statue of a mother with two daughters which she kept in her living room. That statue had fallen and cracked in both the 1971 and 1994 Los Angeles earthquakes and she painstakingly put them back together and painted them over twice. I almost felt it was my duty to hang onto that statue, but I also liked it. I also kept a couple of Japanese dolls from her international doll collection because those were my favorites to look at while growing up.

I have gone to a number of homes as a Feng Shui consultant and have seen how a client was struggling to deal with all their parent’s furniture and feeling guilty about letting any of it go. Sometimes siblings will share in the burden of dispersing unwanted inherited items and in fact, sometimes the opposite problem occurs when family members fight over who gets what.

I just have to believe that if your relationship with a loved one who passed on was good, that they wouldn’t want you to feel over taxed with their stuff. They would want you to sell it for what it is worth or just get rid of it in any way that suits you. If your relationship with a loved one who passed on was bad, then it really makes no sense to hang onto their stuff out of some twisted guilt or loyalty.