Little Glimpses

We are getting little glimpses of what my mother in law was.  Cleaning her home is becoming a full time job--we have spent the last 3 weekends there and still have a lot more to do.  Her bedroom is the only one on the first floor so that has been emptied and we moved John up there last weekend, Changed the living room around and moved his TV up.  The boys can never remember in some 40 years the couch ever being on any wall except the one the backs up to the kitchen.  It's now in front of the front window.  We took all her "foof" down and have started putting up John's collection of wolf stuff as we find it.  The den is emptied and is now his computer room.  I've washed every curtain in the place -- boy were they bad.  Jim has washed windows and the curtains rehung or replaced.  They took 5 truck loads of garbage to the dump yesterday including the recycle run and we haven't even hit the basement yet.  OMG!!!  Today is the kitchen and bathroom.  We've put away the china and good silver for her granddaughter,  Pictures.....old and new.  I've been sorting them, taken all of Shannon's and put the grand children's in a box for Jody to have back.  The others the kids need to separate and decide who gets what.  I took a few minutes and want more to go through the 10 photo albums I found tucked away.  Jewelry is packed away until Jody and Meghan get here to have first dibs.  We've packed away her  and dad's wedding rings.  The kids decided to put moms back on her finger when she dies and put dads on a chain around her neck.  Memories and there are a lot them, lots of bone china tea cups and saucers that she collected over the years.  Some are worth some money and no one really wants them other than a couple that they bought for a special reason.  Have to find a collector and see what we can get for them.  We could furnish an apartment with the left over furniture we have that John doesn't want.  The only piece Jim wants is a caned platform rocker we found upstairs stuffed away in an unused bedroom.  It reminds me of the one my great gramma had in this house when I was a child.  After Jody and Meghan come in the spring we will have a HUGE yard sale.  Furniture, lots of miscellaneous, Christmas things. 
Take a good walk through your home--look in the nooks and crannies and think -- do I want my child to have to sort through this or better yet "find this".  There are private things that we never should have seen, but her mind wasn't there for a few years so.....makes me take a second look at my home and think I don't want Rob to see this-he doesn't need to know. 
HUGS to all