Cleaning Up an Estate or Downsizing in SK

Cleaning Up an Estate or Downsizing in SK

When a parent or relative passes away or needs to move into care, the task of sorting through a lifetime’s worth of belongings can feel overwhelming. I went through this myself after my mom’s passing. My brother and I, with the help of our partners, packed up her whole house on the rural property where she lived.

We knew it wouldn’t be too hard for us to sort the items and pack them up, but the logistics of what to do with everything was made more difficult by the home being in a rural area. Looking back, it was key that we had done a lot of research and pre-planning. Well before we got there, we had decided how many days we thought it would take to get through all the stuff, where most of it was going to go, and how we were going to get it there. Because of the limited options locally, we brought our own vehicles and rented a U-Haul truck to bring items back to Saskatoon with us.

When it came time to meet at her property and get down to work, we used the classic four-category approach: keep, donate, sell, and discard.

KEEP: Much of what we packed up to keep were sentimental things from our childhood. Every box was labeled with the contents and whose house they were going to go to. I’m probably guilty of having kept a little more than needed, but I figure I can always pass it along later, and I can’t get it back if it goes right away. I also made boxes of useful kitchen items for my kids for when they move out. I’m hoping they’ll appreciate having a starter set of things from Grandma.

DONATE: As for donations, a small town it is a lot different than a big city with a Value Village or other options. We relied on my mom’s local friends who knew the best way to redistribute the donations. The local community had a few initiatives that they could take clothing to. We also hauled home some items to be donated or given to friends.

SELL: Keeping and donating took care of the majority or what was in the house. There weren’t a lot of items we wanted to try and sell, except, that is, for books. My parents were avid readers and book collectors. Sorting out the books probably took us the longest out of anything. All the high-value books were sold online since even Saskatoon didn’t have a good market for those. We brought the remainder back to the city to be sold to a used book store and anything they didn’t want was donated to the Saskatoon Symphony book sale.

DISCARD: We wound up throwing away very little, but there were plenty of magazines and paper to recycle. Limited access to recycling made that a little challenging, but again local friends were able to help us gain access to some options.

All-in-all, it took four solid days of cleaning and packing to clear out the modest two-storey house. There is, admittedly, still quite a bit of stuff sitting in my garage that needs to be incorporated into our home or passed along, but that is much simpler here in a bigger center.

It was a big job, and there are other buildings on the property we will have to clear out eventually. Ideally, we would have started the process while mom was still alive. There’s even a Swedish term for reducing your possessions before you pass away called döstädning – or ‘Swedish Death Cleaning’. We have friends going through that process right now with their own aging parents. If you’re interested in starting early too, you can read more about the movement here.

Whether you are downsizing or dealing with an estate – here are some resources to help you in Saskatchewan:

  • Try looking up ‘estate services + the name of your community’ examples are:

Transitions Estate Services in Saskatoon and Regina
Parkland Estate and Downsizing in Yorkton area

  • Auction houses for online auctions of estate items:

McDougall, Grasswood Auctions, Schmalz Auctions, Bodnarus Auctioneering

  • Household donations
  • Scrap metal
  • Cardboard/papers
  • Plastic packaging
  • Styrofoam
  • Outdated electronics
  • Hazardous waste
  • And if you need someone to pick up items in Saskatoon, you can try Reroute, a local business that specializes in distributing recycling and donations.