Ok, so since everyone got onto the STUFF category, I feel up to discussing the basement of my parent's house.
House is old. Old enough that something has happened to the drainage tiles around the foundation, and there is now a small water problem that will eventually destroy the foundation if not remediated. Fixing it involves cutting into the basement slab all around the foundation, digging down, putting in drainage, and there will be a sump pump. This is pretty major work. In order to do this, they will need to clear 4-5 feet all around the basement to give access. In order to clear 4-5 feet in the basement, they will have to move a shit ton of stuff. 75% of it isn't used, won't be used, should go away.
Separately, there have been discussions for the last couple years about selling the house and them moving near me (300 miles away). In preparation for an eventual move, mom has been going through things and decluttering. She's gotten rid of a TON of stuff. Recently, I hit upon the idea of having her open, sort, and repack everything, then put a label on each box of keep or sell. It's needed - the boxes are 20 years old, they will not survive a move. When they do move, any box labeled keep gets put in the truck, no thought process needed. It also gets around some other problems with the process due to my dad's dementia.
Mom liked this idea. So she has been doing this. She's gone through most of the attic and a big chunk of the basement, and has been stacking up the sell boxes all in one area. She has in fact completely filled that area up.
How do these 2 very different topics intersect? The sell boxes are in the basement. Given the amount of stuff in the basement in general, in order to do the basement work, they basically need to get all these sell boxes out, then shuffle other stuff into that spot (most of which other stuff should go away too). However, while mom has labeled these boxes "sell", there doesn't seem to be much intention of doing anything with them now, just "later". Never mind the multiple pieces of large furniture in the basement which need to go and I can't move.
Then lets add in that they DO NOT have the money for the basement stuff, doing it won't add value to the house, and given age and tolerance, they are not capable of actually dealing with the work anyway.
My sister and I have suggested that they sell the house now, as is, with 2 tenants - them and their upstairs tenant. They can continue to live there for another year or so with no maintenance/repair responsibilities. Mom and dad separately say they want to sell now, but despite our best efforts, we haven't been able to coordinate a conversation where all this is said!
We're at a standstill. ugh. thanks for letting me vent