I had to move my dad to assisted living and mother to memory care this past fall and now I'm stuck with cleaning the catastrophic hoarder mess out and getting it sold. I have had pretty much no help and I am so angry and resentful for being stuck with this dirty, stinky, embarrassing mess. They both were very uncaring growing up and well into my adulthood, which only adds to it. I am the only living child and so it's all mine to deal with on top of having a full time job and taking care of my own family, etc.
I did it for no pay, zip, zero, nada. BIL said the only way he'd be on board with me flipping the condo was if I DID NOT charge the estate. But, he took his 3% commission from the sale, of course. (Hard not to be a little bitter about all that).
You cannot go into this with any sense of sentimentality at all. Probably why, as an in law, nothing held any value to me.
I'd say that 90% of his belongings were garbage, literally.
When/ if mother ever goes, same thing will apply. 90% of her treasures are worthless--and what's worse than it being worthless, is the fact it takes up SPACE she needs to maneuver around. I gave up trying to help her few years ago and I haven't been inside her apartment for almost a year. The smell that emanates from her place as she opens the door to come into the common living room just knocks me over.
I often wonder if we, a different generation, is 'better' at this not hoarding thing. We always excuse our 90+ yo parents on the fact they lived through the Depression, but I don't buy that. My grandma kept an immaculate and fairly spare home. If she didn't have room for something, she didn't keep it.