When dad died, mom had her 3 children, spouses, and grands come in and take what they wanted. I tried to tell her not to rush into this. Unfortunately some got all, and some got nothing, and with hard feelings. Now I am POA and I need to do some work on the house and once I start I don't want to move back some of the pieces of furniture etc. There are a lot of dishes, knick knacks and a few pieces of furniture. I need direction so things stay civil, and no one is hurt or has hard feelings and things are done fairly. Suggestions?
think about childhood....was there certain objects that were important to different kids? Offer those to just those people.
Any family stuff..like grandmas dishes, etc? Offer those to the oldest daughter first. Ditto...offer Dads ring and pocket watch to oldest son first.
failing that. Have each one come over...one at a time...and take ONE thing. Do that over and over till gone,
When my grandmother passed away she gave her wedding and engagement rings to a granddaughter-in-law. Rightly so, in my opinion since this was the person who spent - by far - the most time visiting with grandma in her later years.
The three granddaughters we bequeathed the remaining jewelry without any specific instructions. The uncle who was the executor decided we would draw numbers - 1st, 2nd, 3rd. I think we drew by oldest first but can’t recall for sure. But the draw seemed fair rather than going straight away by age as none of us three were particularly close to GM.
Anyhoo - it went 1, 2, 3, - 1,2,3,... until everything was selected.
I do agree as well that any gifted items should be returned to the gift giver. That worked for our family also. Well - except for the big flat screen that brother and I went halves on for a Christmas gift to my mom. Brother had that boxed up and out to his car without a word about it to me. I let it pass - just didn’t seem worth the aggravation to argue about it.
Seems these types of activities - wills, money and inheritances - bring
out the worst in people more often than not. Try to not let it get reduced to petty squabbling and take the high road whenever possible.
In the end - really - it’s all just stuff.