Part 1's title, for example, is called "I Inherited Grandma's Stuff, Now What?"
You go through, take what you want, and call them.
You get less money overall but it’s very hassle-free.
> The great junk transfer is coming. A look at the burden (and big business) of decluttering as Canadians inherit piles of their parents’ stuff. Sorting, storing and disposing of old family belongings will be a labour-intensive challenge in the next decade as baby boomers age.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-the-great-jun...
"Using this kind of technology on a living human’s home would be a gross invasion of privacy. But if you use it in the home of someone who’s died alone, it just improves a process that was bound to take place in any event. Working with Infinite Space, you can even use the inventory as a checklist, value all assets using current eBay blue-book prices, divide them algorithmically or manually, even turn it into a packing and shipping manifest you can give to movers, telling them what you want sent where. It’s like full-text search for a house."
https://www.iftf.org/fileadmin/user_upload/downloads/th/ByHi...
It also means you get to spend time with your father talking about something he likes. That time together is what you will be thinking about when passing those clocks on.
I'd also recommend considering distributing some of the collection to friends and relatives. Something small like a single cuckoo clock could be a great memento to remember them by. It's not a burden to take one clock the way a whole collection would be, of course people should still be asked if they would like to have it rather than being voluntold.
My great uncle had a wonderful collection of beautiful old hand tools and made a point of distributing a portion of them to his various relatives and friends who had expressed interest. The bulk of the collection went to the relative who was his son in all but fact, but I have some lovely calipers and a handmade hammer that have a cherished place among my tools. Far from a burden, I remember uncle Mac fondly each time I see them while grabbing some pliers or a drill.
My grandmother has made us go around putting sticky notes with our names on all the stuff we want when they downsize or pass. Everything else will go to goodwill or the dump. The secretary desk my grandfather fished out of the dump in the 60s is a hot commodity that everyone is trying to lay claim to.
Cuckoo clocks are scary.
I'm grappling with the former problem so maybe it's just right there in my consciousness right now. I've got a house full of parental possessions - including hundreds of books collected over a lifetime, and I've got to get rid of them. I love books but just don't have the space for more. The journey is hard and very poignant.