What Do Professional Organizers Do When a Loved One Dies? They organize.

My mother-in-law passed away in November. This is not going to be a blog post about a hysterically funny, smart lady that I loved. No this is about the process we had to go through to empty her apartment, which we had to do in 2 days. Yikes.

Organization was a must here. My husband, we will call him "Mr. Executor", came to me (his PPO -Personal Professional Organizer) to figure out how to achieve his mother's goals, make sure everyone was treated fairly, and get the job done quickly.

We never realized how much stuff she had in her apartment, it always looked so nice. My mother-in-law had good taste and liked to shop!

• First we determined what the move out date would be. Since we had to pay by the day for her apartment the sooner, the better.

• From here I created a spreadsheet of all the apartment contents. We only inventoried the furniture, decor and artwork, all the other items were going to be distributed between the brothers with the balance being donated.

• Mr. Executor was concerned that everyone would want the same items. This was going to be the challenge, so we thought.

• I sent the spreadsheet to the brothers along with a set of rules to clarify the process. They checked off what they wanted and returned the spreadsheet to me.

• I created a master spreadsheet and compared each list. Happily there were only a couple of lamps that more than one person wanted. Luckily those few items were easily decided (no one had their heart set on them).

• All of the clothing would be donated; the brothers didn't want any part of this process. I got to work with my laptop, thrash bags and Its Deductible started listing. All the shoes went to the NAPO Philadelphia Soles 4 Souls campaign..

• We also decided that the small valuables (think jewelry and silver) as well as the photos would be done at a later date. They were stored in a secure location until that time came.

• Thursday Mr. Executor, myself, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law got there bright and early with our boxes, tape guns, and trash bags. We needed to pack everything and have it ready for the Friday afternoon truck.   

• We found some party hats, noisemakers, and a magic wand, in the spirit of my mother-in-law we wore these the better part of the 2 days and had a lot of laughs. This she would have appreciated!

• Basically at this point my sister-in-law and I took over, since all of the furniture, décor and most of the artwork was already decided that left the boring stuff to us…dishes, pots and pans, the bathroom, and linens. We determined who could use what, it was packed into boxes for her house and my house.

• All else was donated. Get out the trusty laptop and Its Deductible.

• Friday afternoon the trucks came we packed my brother in laws stuff in one of them. Did a delivery to West Chester, the rest on to Pittsburgh. The second truck got loaded, delivered everything to my house, then went back to collect the donations and dropped them off.

We were done! Oh I forgot we still have the small valuables to do one of these days. Since we had such a great experience with the spreadsheet, we will do that again, with photos this time!

We were anticipating the worst-case scenario where emotions would get the best of everybody. With some organization, coordination, and ground rules, this was a very successful family event. We actually had some fun along with the tears!