Quote:
Originally Posted by Rain Man
As the child of hoarders, I'm determined to not leave a mess behind. The only challenge is that I don't have an expiration date stamped on me. I've tried to be organized with things like having a will (which my parents refuse to do), but over 60 years I've acquired enough stuff to suitably furnish a relatively large and non-cluttered home. Even without clutter, there's a lot of stuff.
Now, the other issue is that I don't have kids, and my nearest living relative is 500 miles away. I've never lived within 500 miles of a younger relative, so none of them really even know us. So at some point when an escaped zoo chimpanzee rips us limb from limb, they won't really want to come out west to go through our stuff.
I've been reading a few things recently about how to handle this. There's definitely a downsizing that should happen as we age, and that's actually hard to think about. Logically, my inventory probably should get 3 percent smaller every year, but unless I downsize my living space that's just going to mean empty rooms, which isn't good for me while I'm alive. And it doesn't make sense to downsize into a smaller home over time, because I've run the numbers on that. I should stay in my current house until my wheels fall off, and at that point the downsizing will be challenging if I'm no longer healthy and energetic.
It seems like there's not a great answer to this problem, which is why it gets kicked down to the kids so often. And I don't have kids.
I've joked in the past that when I get old I'll adopt a woman from some third world country to take care of us, and then get the house when we die. But you know, for someone in my position, that may not be a joke. I read about that billionaire who adopted his gardener recently to give him an inheritance because the gardener looked after him, and in a world with more and more childless seniors, that actually could be a model that works.
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LOL It's not practicable to die with nothing.
The fact of the matter is that unless it's trash, most estate auction outfits will go through your shit.
Get your finances in line. Any heirloom shit you have, get it to the appropriate family members, then keep enough cash for your heirs to hire an auction company to have an estate sale. You can do some legwork and contact some outfits and things.
The hardest part is:
1. Finances - especially if nobody is on any of the accounts. Also probate sucks 13 kinds of ass.
2. Trash.
The rest is fairly easy. Especially if probate is avoided and nobody wants anything.