You may want to consider this for storage. They will bring it to your driveway so you don’t have to load it and un-load it.
http://www.pods.com/
If you do select a realtor, they always know “people” who can do stuff. I have gotten handyman, contractor, lawn care, and gardening “people” through my realtor. I also LOVE Angie’s list. It only costs about $10 a year to join now (used to be more, I think), and you can read reviews before contacting people. I found someone to fix my driveway, buff and poly my wood floors, a carpet cleaner (who turned out to be overly talkative, but my 14 year old carpets look like new!), and a cleaning service to keep the house spiffy while it is showing, all through Angie’s list.
Get a dumpster. It’s a lot easier to throw things in a dumpster than schlep to the landfill,or fill up trash cans week after week. Plus, the dumpster will only be there a limited amount of time…and you want to send it away full.
Give your kids and husband a deadline to box up anything they want to keep…and take it away. You can offer to,store a limited amount of boxes…say 3-4 per person. Then just purge.
““Keep all receipts so you could get reimbursed first when the house is sold.””
Will the courts recognize this?
What about your H’s stuff? Will he come and take this stuff? I’m guessing that you could get into trouble if you threw out any of his stuff, even if it’s arguably junk.
""Something to consider is using a HELOC to pay for home repairs “”
Can she get one without her H being on board? A HELOC seems to be the most fair since it would be using “shared debt”.
H has acknowledged that the roof and chimney need to be done but thus far has not otherwise contributed to the decision-making (who to hire, which funds to use). Given that I know nothing about roofs, chimneys, materials, tools, supplies, etc., I feel uneasy about the process, but I accept that I must do unpleasant things sometimes.
I’m leaning toward paying cash (with marital-asset investments). We have a HELOC but I’m trying to pay it down, because it’s not a good idea to keep a HELOC after marital dissolution. The spouse who doesn’t get the house doesn’t benefit at all by continuing to be liable on the debt.
I throw away things that clearly are junk, no matter who they belong to. Unfortunately, I’m almost afraid to go into the basement, home to H’s junk, because it’s so dirty. So I’m ignoring the basement for now.
I didn’t go the dumpster route. I filled black trash bags and lined 'em up in my basement. Had 14 in a row at one point. Filled the can full every week, and usually put at least one other thing on or next to the trash can for about a year. My trash company is good, they took all except one 20+ foot metal pole without extra charges. @rosered55, my basement and garage were filthy and full of my ex-h’s stuff when I started, too. You just have to do what you can do a little at a time. And oh, I will have a junk hauler at the end for some furniture, a rug, and that 20 foot pole!
I asked our home insurance agent for suggestions of contractors for small things and for roofing. Also it helps to start in the morning and end by say 5 PM time for dinner and then relax. I bought extra cheap garbage cans and put out 5 per week until all was done - stacked the bags in the garage.
I don’t have any answers, but I can commiserate. I too am trying to clean out my house and make repairs to put it on the market. I kept the house after my divorce (big mistake). Now I’m remarried and H and I are downsizing. We’re remodeling the house H lived in before our marriage. It’s a huge project, and between that and my grueling work hours, I’ve made little progress on my house. I’m at least 6 months behind schedule.
In Spring, I got a new roof, had a few rooms painted and switched out some light fixtures, but I’ve lost all motivation and accomplished nothing in the past 2 months. Finding reliable contractors has been impossible. The good ones are booked months out and the ones with availability either don’t show up when they’re supposed to or do lousy work. Very frustrating!
Since I’m making no progress with repairs, I’m going back to de cluttering. One room at a time. I hope that seeing a little progress (and this thread) will motivate me.
I wish you luck!
Thing learned en route to picking companies to replace the roof and chimney: If a house has a high-efficiency water heater and it’s vented through the chimney, it can cause the chimney to deteriorate and fall apart.
give yourself a little “reward” for each room that is cleared out.
That will help to keep you motivated.