It takes time because maybe you want to go through it all, to either learn and understand more about your parent(s), or to judge for yourself what is "valuable"

It takes time because maybe you want to go through it all, to either learn and understand more about your parent(s), or to judge for yourself what is "valuable" and what is "junk" - both very subjective terms (with exceptions of course). It's easy to say "toss it all out in a weekend" when it's not your family's stuff.. hence your point about getting friends to help. :-) But sometimes efficiency and speed isn't the point. My SO is going through something similar and it's a very emotional and meticulous process, where you don't want to miss out on a chance to learn about your family's history as you sort through it all, particularly if you don't have much family left.