In dealing with a person (young, old, or MYSELF), I find it much more efficient to use the 3 piles technique: Pile 1: Definitely keeping Pile 2: Not sure, dec

In dealing with a person (young, old, or MYSELF), I find it much more efficient to use the 3 piles technique: Pile 1: Definitely keeping Pile 2: Not sure, decide later, no pressure Pile 3: Definitely tossing I've had a small number of elderly people go from, "STOP TOUCHING MY STUFF! I WANT IT ALL!" to getting rid of so much, I'm sitting there trying to save some of it. This technique starts with no requirement that anything is tossed. The owner must simply touch each thing and choose a pile. Truly, no pressure and if they choose to keep every little thing, that's their choice. The family is clearing and bringing stuff into the inbound pile for the elderly person. It works even better if there's a grandchild around to help the sorter. The biggest thing this does, is stop the fights over every single object that go like: Kid: Mom, do you want to keep this? Mom: YES Kid: BUT WHY?! It's trash! - 10 minutes of arguing and it goes one way or another - repeat for each and every item in someone's home - Everyone is exhausted and angry after an hour or two I've seen massive family drama turn into a relatively enjoyable afternoon with Grandma sharing memories with her grandchild, while 3-4 adults clear an entire garage of stuff, almost all of which wound up going to the trash with Grandma's consent.