re: Encouraging grandparents to move closer to grandkids or simplify. Anyone ever done this?

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Their house is falling into disrepair and they can't keep up with it. They need to simplify. Their son chooses to stick his fingers in his ears and pretend everything is fine, yet we are the ones that have had to deal with EVERYTHING for the past 20 years.

Don't care where they live, but they don't need a 5br house, workshop, storage shed, etc etc any more. The house is full. It is an overwhelming burden for them and will be our burden. Why not be able to enjoy these last years?

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Honestly if they waited until they retired to even think about "downsizing" or "simplifying", it is already too late. I've seen it over and over with my friends' parents and at the estate sales I go to. Either they don't want to spend their retirement cleaning out/decluttering, it's too massive or emotional of a job, or health/mobility issues get in the way. The handful of parents who avoided it were minimalists to begin with or they did a massive downsizing or made a big move a few years before they retired. I'm in my 40s and it has prompted me to do it now, I don't want to put that on my kids and I don't want to spend my final years managing stuff. It is slow going and hard work even now, I couldn't imagine doing it 20-30 years older.

Best you can do it figure out the resources you will need when it is your problem. Start figuring out if they have anything of value (true value, not what they *think* is valuable), start researching auction houses, estate sale companies, storage facilities, and dumpster rentals in their area. Go to estate sales and talk to the people running it about what is in command these days. Figure out what orgs accept and don't accept and who will pick up large items. Talk about it with your wife, get on the same page before emotions get intertwined. It's morbid but I'd rather focus on a game plan for when the time comes than spend what little precious time I have left with my parents fighting over what they "should" do with their stuff .