Another Day, Another 4 Hours Cleaning out Mother-in-Law's Closet
By LooeyVille
@LooeyVille (62)
United States
September 6, 2025 4:27pm CST
Today we tackled the "Winter Clothes." OMG!
I am NOT exaggerating when I say she had 50 pink sweaters. Now read that again. Not 50 total sweaters - 50 PINK sweaters.
I emptied 5 boxes of sweaters and ended up taking two home to donate to church. Two entire stuffed full boxes of sweaters. I filled her closet as full as I could get it but there's still two boxes of clothes left to unpack. I have no idea how to fit it in her apartment. She doesn't have a coat closet.
I found the rest of the pink pots and pans that she swore the movers stole and took them from her. I found another box full of designer purses but she would only part with 3 of them this time.
It was another exhausting day, but she behaved and went with the program as much as her dementia-riddled mind would let her.
12 people like this
11 responses
@porwest (107116)
• United States
20h
My sister and brother in law were moving his mother recently, and she had a lot of stuff. Including a lot of food. They tend to be "throw it away" kind of mindsets, but when I heard there was a ton of food I told them if they didn't want anything to just send it my way. I'd even give them a few bucks, which they didn't want, but I got three huge boxes out of it.
1 person likes this
@porwest (107116)
• United States
20h
@LooeyVille When there's that much stuff, yeah, best to just find the quickest easiest path to getting rid of it.
1 person likes this
@LooeyVille (62)
• United States
20h
@porwest Although I am taking the designer purses (20 of them) to a local high-end consignment store to try to tell them.
1 person likes this
@LooeyVille (62)
• United States
20h
Yes I've been reaching out to family and friends and offering them everything I take out of her apartment. I've had very little takers. So the majority is going to my church's clothes closet for poor people.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (78510)
• United States
7 Sep
One per week, with two sweaters off for vacation. 
BTW, how’s your leg?
BTW, how’s your leg?1 person likes this
@LooeyVille (62)
• United States
21h
Still sore. Not sure if still infected. Less red.
1 person likes this
@Juliaacv (54813)
• Canada
11h
Don't you have any consignment stores that you could take her items to so that you could try to get her a little bit of monetary compensation?
We took a bag of clothing over today to such a shop and they 'bought' some of it, and since the rest of the bag of clothing was already neatly folded and in a bag in the car, we dropped it off at goodwill.
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (88700)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
11h
Glad to hear she is behaving herself, I wish her all the best,
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (200064)
• United States
20h
How large was her closet to contain all of this? How is your leg doing?
1 person likes this
@LooeyVille (62)
• United States
20h
It's a small closet where I had them install a lower rail so she'd have an upper and a lower. It's not a walk-in closet. It's a traditional folding door single closet. Shirts on top rail, pants on bottom rail
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (165676)
• United States
6 Sep
It is a headache, I know. My sister did not have expensive clothes, but she had a lot of them. She would forget what she had and buy more as it suited her. I am bad, but I am constantly sending bags of clothes away to the thrift shop. The pink pans sound like something my mother would have done.
1 person likes this
@popciclecold (40242)
• United States
6 Sep
That was a lot of work, 50 pink sweaters, oh my. You should be tired.
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (122011)
• Marion, Ohio
6 Sep
Glad you are making progress. You might be able to slowly slip stuff out over time
1 person likes this
@Traceyjayne (4973)
• United Kingdom
14h
Reading your posts I can tell you are doing a great job. It certainly has not been / is not easy. I remember you saying she didn’t want to part with anything…..I didn’t realise just how much stuff she had .
1 person likes this
