May I throw out another option, as someone else dealing with a late relative's possessions? Storage units. They are an awesome place both for stuff you want to keep but don't have room for and for stuff that you need to sort through; it means being able to make decisions about that stuff with less immediate-personal-space pressure. (This has worked really well for me over the last year; you and I may be different enough in how we process that it would be the opposite of helpful for you, see above on our differing experiences of to-do lists.)