Growing up, my mom use to constantly nag me about keeping my room clean, cleaning the kitchen, and cleaning the bathroom. I finally understand why, after having to move out all my grandmother’s stuff after she died. Elderly people should keep their house clean and uncluttered so relatives will not feel disgusted, dirty, and unclean when settling their estate.

It was July 2014 and my grandmother had passed away.  My family and I drove to Livermore, California to settle her estate. There are five people in my family. My mom, who is 5 foot 4 inches tall, has red hair, glasses and likes things to be clean and in their place. My Dad is 6 feet tall, has black and gray short hair and a medium build. He is any easy going guy that likes to get things done. I have two older brothers. Ryan who is 22, has dark brown chin length hair and is average in height. Some people would describe him as a game geek who loves to play League of Legends. You rarely see him without a mobile device in his hand. Tyler, my other brother, knows everything there is to know about cars. He has dark brown short hair and is always wearing a Fox Motorsports T-shirt. He is the fashion conscious one in our family .  I on the other hand am 5’11” and taller then my brothers. At16, I also have dark brown hair and like dirt bike riding and playing with my dogs. I love the fact that I am taller than them now. My family is easy going, but when their is a project to get done, we get it done!

None of us were excited for the trip because it was going to kill our summer before it even started. We also knew we were going to have to deal with my uncle Charlie and the dirtiest house I had ever scene. My uncle Charlie is a big guy. He is 6’3” and is very stout, has dark hair and wears glasses. Uncle Charlie lived with my grandmother and never cleaned anything.  But the worst part of dealing with my uncle Charlie is he thinks he know it all and doesn’t have a social filter. He will blurt out random racial comments. That can be very embarrassing.

We finally arrived in my grandmother subdivision, after 12 hours in my dad’s truck, at 6:47 p.m. I remember this because having to deal with that house made me never wish to go back to California ever again. Now in the upscale neighborhood where she lived, she had an off-white two story house with a tile roof.  There was a small front yard and the homes were not more than 8 feet apart. They all looked the same. Looking at the house from the outside you had no idea what was waiting for you behind the front door.

My uncle Charlie, who still lived there, myself and my family were dreading packing up and moving out all of my grandmother’s knick-knacks because this house was so dirty. It was so dirty and dusty that the dust bunnies had dust bunnies. Everywhere you looked there was dirt and cobwebs. The white carpet was stained and dark and dingy. My grandmother, who was 92 and going blind, had a dog that liked to go to the bathroom on the carpet. Then there were the bathrooms. The tile was stained yellow and the sinks were black with dirt. Every surface in the house that was white was now grey. In the kitchen everything was covered in grease. There wasn't a single surface not covered in dirt or grease. The cleanest place was the garage.
I said to my mom, “You get to clean and pack the kitchen and the knick knacks. This place is disgusting.”
My mom laughed and said, “I can handle it as long as I get an extra shower tonight.”

I went in the house. My uncle had already started moving furniture into the garage. My mom and I started to empty the china cabinet. It was overfilled with figurines and china: my mom and I filled up five boxes.
Next we started to sort the kitchen. We made piles of stuff to give away, throw away, and pack. My dad, my brothers, and my uncle did three dump loads that day. At 10 pm we went back to the hotel where we were staying.

The next day it was a 100 degrees and the air conditioning unit in my grandmother’s house broke. We had to finish the job in the humid, sticky heat and all that dirt. At times my mom could not breathe from all the dust. My dad posted a TV on Craigslist that we needed to get rid of and a nice lady from a nonprofit came for it. When she arrived to pick up the TV she brought two African American men to help her. Unfortunately, my uncle Charlie started to talk to them. One of the men who had came to help pick up the TV asked my uncle about working at Walmart.

“You know how your ancestors came over as slaves? That’s what it was like for me to work at Walmart!” my uncle shouted.

My whole family was horrified! When he went into the house we apologized for him. We slowly walked away. I thought the house was bad enough without having to deal with my uncle.

My mom and dad also run a nonprofit and found out the woman ran a Christian ministry that helped people get free from addiction. They asked her if she could use things for their houses. We then showed her around the house and she took a dining room set, all the bedroom stuff, kitchen items and 100 books.

Over the next three days we continued to pack and bring things to the dump. We ended up dumping two sofas, five chairs, and ten 55 gallon trash bags and a whole lot of other trash. I never knew someone could collect so much stuff they were not using.

So, that’s why elderly people should keep their house clean and uncluttered so relatives will not feel disgusted, dirty, and unclean when settling their estate. I will never forget how living in that dirt even for five days made me feel. Help your grandparents keep their house clean or get them a maid, so you don’t have to go through what I did.  One thing that this experience has taught me is that no matter how much you don’t like it, clean your house and if you are not using it get rid of it.  My tee shirts are still dirty.