I went through some of that about 12 years ago. My folks kept most everything. I made it through a first pass deciding dump vs keep vs sell. Sold a lot of clutter, kept most of the memories. Now it's past time to do it again because there is still too much stuff, and I'm not getting any younger. And I have no kids to dump it on, don't want to impede on surviving cousins when I do go. I found selling stuff more fulfilling than trashing it because I get to share the memory with the buyer.