Our granny annex top tips – No 4 Sentimental or not sentimental

– this is a good topic to raise early on between everybody because there tends to be quite a lot of upheaval during alteration works.

Although different people have very different habits, from no sentiment through to people I have known who have filled their loft space, all their cupboards and garage with stuff, it is something worth looking into early to see the size of the problem [if at all] and coming up with a plan to deal with it.

If all the stuff is left until moving day this can present a big problem to deal with.

Luckily for us my mum and dad decided to have a good cleanup a few years before we even started thinking about the Grannex work so the loft was clear and the garage not too bad either, so however early you are in the planning stage have a look around.

We now have a rule that nothing goes in the loft – well only xmas things.

But back to the stuff if there is too much, what you don’t want to have to do is to keep moving it around which delays things and also with most building work there is dust created which can get everywhere and then ruin it.

Now although a lot will depend on how much is being changed with the property it is never to early to have a nice chat with your relative and raise the issue, today there seems to be lots written about decluttering our lives, getting rid of stuff and ‘stuffocation’ so help is not too far to find.

Looking back we were very fortunate, mum did want to keep a number of sentimentally valuable items, but it was a sensible amount and we tried to plan places in the new build to put things. Clocks, pictures, ornaments were all found places which look good today and also dealing kindly with them all helped reduce worry and stress for my mum during the move.

This just another area to think about before you get too involved with more difficult and tricky areas.