Bobert,

I spent about a month in Connecticut years ago sorting through my great aunt's house (her estate). I wasn't employed at the time except in this work, and it was a big house. Three of us inherited, but I was doing the grunt work cleaning and sorting and getting ready so we could sell the house.

I found that my little place of sanity was at a small oak table in the kitchen, where I cleared all of the clutter and just left a regular setup for tea. Several cups and saucers along with the usual ammendments. You're putting a household together, not deconstructing one, so just starting from a spot like that would be a good first step. Over the years I have found that when I've worked at this kind of task (whether moving or managing an estate) that having a calm center and a source of coffee or tea that is ALWAYS CLEAN and ready to go is very comfortable. A box of good donuts or pastries doesn't usually go amiss either.

If being alone with your thoughts is too much at times, have a source of music handy. At Dad's house, as I did the final cleaning before we put the house on the market I kept a little cassette player there and I listened to some of the tapes of his hoots and radio performances and such. Poignant but welcome. You're starting a new place, so you might want some vigorous banjo or accordion music to really stir your blood, eh?

SRS