When my parents went into aged care, I helped clear out my childhood home – and realised I need to live lighter

After sifting through monuments of childhood, Margaret McNally realised it was time to confront her own belongings - and those of her late husband

In the midst of this country's housing crisis, my mother has called time on living in our four-bedroom, one-bathroom home of 52 years. The 90-year-old matriarch of our family, who ran the modest Moonee Ponds abode with spit'n'shine precision, will now join my 95-year-old father, who has a two-year head start on life in aged care.

My parents are lucky to afford residential care at a time when financial insecurity can slide into homelessness for so many. They'd worked hard throughout their lives (one for wages; the other unpaid for home duties) to buy and keep the 1927 weatherboard and wood-stumped house above the heads of their five-kid brood.

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