My mother left my brother and I a remarkable legacy--minimal clutter.
Here's how she did it:
When my mother was about 70, she decided she would go to a retirement community in about 5 years.
Every Christmas for several years she gave us (in addition to other presents) one gift from her household.
Sometimes they were things she'd stored in the attic (my brother's Tonka truck collection), sometimes a family piece (a silver matchbook cover my father had before my parents were married with a picture of his "best girl," my mother.) Christmas presents, of course, have to go home with the receiver.
Mom decided what retirement community she would move into, got a floor plan of her new apartment, and hired an interior decorator who went through her furniture piece by piece determining what would work in her new place, what would not. They picked out fabric for new slipcovers and curtains and bought a few pieces that would work in a smaller space.
She offered my brother and myself any furniture that wasn't going to her new apartment at a nominal price. (She wisely realized that if we "paid" for it, there would be no squabbles about favorites. I got her dining room table for fifty bucks.) What was left she offered to extended family (dining room rugs, etc)
She then found two women who would hold an estate sale--and take whatever didn't sell to Goodwill.
My mother lived in an airy, well-decorated apartment for about 8 years.
One summer she and I decided to unclutter again. Together we went through everything except her personal papers--old pajamas, extra Tupperware--and tossed and donated.
When she died that October, my brother, myself, and a few good friends divided up her things the afternoon after her funeral. It was a precious gift at a difficult time.
