out of it to kill the smell, and probably could sand it down level and varnish it eventually, but in a hurry, exhausted, with mountains and mountains of garbage and animal feces, we just put floor paint on it and threw down large area rugs. There was so much dog and cat urine in this house that it rotted BEAMS underneath the floor, especially by the doors. And the guy was only here for 5 years, so I really can't imagine how much worse things are there.But yeah, just to make the main part of the house reasonably liveable, we hauled out a freakin convoy of large equipment trailer loads to the dump. We are slowly chipping away at the basement-- dozens of broken vacuum cleaners, coffee makers, dubious home canned goods, fans and air conditioners, all sorts of things that either got pee soaked and broke or rotted, or clogged with hair and abandoned. SO gross.
My best advice would be to take off baseboards, because there will be
under and behind them. As to downsizing your stuff, I don't have any meaningful advice. For me personally, my birds ARE the majority of my 'stuff', and as for Richard, well, we moved here so he would have more room for more stuff. But, I've heard it said, if you look at 'stuff', if it doesn't make you smile/bring joy, give it away or throw it out.
