My sister and I are going to have to put my father's house up for sale because he is in a nursing home. Do we have to clean out the house and sell it, or will Medicaid do that?

Do you have to sell it for financial reasons, or do you just want to? If you really don't need to sell for finances, then I'd wait till the market gets better. You'll get much more bang for your buck if you can wait a year or so from now. If you absolutely have to sell, then just get the family together that might want some of his things and make a clean out the house day. That's what we did. After my mother-in-law moved into asst living and we moved everything that she wanted with her, she wanted the rest of the family to have her stuff. So we moved everything of hers out into the double garage and told the family what day to come over. I made sure she was there to see the family and watch her things go. She was okay with that. Ask your dad if there are some things that he might want certain family members to have before you go throwing everything out. In her case she doesn't need the money yet, so our son and his wife are living there and paying rent till the market gets out of the dumpster.