Any advice on how to handle the cleanup of a property with little support or resources?

So glad you are in touch with an auction firm. If some of this STUFF can be sold, the good stuff, then it may give you assets to deal with the rest of it. I otherwise cannot imagine, and can only wish you good luck.

I feel your pain. I am cleaning up my Dad's hoard and so far everything outside, in the trailers and truck has been contaminated and had to go into the garbage. I am about $5000 into the project and likely it will cost me $20,000 or more to complete it.

I have added costs as the hoard is on a ferry dependent island, everything has to be taken off island.

If you are in an area that has estate auction companies, give them a call, ask them to come out and see what they can do for you.

Contact your local seniors agencies and churches to ask for help. You may be surprised what is available when you start to ask.

Although there may be some treasures in the sheds, I need to get rid of stuff, I do not have time to hold a garage sale and no place to do so. I am not going to sell thigns on FB marketplace, if something is usable I am giving it away.

I'd say get a really good person to handle the estate sale. They'll have a person to haul away what doesn't sell, and that person shouldn't charge too much, because they make good money selling the stuff they haul away.

Many Realtors are in the estate business, and it'a huge help. I'm in the process of selling my folks' house, and my Realtor's company has a program where you can borrow up to $75,000 to fix up the house to sell. You pay back the loan from the proceeds when the house sells.

I chose not to use the loan program, but if I had, I wouldn't have been writing checks to anyone. So far, we had the estate sale, and the woman who ran it hired the hauling company. She took the hauler's fee out of the sale proceeds, took her cut, then paid me the balance.

Had I used the loan program, I'd have had a debit card to pay the contractors with. I've used painters, a construction guy, an electrician, multiple inspectors, a floor installer, landscapers, and home stagers. The contractors all gave me bids in advance and all were provided by the Realtor. The house will sell, and the loan amount and the Realtor commissions would be taken out before I'd be paid.

Again, had I used the loan program, not one dime would have come out of my accounts and only money would be coming in. All we've had to do is get what we wanted out of the house before the estate sale. In our case, we had inspections in mid-April to determine what this 92-year-old house needed fixed, the estate sale was on April 30, the haulers came May 2, the first contractors arrived May 5, and the stagers come tomorrow. We hit the market on Monday 6/13 and I hope to have offers by Saturday 6/18.

That's a very convoluted explanation, but I'd say your first step is to contact a Realtor who specializes in estates.

CzechChick, if you can afford it, a lawn service company may pick up the mower for repair.  In my area, the cost would be about $165 for pickup and return, exclusive of the repair costs.  (Yes, it is costly).

Long shot:   is your farm in an area where someone raises goats or sheep, and could bring them over to "trim" the lawn?    (This is not intended to be humorous; sheep and goats do trim lawns as they nibble on grass.)

As to the damaged buildings, won't your homeowner's insurance address that and make repairs?

Beside estate sale companies, you might consider a realtor.  One I know of (owned by veterans) has an arrangement with a company to clear out all items that aren't marked (that's the drawback).   Items owners/family want to save are tagged with a specific color to make them as keepers (could be tedious and time consuming), and everything else is cleared out by the realtor working with the (estate?) company.  

I don't recall the realtor mentioning any costs; I think they're assuming that they'll make out well just by selling the furnishings, belongings, etc.

I hope you have talked to an elder attorney about splitting your assets. Your husbands split would go towards his care and when its depleted you apply for Medicaid for LTC.

Once on Medicaid you become the Community Spouse. You remain in the home and get partial or all of your monthly income depending on how much you need to live on.

When my dad passed away unexpectedly we discovered his large property was hoarded and in shocking disrepair and would be impossible for my siblings and I to clean out on our own. I really thought we were going to have to pay a ton of money to have everything cleaned out and hauled away. Instead my sibling found an estate company who sorted out everything that could be sold (things I thought had no value), handled the sales and cleaned the house to empty. They took a good percentage of the money from the sales but at the end we got some cash and an empty house. It worked out better than I had dared to dream in what felt like an impossible situation.

Thank you 🥲

So sorry you are in this situation. May light shine into your hole & light the path up & out soon 🙏

Where would you like to live? Is it possible to take your favourite things & start transplanting yourself there?

I hear you.

Know that I’m praying for answers to all of these hard things.

May God give you peace, and wisdom tonight.