I was gone for a little while and so am late to this thread, but I wanted to add that it is VERY difficult to let go of things when one hasn't fully worked through the emotional toll of losing the people. We moved into the house my DH grew up in, and it was filled with things when we moved in - the furniture, clothing in the closets, pots and pans - literally everything he had grown up with. I tried to make room for "us" in the house, but DH lost his mum when he was 16, and to be honest, I am still not sure he has fully dealt with it. He didn't want to get rid of or even move anything. He wanted to keep canned goods in a drawer because that's what his mum did.
I realized that it was holding us back and it was holding him back, and we started one room at a time. When we had children several years later, it was much easier to completely clear out a room, refinish the floor, paint the walls and make it "new". Periodically, I would suggest we "redecorate" a room, which was simply an excuse to get rid of stuff. But it helped to be creating something new in his mind instead of just getting rid of the old. It has been a long process.
I am sentimental about very specific items, but not in the grand scheme of most things. There is a very short list of things I want when my mum passes (my dad passed many years ago), and because we talk openly about things (and have made all the arrangements for when she dies), she knows what they are and has them set aside - along with all the important documents - in a locked box in the bank to which both she and I have a key.
But I had the advantage of working through a lot of my emotions and feelings about her passing when we made all the arrangements and when she put my name on all the relevant things to make sorting things easier when she dies. It was a difficult process for me to go through, and while I will be devastated when she dies, all the legal arrangements being done will make things easier. Losing a parent suddenly makes things much, MUCH more difficult to process - both emotionally and physically.
My only advice is not to rush. If you are unsure about anything, keep it a while longer. If you haven't thought about it in a year, then pass it on. But don't get gung-ho about purging and then regret letting something go.