The person sorting the house handles decisions everyone else can postpone emotionally.

One person usually ends up doing the part that cannot be delayed. While others grieve at their own pace, whoever is in the house is opening drawers, making calls, and deciding about objects on a schedule set by landlords, solicitors, and skip hire. Their own feeling gets postponed because the task will not wait, and afterwards nobody quite sees what it cost. Practical work and mourning do not run on the same timetable.

If someone you know is doing this, offer a specific afternoon rather than a general offer of help. If it is you, hand over one category of decisions so the rest of the family carries a share.