By the way....a few old-time tips on ironing cotton, including sheets. It is much harder to get good results if the sheet (or other item) has been dried and you rewet it with a mister or use steam. It is best for the item to be uniformly and slightly damp, and then you don't need or want a mister or steam. If your washer spins fast enough to remove most of the water (as most front-loaders now do) you can iron directly from the washer. In the old days washers had a mangle (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangle_(machine) which would press the excess water out before ironing...eventually some mangles were even heated. If you mist you just won't get the fabric evenly wet enough to iron it easily or well, and a steam setting takes much longer and results are not as good. The old timey way, if not ironed directly from washing, was to wet the fabric before ironing by "sprinkling" with water, which added a lot more water than a mister. Search for "vintage cork sprinkler" on ebay and you'll see what was used! I remember that when my mother didn't have time to iron immediately after washing she would roll up the items while damp and place in the freezer in a plastic bag. When she had time to iron, the items would thaw pretty quickly, and they were uniformly wet. When cotton is uniformly wet, you do want to use the highest setting on the iron, which is usually for cotton and linen. But keep the iron moving of course! And of course a bit of MamaPinky's starch will give an ultra smooth finish!

Not to brag....but I am also somewhat of an expert on laundry. I worked for a time in the product testing labrotory of a major appliance maker. We studied the science of how clothes are soiled, what makes up that soil and what products and actions are best to remove them with the least wear on the items. And cold water DOES dissolve oils and grease. It's not the heat that does it but the detergent. As an example think how you spray a cleaner on a greasy counter and wipe the grease right off....no need to boil it. And body oils do not turn to wax in spite of what the "experts" on the laundry forum say.

For goodness sakes, Dad is 81. I've purchased homes with the owner's clothes still in the closet, junk 4 feet deep in the basement, and nothing updated or fixed for 40 years. That Realtor isn't wrong IF you have endless funds (looking at about 20K minimum right there unless you guys do some work), and time to spend. You are almost at the end of June. The time is NOW to get it sold. Things slow down a bit after the 4th. IF you want very top HGTV showroom dollar, (and highest commission possible for the Realtor),, follow all that advice. But it doesn't sound like the expenditure of effort is worth it for your Dad. Follow your gut. You are already willing to list under what the very top dollar is, from what you say, given the condition of the house. Do what you think is right and do not be dissuaded.

@deegw I appreciate your concern for your children. Many of us who are getting on in years have had to deal with going through all of the stuff accumulated by our parents. As others have pointed out, it is a matter of both taste and lifestyle. When I was a little girl, my grandmother would embroider the tablecloths and napkins for my "trousseau". I don't think most young people have any idea of what a trousseau is :-). It was really hard sorting through the stuff because when they died I felt a lot of emotional guilt about getting rid of anything not to mention the sheer amount of time it took to sort through stuff to make sure that I wasn't tossing out anything important or meaningful. And yet still left with a dilemma of what to do with these items. A needlepoint cover for a piano bench cushion when most people don't have pianos any more. The beautiful valences which my mother did in crewel work that were in my childhood home. She didn't know what to do with them when my parents down sized to a retirement condo and she just boxed them up and left me to deal with them. And that is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of all the stuff that I had to deal with. The Limoges china set for 16 with multiple serving pieces which isn't dishwasher safe. All of the miscellaneous tchotchkes that aren't even MY taste - My grandmother - bless her heart thought Meissen figurines were the most elegant things possible. It took me a number of years to be able to sort through again and get rid of those items which no longer brought me joy. I retained a few of the tchochkes which I still liked or for which I had some kind of emotional attachment. I hung one of my mother's quilts and a large crewel picture she had embroidered of the Tree of Life. I can see it when I am in bed and it gives me pleasure to remember it from my childhood. I also have one Meissen figure that my grandmother loved which I also keep in my bedroom. I boxed up all of the embroidered stuff and hand knit and crocheted items. They are taking up space in my closets but aren't impacting my life adversely. When I die whoever goes through them will be able to easily deal with them one way or another as I have done the hard work of culling through and getting rid of most of the tchochke type of stuff.