Inherited Collection And Overwhelmed

Relax
Take your time and learn. You are in an amazing situation everyone on this site envy's. Don't clean or wash anything until you really know what you're doing( in about 10 years). The smallest difference in grade or finish or cleaning can mean thousands in value difference. Take your time and learn. Enjoy the process. It's a great hobby.

to the CCF

Take you time and when ready show some photos in the appropriate forum - we have lots of experts who can help ID coins and give you approximate values.

Whatever you do - avoid any temptation to 'improve' any of the coins by cleaning, dipping, rubbing, polishing or any other method. Leave them just as they are, even if some might appear ugly to your eye.

to the Community!

Welcome Driven!
I was in the same situation as you are. It's been about a year and a half and I've organized and re-organized. I'm learning slowly but I truly believe we ended up at the right place in this coin community!
Don't be afraid to ask any questions. There are no stupid questions!!!! I have been so lucky to get support and almost instantaneous answers to my many questions.
I am loving every moment of this journey thanks to the wonderful people here!
Maybe one day, I'll be able to post a reply to a newbie's question as well!
Enjoy and cherish the memories of your loved ones. For me, studying my mom's coins makes me feel that she's still close.
Most importantly, have fun!

Driven.
with all said thus far. Baby steps. You won't be lead stray here. Good luck with your journey.

Welcome to the community!
I am a collector now, but most of my collection was passed to me over the years, and there is a lot of bulk to sift through! If your intention is to not keep any of it, be very warry of taking it all to a dealer to sell in one go. You found your way here, so I think you already know that.
My best advice is to get a decent understanding of your collection yourself first and go from there. That way you don't get taken by someone. Start with one denomination at a time, learn what is special in that series, key dates, rare errors, low mintings etc and sort those out from the bulk. If you have a lot of well circulated silver coins, you can count them and get a weight of what they would be worth in current silver prices and you'd have a good starting point of what that set would be worth.
Again, that is after removing key dates etc. Those you will have to look up one by one, the forum is great help for giving grade/condition estimates for coins you think are higher value. I like to use PCGS.com and look up auction sales vs Red Book values to see what that particular coin is really selling for right now.
Best of luck! Feel free to reach out anytime, a couple years ago, I was right where you are. And while I'm still going through a lot of it, it makes so much more sense now. If all your coins are loose, I feel like it will take more time and effort to sort through vs if some were at least labeled in albums, 2x2's or similar. But it is doable!! Excel spread sheets can be your best friend!