The plain answer
Take the things that matter to you first, before anything else is decided. Then bring in an estate sale company or a cleanout crew for the rest. You do not have to sort it yourself, and you do not have to do it this month.
Families tell me the sale was fine and the house was fine, and then they get to the contents and stop for a month. That is normal. A cupboard of handwriting and a garage of tools are not an admin task, and treating them like one is why people stall.
Start with what you want to keep
Before any company is booked and before anything is priced, walk through with the family and take the things that matter. Photographs, letters, jewellery, the one chair somebody has always loved. This is much easier to do first than to do in a hurry the day before a truck arrives.
If several of you are involved, take it a room at a time and take turns choosing. It is a slower method and it prevents most of the arguments I see.
Look for the paperwork while you go
- Wills, deeds, insurance policies, vehicle titles.
- Bank and pension statements, and anything showing a bill on autopay.
- Safe deposit box keys, and any note about where a safe combination lives.
- Military discharge papers, which can matter for benefits.
Then choose how the rest is handled
There are three usual routes, and plenty of families use more than one.
- An estate sale company prices and sells the contents, normally over a weekend, and takes a percentage. Best when there is furniture, tools, china or collectables with real resale value. Call one before anything is thrown away.
- An auction house suits a smaller number of genuinely valuable items rather than a whole house.
- A cleanout crew clears everything that is left, hauling, donating and disposing in one visit. Best when the family has already taken what they want and the priority is an empty house.
Do not throw things away first
The most common regret I hear is that a skip was filled in the first weekend and an estate sale company arrived later to say half of it had value. If you are unsure, ask someone to look before it leaves the house. Most companies will walk through and tell you honestly whether a sale is worth their time.
Does the house need to be empty to sell?
Not entirely, but it shows far better when it is. Buyers looking at an occupied-looking estate property struggle to picture themselves in it, and a full basement or garage makes a house feel smaller than it is. If clearing everything is not realistic, we can prioritise the rooms that matter most to the sale and leave the rest.
What I can do
I can give you names of cleanout crews and estate sale companies working in Central Ohio, meet them at the house if you cannot be there, and sequence the whole thing so nothing happens in the wrong order. I take nothing from those referrals. It is simply part of what this work involves.
Nobody is judging how long this takes you. Go at the pace the family can manage.
8 minute read · Written by Holly Marie Thomson, Realtor®