Keep a few things in mind when you’re cleaning out an estate; these will help you complete the project much quicker and with much less hassle. Here, we’ll give you some tips for cleaning out someone’s estate so that you won’t feel caught off guard when it happens to you.
Find the Important Documents First
It’s important when looking through the house that you find any important documents that you may need. These could be documents such as bank statements, investment portfolios, a living will, or a host of other things that might pertain to settling matters of money and inheritance. Search for locked drawers or well-hidden documents to make sure you’ve found everything.
Don’t Try to Move Everything on Your Own
Especially for larger estates, there is going to be too much to move all on your own. Enlist the help of family members or close friends when you need to move the heavy or bulky pieces of furniture. This is just one reason why it’s best to have help when cleaning out an estate. The responsibility shouldn’t fall on one person’s shoulders, literally or metaphorically.
Separate Items of Value
Value, in this case, refers to both sentimental value and monetary value. For sentimental items that don’t have an explicit beneficiary in the person’s will, divide them among those who want them. Take items of monetarily valuable to an appraiser if no one wants to claim them. You can recoup some of the time and labor costs by reselling certain pieces from the estate.
Set a Time Limit
One of the best tips for cleaning out an estate we can give is to give yourself a time limit to complete the project. You can be generous with how much time you give yourself, but without any end date in sight, you might never finish. A reasonable time frame will keep everyone at a steady pace and make the process seem more achievable.
Rent a Dumpster for the Trash
There’s no escaping the fact that there will be a lot of things to throw away when you’re cleaning out the estate. Rather than waste time taking bags of trash to the dump yourself, renting a dumpster will allow you to throw things away and then forget about them. The rental companies will be happy to answer any questions, and they’ll come and haul away the refuse at the end of the project.
Estate clean-outs are rarely ever fun affairs, but they don’t have to be miserable, either. Take a few of these tips to heart, and you’ll be on the other side of it quicker than you think.
Image credit: cleaning out someone’s estate by twenty20.com
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