We understand how overwhelming a House Cleanout can be. That’s why you’re reading this!

These 7 steps will help guide you through the process.

1.) Start by going room by room in the main living part of the home and find, evaluate and set aside all important papers. Wills, Insurance Policies, Real Estate Deeds & Titles, Stock Certificates, 401K Statements, Tax Returns and Cancelled Checks. Carefully overview all these items and set aside what is consider important. Most documents have certain file retention periods. Check with your professional for guidance on this, such as your CPA or Attorney.

2.) Try to find photos, memorabilia, albums, DVD’S, 8 millimeter film and scrapbooks. These items can be cherished for future generations to have a link to family they may never meet. They should be evaluated and set aside.

3.) Next, start to tackle the clothing. Go thru all clothing checking pockets and shoes for hidden stashes were people will hide things. Separate all clothing that you feel is disposable from all clothing that you feel is either valuable to your family, can be donated to a charity organization or can be sold. Note that donations help eliminate cost of removal!

4.) We would recommend having family members make a list of items they wish to have from the estate. This tends to work well as long as all family members agree.

5.) Next a decision needs to be made to have a tag sale or invite friends & neighbors in to take items they would like.

6.) Once the estate is determined dispersed/dissolved as far as contents, a professional house cleanout company is need to evaluate and estimate cost to clean out remaining items in the home.

7.) When the cleanout company is hired it is important to make sure all of the above tips have been completed. Most cleanout companies charge by the hour and you should not be making decisions on whether to keep or dispose of an item at the time of the actual job. This is very costly to the estate financially.