What to do When Preparing to Clean Out an Estate
Whether it’s you, your mother, or brother, everybody has some degree of stuff, fluff, or clutter. When it comes to dealing with an estate there are many steps to take before simply calling a clean out company. Why pay to have your items removed when there is a possibility people might pay you for them. In today’s world, almost anything can be collectible to a certain point. Obviously, if you did nothing but save used Kit Kat wrappers then odds are you are not sitting on a hidden treasure, but you’d be surprised what your grandfather’s collection of wrappers would be worth.
Dealing with an estate whether it’s a family member or friend can be a difficult and emotional process. For most, it starts out as a tedious and slow one eventually leading to the mentality of get all this stuff out, I don’t care, and the list goes on. This mindset is what brings everyone to the clean out phase, but it is paramount to get a trusted expert and auction house involved first. The auction world in most circumstances is consignment based, so involving an auction house first is solely to your benefit. It is the house’s job to dig through and find that needle in the haystack because they only make money by making you money. The second factor is that a professional will be able to make an assessment much faster than the average home owner. Specialists are specialists for a reason, through years of experience they are able to give real time assessments of your articles without the deterrent of emotional attachment or stress. Clearing a house can appear to be exhaustively overwhelming, but what appears as multiple months’ worth of work can typically be executed in an orderly and expeditious way.
Now, another assumption most people make is that an auction house will leave you with the junk…that is not true. A professional auctioneer will have all his ducks in a row and will be willing to help and guide you from start to finish. It is much easier to walk down a hill then climb up one, so when beginning the estate process, it is always best to seek out an auction house that has experience in selling quality antiques, fine arts, and collectibles. They’ll be the one to identify your grandfather’s 1940’s Topps candy wrapper worth $200, or that coverless, torn, and stained Detective Comics No. 27 still worth $5,000. So, take a breath, relax, and let the professionals do their job. Just think, all that clutter you were going to pay to have taken away might instead become useful for some fun in the sun.
