Sorting Through a Lifetime of Stuff

Are you trying to deal with an inheritance?

Have you inherited a house full of a lifetime of furniture, memorabilia, collections and general household items. As a personal organizer I have helped many people with this problem. The process of going through the accumulations of a loved one can be daunting. It’s a vast, time-consuming and heart-wrenching thing to have to do. You can’t take it all home with you, you probably already have a house that is well-outfitted and probably full anyway.

What do you do with all this stuff?

After the initial process of discarding items that you know are not saleable, then what about all the rest. There are many charitable organizations (Good Will, Disabled Veterans or The Salvation Army) that will accept donations which will then be tax deductible.

What remains are the things that meant something to your family member. That is really the problem area. If you don’t want to keep them yourself or give them to someone else in the family there are resources you can use. There are auction houses in the Baltimore area that will come to the home and evaluate the value of these things. They can then schedule a home auction to sell large pieces of furniture, china, silver, stemware and collectibles. They do the advertising and handle the actual auction. For this help they will take a percentage of the profits of the sales.

Another alternative is to try to sell them yourself on ebay or Craigslist. The profit will be yours but shipping headaches should be considered in the actual profit margin.

Whatever you choose to do, it won’t be easy and you may find that you need the emotional and physical support of someone else to help you make the best decisions.

Remember, help is out there.

This Old House

My services can assist a with a cleanup, even if you are out of town!  Here’s how:

I recently worked on a house here in Baltimore. My client used to live here in town but moved to the west coast many years ago. Her elderly father kept a house and lived here until he passed away at the age of 92. My client was unable to make the trip back east and needed someone to package his clothes to donate to charity. She arranged for me to get a key from her father’s last caregiver.

I went to the house whenever my schedule permitted. Sometimes I went during the day, sometimes in the evenings. It didn’t matter because I didn’t have to coordinate my work with anyone else.

My job was to go through four closets and two dressers full of clothes. Every shirt, pants and jacket pocket had to be checked because her father had a habit of putting cash in pockets. I didn’t find any cash but I still had to check each pocket.

When I finished each session I would take the bags of clothes to the Good Will or The Salvation Army on my way home or if it was too late, I took them the next day on my way to the house.

I documented my progress by taking photos of the filled bags and empty closets and drawers. These photos I would email to her each evening.

During this process I was also instructed to look for a favorite ring of her father’s. I found it, photographed it and left it on a dresser top for my client to retrieve when she returned to the house.

Our working relationship was the perfect solution for the distance problem. I also did other work in this house but I will save that for another blog.

View more before & afters in the photo gallery!