Five Things to Consider When You Need a Home Cleaned Out
By Mary Holmes
Quite often, a home will need to be emptied in order to put it on the market for sale. This typically happens when a senior has either passed away or moved into a retirement community or other similar living situation and an adult child is charged with dispersing the possessions in the home. This can be an overwhelming task; therefore, many people hire a professional to assist them. Integrated Move Management offers home clean-out services. When we do this type of job, we efficiently go through each room and determine which items should sold, donated, recycled or trashed. We also keep an eye out for items that the client may be looking for or possessions we think they may want to save. At the end, the house will be empty and all items dispersed appropriately.
There are other types of companies that offer these services. For example, some will charge a flat rate to take everything out of the house and throw it all away without assessing the content. Others will visit the home for an initial evaluation of the content to determine if there is anything of value that could be sold and from there, they will determine if the job will most likely have a net positive or net negative cash flow for them, i.e. will the saleable items be worth more than the cost of the clean-out. In this case, you may pay them or get paid by them – depending on the content. Once you hire them, they will clean out the content of the house and they become the owner of your possessions. At Integrated Move Management, we charge an hourly rate and do not take a commission or cut on items sold – those proceeds go back to the client. Here are some benefits to using Integrated Move Management for a home clean out:
Where’s Waldo
If there are possessions in the house that the client would like to keep in the family, but they aren’t sure where they are located in the home – we will work diligently as we go through each room to find these items for their safekeeping.
Working with Common Sense
As we sort through each room, we will always set aside items that we feel are either sentimental, important or valuable. Some examples of these are family photos, important documents such as tax returns, and jewelry.
Nice Surprises
Quite often the adult children are surprised by items we find that they didn’t know were in the home. We recently were cleaning out a home in Cumberland, ME and found cash hidden in many locations. In the end, we found over $60,000. If either of the two types of companies mentioned above where used – that money would not have been returned to the family. In the first type of company, it more than likely would have ended up in a landfill and in the second type of company, the money would belong to the clean out company.
True Value
As I mentioned, the second type of company discussed above will evaluate the value of items in the home to determine whether you will be paid for your household contents or if you will pay them. In general, this is their best guess after an initial evaluation. By working through each room and determining the best way to disperse items, you are more likely to reap the true value of your possessions.
Avoid the Landfill It is one of our goals at Integrated Move Management to keep trash to a minimum. It is both expensive to dispose of trash and bad for the environment. The other types of companies that do home clean-out typically do not take the time to donate items to charity or sort out items that can be recycled. We feel strongly that donating and recycling as much as possible is a much more responsible route to take. Additionally, it is helpful to those people in need and the environment.
As always, feel free to be in touch with us if you have questions or have an impending downsizing, move or home clean-out. Contact Us.
