An estate cleanout can be a complicated process to manage while grieving the loss of a loved one. There can be year’s worth of homeware, clothing, and bric-a-brac to sort through. If you’ve been tasked with sorting out someone’s deceased estate, you might need Junk Boss, junk movers serving the greater Oklahoma City area. Here are some tips to make the estate cleanout a little easier:
5 tips to make an estate cleanout more manageable
1. Consult the legal representative or administrator of the estate
If your loved one left behind a testament or written will, it may hold important instructions on their wishes, including who the administrator of their estate should be and what needs to happen to their belongings. Determining these wishes should always be the first step in dealing with the property of a loved one who passed away. If there is no formal testament, the property will be divided based on Oklahoma’s intestate laws. In any of these cases, it is crucial to determine how the belongings should be divided legally.
2. Start sorting through the belongings
While a testament may simplify the estate cleanout process, it won’t cover every last belonging of the deceased person. When the property (mentioned in the testament) has been divided, you should clearly mark these items by attaching a tag or sticker with details of the recipient. When you get through the leftover items, you might want to ask family members to join you and decide on who wants specific things. Mark items clearly or move them out of the way to avoid any misunderstandings and confusion. For the sake of being thorough, you might want to keep a record of items in the estate and write down who it should go to and what has been collected. This will avoid any possible confusion and problems with items ending up with the wrong person.
3. Separate items for donation, sale or auction
When all the sentimental items and the items mentioned in the testament have been removed or allocated, it is time to decide which items can be donated and which items can be sold or auctioned. It might be easier to mark items with color-coded labels, such as green for donation, red for sale/auction, and blue for items allocated to family members (including the name of recipient).
4. What to do with leftover items
Your best option is to get junk movers or an Oklahoma City trash pickup service like Junk Boss to help you get rid of any leftover items. Once all the belongings have been sorted, donated, or sold, you’re likely to be left with unwanted junk that might be damaged, old or dirty. After an estate cleanout’s emotional process, you don’t want to be left dealing with these items. With our junk haul off service, you point to what needs to be removed, and we’ll make it go away. We have the experience and knowledge to dispose of your unwanted items safely and efficiently.
5. Get the space cleaned out
In most cases, the home, apartment, or dwelling in a deceased estate will be left to a loved one as inheritance, or the property might be sold. After all the belongings and junk have been removed, you’ll need to have the dwelling cleaned, so it is ready for the next owner.
For more information on our estate cleanout services, junk haul off, and junk removal in Edmond, OK, contact Junk Boss for a quote.