Tips on Emptying or Packing Up a House for an Estate Sale After a Death

Having had several deaths in the famiy I have had to empty three households in the past year and will l be emptying a fourth in the near future. The last one is just because I'll be selling the house I've lived in for the last 35 years.

Doing something like this is a tremendous job. For most people the best thing you can do is get some friends to help with the general organizing. I like to work alone so I prefer handling it all myself. First of all, if it's a relatives's home you're dealing with or you are executor of an estate as I was, it's important to deal with any obviously valuable pieces befor dispersing anything. If there are family members entitled to items let them take those. If there are items in a will being assigned to family members make sure they get them picked up immediately. This clears the way for the next step.

Get an appraiser. By hiring an appraiser, paid for by the estate, I was able to price items correctly before I allowed dealers in. I was quite surprised at the value of some of the pieces in my Aunt's house, art work in particular. I have friends who own antique shops and auction houses so I notified them first once everything was appraised. Once those pieces were gone or while I was waiting for their pick up I went through all the small items, dishware, silverware, decorative pieces and either packed them for donation or kept them out for the dealers. I also called some acquaintances and put out feelers for anyone who needed basic furniture, bedding rugs, odd chairs and tables, garden tools, items like that. I could have held a garage sale but I felt that was too much work and I dind't want to nickel and dime. People came and picked up desks, beds, simple lamps and tables and the regular rugs, tools, laddersand items like that. It made them happy and it made my job easier.