The loss of a loved one, family member or friend is always a difficult time for you and your relatives, and to add insult to injury, you’re then left having to plan and pay for a funeral, as well as sort out what to do with the deceased home and all of the belongings in it.
If you can do, go through the stuff within the deceased’s house and remove anything of sentimental value to your or anyone else who knew the deceased. Be considerate when you are deciding what the throw away and what to keep, remember that other people may have more of a sentimental attachment to something than you do, so always try to bear this in mind. It may be a good idea to ask the members in your family to spend a day with you going through the things in the house and selecting for themselves what they would like to keep, of course this does mean that there could be some rows if more than one person wants one thing in particular.
Once you have removed everything you would like to keep, you need to sort through everything that is left over. To do this collect some boxes together, and work through the house room by room, putting everything into one of the following boxes:
- Keep
- Sell
- Donate
- Recycle
- Throw away
Once you have worked through the property the house should be completely empty and you should be left with 5 piles of boxes.
- The rubbish can be taken straight to a waste disposal centre to be disposed of correctly, there will be a fee for using this centre that will depend upon the weight of the rubbish you are getting rid of, usually you are charged by the tonne.
- Anything that you wish to keep can be taken from the property and to your home, or placed in storage if you do not have the room for it.
- Things that you intend to donate can either go to a charity shop or can be placed in one of the donation bins that are readily available on housing estates and in supermarkets.
- Sort through the stuff you think you can sell, anything that is of good quality, in good working condition and has some value should be sold privately, to recover some of the money lost in the clearance of the house, however, it is likely that most of the items from the house will be better suited to something like a car boot sale.
- Recycling is the most difficult of the rubbish to dispose of, as it requires sorting into categories, i.e. paper, metal etc, and then taken to a suitable recycling centre. Furthermore, there are some things, like fridges/freezers, paint, television’s etc. that have to be disposed of or recycled in a specific way.
It is not uncommon for people to find sorting through a deceased’s home too upsetting to do themselves, and this is where a clearance company comes in great use. Not only do they remove all of you waste and either recycle or dispose of it for you, they can also de-clutter for you, and offer additional benefits such as liability insurance that cover you in the event of something going wrong or damage being caused to the property. Using a clearance company is likely to cost you a little more than it would to do to clear the house yourself, however, the job will be completed in a shorter time, and you and your family need not have any involvement if you find it to upsetting. http://www.rubbishwaste.co.uk/kensington-rubbish-removal-SW7/waste-collection-kensington.html