Cheapest ways to clear a hoarded house?

lisyloo

Sea_Shell wrote: »

I've often wondered with collections that someone would never sell, what DO they expect to happen to them, after they've gone?? Some will have a value, but many will end up in a skip!!

I cleared a flat recently and some of the stuff was 100+ years old.

We felt it was important to include all family members in case something had sentimental value.
We didn’t throw anything out without consulting everyone (which slowed down the process but we felt was necessary).

We sent most ornamental items to charity shop if they had no sentimental value.

Cakeguts

NaughtiusMaximus wrote: »

I do think it's the same thought process that drive both behaviours though, hoarding can be seen as collecting taken a step too far. Our cue to have a clearout is when we reach the stage that there's no more storage space (or display space, depending on the items) left. A hoarder would just carry on to the point where every bit of floor space was covered with boxes, bags, paperwork etc.

The difference usually is that a hoarder finds it difficult to part with anything. If they were collecting something that they didn't have room for anymore they wouldn't recycle or throw out the next lot they would expand the collection onto another shelf and then on and on. I know a lot of people who save things for later but they aren't hoarders.



My aunt for example who had type 2 diabetes. When we cleared her house out she had 3 cookers all piled one on top of the other gradually getting smaller in size so that they could be perched there. It was extremely dangerous and she could quite easily have suffered burns from the arrangement if the top one had fallen over. She wouldn't answer the door to anyone so no one could get in to help her. It was a terraced house and I feel sorry for the neighbours.

antilles

In summary - I'd just pay a house clearance company to get rid of it all.

In detail - a few years back we cleared out a house ourselves. We spent weekends and weekends of our own time sorting through stuff and running backward and forward to the tip, messing up our own nice cars with rubbish. Ended up with all sorts of spiders moving into the cars.

We tried taking some stuff to the charity shops - they are quite picky (understandably) and we ended up taking a lot of stuff to the tip that they didn't want - more wasted trips.

We also tried giving away a lot of stuff on a couple of these 'help the locals' freebie Facebook groups. Ended up spending many evenings sat in waiting for people to collect stuff - because it was free, a lot of the people didn't turn up, wasting many hours. Then we had people complaining to group admins because we were giving too much stuff to certain people, people squabbling over who was getting what etc. Basically not worth the stress/hassle.

In the end lesson learned was don't do it yourself - unless you don't value your time - just pay a company to do it. Also - you have no idea what you'll find when you go digging.

getmore4less

Some old stuff is potentially priceless but people don't realise it.

Priceless in the sense it may the last example or a rare item.

Photos are a prime example I have boxes with photos from the war.
Some of our family photos include a Victorian railway station that has been restored in recent times, one day I might sort them and pass onto the heritage organisation.

A good collector should have a catalogue/index of their collection and try to keep the last known value and where other collectors hang out for moving on for their hiers.
At a minimum some sort of organisation of the collection, even if it expresses ocd lke tenancies like alphabetical.


Once you can't remember what you have put to one side it's time to review.

I think a key feature there is a problem, to a hoarder the problem is totally invisible.

Silvertabby

“ A friend, sadly, has a combination of 'hoarding' and 'on-line spending', with the result that most of the stuff piled up in her house is comprised of unopened boxes. I can't get through to her "I will live the way I want to live" and Social Services can't/won't help as she isn't classed as a vulnerable adult.
Originally posted by Silvertabby

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Falls under the remit of the NHS Community Mental Health Team: may require a referral from her family doctor or another agency (eg. mental health charity, debt charity) though.

If your friend has another mental health issue alongside - depression/ anxiety/ OCD are not uncommon - she may be more willing to accept support for that first?

HTH.

Thank you. I can't get through to her at all. She was widowed 9 years ago, in her 50s, but still talks like she's the only woman ever to have been widowed, or claims that widows who do manage to move on can't possibly have loved their husbands. I did speak to the practice nurse at her Dr's surgery, but she said that any request for help must come from my friend, not a third party.

Green_hopeful

I did a freecycle garage not sale. I put everything I didn’t want in my garage and put advertisements on freecycle for specific items and types of items for example diy stuff or gardening stuff. I put the advert on about a week before my ‘not’ sale. I said anyone interested should come at 10 am on Saturday.

I came out the house at 0930 and there were 20 people waiting. I said I would open the door at 10 to be fair. At 1015 it had all gone. One lady needed a lift home with all her stuff because she had come on the bus. Another man made two trips because he wanted quite a lot.

It was just stuff from 20 years of bringing up a family and odd tenants. Nothing lovely but not rubbish. I used the kondo method to sort the things out.

I noticed with freecycle round here if you put on that it could be used on the allotment you get more interest. Depends what it is though.

It was good not to have to organise a time for collection.

Freecycle obviously works better in some locations. But round us it is pretty quick.

bouicca21

Hmm, eye of beholder indeed. I collect books and papers that are related to my interests, but you don’t trip over it as you walk round. That’s very different to a house where you have to pick your way round mounds of stuff piled on the floor and have to deal with people who don’t think that is in any way odd. But I’m not sure I have any right to be judgmental about it. If they choose to live like that, surely it’s their choice.

Sea_Shell

I'm all for personal choice about how to live... however they can forget that their "beloved possessions" will become someone else's headache one day.

adindas

Green_hopeful wrote: »

I did a freecycle garage not sale. I put everything I didn’t want in my garage and put advertisements on freecycle for specific items and types of items for example diy stuff or gardening stuff. I put the advert on about a week before my ‘not’ sale. I said anyone interested should come at 10 am on Saturday.

I came out the house at 0930 and there were 20 people waiting. I said I would open the door at 10 to be fair. At 1015 it had all gone. One lady needed a lift home with all her stuff because she had come on the bus. Another man made two trips because he wanted quite a lot.

It was just stuff from 20 years of bringing up a family and odd tenants. Nothing lovely but not rubbish. I used the kondo method to sort the things out.

I noticed with freecycle round here if you put on that it could be used on the allotment you get more interest. Depends what it is though.

It was good not to have to organise a time for collection.

Freecycle obviously works better in some locations. But round us it is pretty quick.

I think your case is different.

The fact that there were 20 people queing, waiting and then all gone in 15 minutes tell the story that they are the stuffs that many people want and actually have value in it. Some people might go to the car booth sale, eBay, gumtree collect in person or give it to charity shop on weekly or monthly basis.

But in the original post the op is mentioning the word "hoarder".

Hoarder are collecting rubbish such as papers, magazines, news papers, fabrics, clothes plastics containers, cups, picture frames, outdated electronic gadget, photographs, etc which does not have or very less value for other people. Unless they are professional collectors who know the value of antiques stuffs who are going to collect 1970 cameras, mobile phones, computers parts, CRT TV, dot matrix printers, other gadgets or electric/electronic equipments of those kind ?

If you are suggesting people to collect rubbish as such, you will need to be pretty clear in the description, pictures so the people know what they will be collecting whether they really need it, whether it is worthy for them to invest time to collecting them. Otherwise, you might get the people are getting angry after arriving that they have nothing valuable to collect.

getmore4less

adindas wrote: »

who are going to collect 1970 cameras, mobile phones, computers parts, other gadged of those kind ?

There are quite a few around that collect old computer equipment to recycle and repair machines for reuse.

Some parts(memory) can start increasing in values as they are no longer made and supplies dwindle as they break.

We have one in our area that does it as a hobby and give them away to worthy causes and people that need basic systems.