When can I start clearing my mother's house?

badmemory

Please be carefull when throwing clothes & handbags etc away.  I helped a friend move house a couple of weeks ago.  His wife was only 60 when she died back in 2006.  I was emptying a drawer with some things of hers in & found a pair of thick woolly socks that crackled as I picked them up.  £90 later!!  Years ago he had found several £Ks in handbags but who would have thought socks?

Username03725

badmemory said:

Please be carefull when throwing clothes & handbags etc away.  I helped a friend move house a couple of weeks ago.  His wife was only 60 when she died back in 2006.  I was emptying a drawer with some things of hers in & found a pair of thick woolly socks that crackled as I picked them up.  £90 later!!  Years ago he had found several £Ks in handbags but who would have thought socks?

My long-gone grandparents did that, with wodges of tenners stashed in various cupboards in cardigan pockets, folded towels and loads of other unexpected crevices. Added up to a few thousand around the house. That's the wartime generation for you.

DancingBadger

...wodges of tenners stashed in various cupboards in cardigan pockets, folded towels and loads of other unexpected crevices. Added up to a few thousand around the house. That's the wartime generation for you.

This is definitely something to be aware of; it's not just the elderly who stash money in odd places.  My older sister died last year, and my BIL and I are still working slowly through her possessions.  So far, we've found (and are still finding) cash in some very odd places - tucked into books, under drawer linings, in the cellar(!), you name it...  The sum currently stands at over £800.

Also, in their area of Bristol (Bishopston), people leave unwanted items on their wall for people to take.  If you're unsure whether an item should be dumped or not, the wall seems to be the place for it.  Usually, stuff disappears overnight.

Doshwaster

Username03725 said:

badmemory said:

Please be carefull when throwing clothes & handbags etc away.  I helped a friend move house a couple of weeks ago.  His wife was only 60 when she died back in 2006.  I was emptying a drawer with some things of hers in & found a pair of thick woolly socks that crackled as I picked them up.  £90 later!!  Years ago he had found several £Ks in handbags but who would have thought socks?

My long-gone grandparents did that, with wodges of tenners stashed in various cupboards in cardigan pockets, folded towels and loads of other unexpected crevices. Added up to a few thousand around the house. That's the wartime generation for you.

Even found an envelope of cash hidden underneath a fitted carpet in my late Uncle's house. We only found it when removing the furniture and felt a bump under the carpet. 

Silvertabby

Username03725 said:

badmemory said:

Please be carefull when throwing clothes & handbags etc away.  I helped a friend move house a couple of weeks ago.  His wife was only 60 when she died back in 2006.  I was emptying a drawer with some things of hers in & found a pair of thick woolly socks that crackled as I picked them up.  £90 later!!  Years ago he had found several £Ks in handbags but who would have thought socks?

My long-gone grandparents did that, with wodges of tenners stashed in various cupboards in cardigan pockets, folded towels and loads of other unexpected crevices. Added up to a few thousand around the house. That's the wartime generation for you.

This seems to be the norm!  A friend's widowed mother-in-law lived on just the State pension/pension credit (with frequent home shopping deliveries paid for by family) but after her death they found over £10K in various little stashes around the house.