Spring Cleaning

I am a firm believer in the ritual of spring cleaning. When it comes to the seasonal clean up, many people believe that the easiest thing to do is to just throw everything away. However, that’s not always the smartest thing to do.

On a regular basis, I visit homes of people who are downsizing or cleaning out the home of a deceased or ailing loved one. I help evaluate what objects are worth keeping, what objects are worth selling, and I show people the smartest way to get the most money for unwanted objects — both new and old. I remind folks that trashing that unwanted item may cost you more than you might think. Today, those objects represent much-needed money for rising healthcare costs and other vital needs.

Far too many families make uniformed and costly decisions about valuable objects without unbiased professional help.

Consider this: Grandma passes away. In order to put the house up for sale, grandma’s family members meet at her vacant house to empty it. The family works to throw away most of grandma’s stuff – beaded purses, ceramic canister sets, silverware. Her belongings – the same items that were perfectly fine a few weeks ago before her untimely death – make their way from the house’s vacant rooms to the rented dumpster in the driveway.

Just because grandma’s family doesn’t want her belongings, that doesn’t magically make these items worthless. Grandma had been insuring her personal property including art, antiques and collectibles for at least $100,000 under a typical homeowners’ insurance policy for years, yet suddenly her items have no value! This is ridiculous. You wouldn’t set fire to grandma’s house because she’s not using it anymore, right?

Get the 411

I visit thousands of homes across the nation every year and share my sound advice and expertise about the value of unwanted objects. I show folks how to identify the valuables and glean much needed cash for them. I find that most families make decisions about the value of objects based on very little information or mis-information from unreliable sources. I regularly conduct in-home appraisals and inform people of items’ true value before they go to the trash heap. It is not an expensive process, nor does it take more than an hour or two of your time. 

For instance, grandma’s 23-year-old grandson probably won’t realize that her 1940s Blue Ridge dishes are valued at $50 per plate as he Frisbee tosses them into the dumpster. Grandma’s daughter doesn’t know that her mother’s late 1880s Victorian side chair is worth $500. Grandma’s nephew, an accountant, doesn’t recognize an old family portrait as a work by an esteemed Colonial portrait artist with a $75,000 value. 

As a result of this all too common exercise, grandma’s family unknowingly throws away a significant amount of money, just as if they opened their wallets and threw the cash into the street.

Some families host yard sales or house sales to generate some funds, but be sure you know what you are putting up for sale and be certain that your prices are correct. I have seen many items priced ridiculously too low when family members are organizing a yard sale of grandma’s unwanted items. For instance, I saw a $30,000 American Impressionist landscape painting offered for $10 with a bright green yard sale sticker affixed to its frame.

Most families don’t know what they are losing and I know from experience that they are losing a lot!