House clearance in 21st Century
Discussion
Exige77 said:
It’s great for the house clearers as they often find money, jewellery and other valuables. Often find money in biscuit tins. Last week they found a 1.25 ct diamond ring.
Should they really just trouser items like that?As others have said though, in my experience of a couple of elderly people passing, family members had already done a sweep and taken anything of value.
Cleared my late mother's house a couple of years ago. Nothing of any value. My brother has a couple of photo albums, he was much closer to our parents than I ever was, no real memories for me. I've had one piece of furniture and the wheelbarrow(!), brother had a few things, niece got the jewellery. Charity got most of the clothes. The house clearance guys got the rest. All quiet straight forward and no real hassle involved.
House now sold and I'm enjoying the cash. The saddest thing was seeing just how much money she had stashed away in various savings accounts. They should have spent it, their attitude to money was "money is for saving, not spending". Putting that right, right now, time to change the car.
House now sold and I'm enjoying the cash. The saddest thing was seeing just how much money she had stashed away in various savings accounts. They should have spent it, their attitude to money was "money is for saving, not spending". Putting that right, right now, time to change the car.
I've been looking into this as a business venture to work alongside an existing business but the cost disposing of the waste is huge at around £200 per ton at my local weighbridge and when you add on vehicle running costs, insurances, licences, advertising, employees etc I struggle to see how anyone could make this work as a business?
This may also represent a cultural change; younger people by and large are not as obsessed with collecting material crap as the older generation. Bad news for the companies selling plates with awful paintings of The Royal Family or kittens on the back page of the radio times, good for the planet 
People live longer too, so by the time they die their children already have a house full of furniture/crap. When my grandfather died we all had a few keepsakes and the odd handy bit of furniture, but 99% of the contents of the house went to charity shops/bin.
People live longer too, so by the time they die their children already have a house full of furniture/crap. When my grandfather died we all had a few keepsakes and the odd handy bit of furniture, but 99% of the contents of the house went to charity shops/bin.
A family member did this for a friends relative a few years ago. The family weren't the sentimental type and just wanted the house cleared of all items so they could flog it. Relative turned up one afternoon to see the son of the deceased dumping 'rubbish' into a skip before he left.
among the rubbish was a lot of valuable antiques among them a coco de mer. A few months later the house was demolished and land sold for about £200k. Relative took it to a local auction house who told them it was worth about £5k. Not bad for an afternoons work.
Some people just don't know the worth of items or they are just to ignorant to realise.
Also heard a story from my dad about a guy he knew. A real character and eccentric type, drove a shed but lived comfortably enough and collected a lot of quirky art and antiques. He died and when the family called an auctioneer in to sell his items the auctioneer apparently fainted. Rare instruments, paintings and antiques, the total for everything after the auction was somewhere close to £500k.
among the rubbish was a lot of valuable antiques among them a coco de mer. A few months later the house was demolished and land sold for about £200k. Relative took it to a local auction house who told them it was worth about £5k. Not bad for an afternoons work.
Some people just don't know the worth of items or they are just to ignorant to realise.
Also heard a story from my dad about a guy he knew. A real character and eccentric type, drove a shed but lived comfortably enough and collected a lot of quirky art and antiques. He died and when the family called an auctioneer in to sell his items the auctioneer apparently fainted. Rare instruments, paintings and antiques, the total for everything after the auction was somewhere close to £500k.
Edited by EarlofDrift on Thursday 16th January 12:00
I do work for a lot of house / junk / clearance service companies and periodically ask if they ever find anything worthwhile to sell on etc.
Sometimes there is no time.
Sometimes its practically brand new furniture /house / office.
Money stuffed places, jewels, drugs etc.
Landlords use these companies if a tenant has done a runner.
Sometimes there is no time.
Sometimes its practically brand new furniture /house / office.
Money stuffed places, jewels, drugs etc.
Landlords use these companies if a tenant has done a runner.
Sometimes, a house clearer has to pay the client for the contents prior to starting the clearance.
My brother and I did one in Aston, suburb of Birmingham. He forked over £1200 to roll the dice as there were antiques etc to be gained. He broke even on the furniture, paintings etc at auction. He found a half sovereign in a box of pre-decimal change and buttons, which was nice. The best result was found by me (renowned collector of s
te), a box under some chairs and dustsheets in the back of the garage containing loads of postcards. Not crappy holiday ones, but from before, during and after the 1st World War!!! In excess of 400 postcards at between £3 - £50 each. Going through them, it became apparent the deceased homeowner's father had been a military chauffeur during that war and their were loads of photo's of old cars etc printed onto postcard type backing. The absolute gems were 3 photo's of an early (very early, Louis Bleriot/Wright Bros. early) flight coming into land after crossing the channel - amazing!
You do have to be careful, when my Granny died in Tewkesbury we 3 brothers went with a hired van to clear her tiny, warden monitored type flat (we were going to have it cleared by pro's) and my younger bro got there first and started the task, stuffing black bin liners with old coats etc. When us other 2 arrived we asked if he had checked the pockets - no? Went back through them and found several old purses and wads of 20's totaling a sum in excess of £3k...! It would have all gone to the innocent(!!!!???) old dears down at the charity shop...
I am acquainted with another fella that does house clearance in Manchester and he has discovered lots of hidden cash - big sums too.
Another lad I know spends a lot of his spare time cycling around his local large town looking in skips for collectibles and he says the house clearance ones always turn things up - he has found gold sovereigns in old busted drawer units etc quite a number of times.
Tnx
My brother and I did one in Aston, suburb of Birmingham. He forked over £1200 to roll the dice as there were antiques etc to be gained. He broke even on the furniture, paintings etc at auction. He found a half sovereign in a box of pre-decimal change and buttons, which was nice. The best result was found by me (renowned collector of s
te), a box under some chairs and dustsheets in the back of the garage containing loads of postcards. Not crappy holiday ones, but from before, during and after the 1st World War!!! In excess of 400 postcards at between £3 - £50 each. Going through them, it became apparent the deceased homeowner's father had been a military chauffeur during that war and their were loads of photo's of old cars etc printed onto postcard type backing. The absolute gems were 3 photo's of an early (very early, Louis Bleriot/Wright Bros. early) flight coming into land after crossing the channel - amazing!You do have to be careful, when my Granny died in Tewkesbury we 3 brothers went with a hired van to clear her tiny, warden monitored type flat (we were going to have it cleared by pro's) and my younger bro got there first and started the task, stuffing black bin liners with old coats etc. When us other 2 arrived we asked if he had checked the pockets - no? Went back through them and found several old purses and wads of 20's totaling a sum in excess of £3k...! It would have all gone to the innocent(!!!!???) old dears down at the charity shop...
I am acquainted with another fella that does house clearance in Manchester and he has discovered lots of hidden cash - big sums too.
Another lad I know spends a lot of his spare time cycling around his local large town looking in skips for collectibles and he says the house clearance ones always turn things up - he has found gold sovereigns in old busted drawer units etc quite a number of times.
Tnx
My next door neighbour is in the house clearance business, more often than not he'll charge say £500 to clear a house but knows he'll make money out of what's left.
It seems often people just want the house and the belongings can just go. He'll then go through what's taken and sell on what he finds. By all accounts he's found some mad stuff but also knows collectors of niche things so knows who to sell to. Considering he lives in a four bed house next door and owns a second property in South London, he does ok from it. Not a millionaire but a good living.
It is as sad situation when people simply discard a relatives old belongings. I suppose though, you have to be realistic and maybe for some it's less painful to let it go? Maybe they pick out the precious things like jewellery and photos? You'd hope so anyway.
It seems often people just want the house and the belongings can just go. He'll then go through what's taken and sell on what he finds. By all accounts he's found some mad stuff but also knows collectors of niche things so knows who to sell to. Considering he lives in a four bed house next door and owns a second property in South London, he does ok from it. Not a millionaire but a good living.
It is as sad situation when people simply discard a relatives old belongings. I suppose though, you have to be realistic and maybe for some it's less painful to let it go? Maybe they pick out the precious things like jewellery and photos? You'd hope so anyway.
gregs656 said:
Sheepshanks said:
Should they really just trouser items like that?
That’s an odd question. The whole business model is they generally find enough things of value to offset dealing with all the stuff of no or low value. It’s a lot of work.
A friend of mine bought a house from an old widow.
When replacing the kitchen a couple of months later he found £30k in cash behind the kick boards, obviously been salted away by her now deceased husband.
Being an honest sort of chap, my friend gave the money back to her.
She rewarded him with a couple of grand for his honesty.
When replacing the kitchen a couple of months later he found £30k in cash behind the kick boards, obviously been salted away by her now deceased husband.
Being an honest sort of chap, my friend gave the money back to her.
She rewarded him with a couple of grand for his honesty.
nicanary said:
S100HP said:
Enough about boring stuff like money or jewelry, those doing house clearances, have you found much smut?
I remember a TV programme when someone reckoned they'd found a latex rubber gimp suir in a loft. S100HP said:
I seem to recall a story about someone finding a sex swing when clearing a house too, but might have just been made up.
Girl in work's husband works for an auction place that does house clearances. Just before Xmas they cleared the house of an elderly man who lived alone. There was a few boxes that they didn't open until they got back to base. One box was full of butt plugs, so went in a skip.
One box was full of grot mags of various vintages, they go to auction.
Final box had several different types of gimp suits. As they were probably going in the skip I asked for one to give to the boss for his secret santa. I reckoned we could have had a great time with them, posting them to random people or stuffing them and leaving them in random places - propped up on a park bench etc.
Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff