3 Tips For Cleaning Up A Cluttered Inherited House

Have you suddenly inherited an entire house? Did you go to the house to look around and find out that the previous owner was actually a hoarder? As you have probably already discovered, some hoarders are able to hide their hoarding obsession from friends and family while they're alive. They can keep one or two rooms clean for when company comes over, packing the rest of their house with assorted items. Unfortunately for you, this now means that you have piles of junk to go through and dispose of. In order to help you do that, here are some tips:

Start in the cleanest rooms: You may want to start by tackling the rooms that are the most crowded first, but there may actually be things that you want to keep in those. If you don't have at least one room cleaned out, you'll have a hard time figuring out where to put the good things until you're done with the rest of the house. While "clean" may be a relative term in the house of a hoarder, the kitchen is often one of the least cluttered rooms and is a good place to start. 

Rent at least one dumpster: Trash can take up a lot more space than you think it does. While you may want to simply use the residential trash cans that the house already has, it could wind up taking months of your time to do it that way. And you probably don't want to spend a lot of time running back and forth to your local dump either. Dumpster rentals are the easiest way to get rid of a large amount of trash in a short amount of time. Try to measure each room and assume that you'll have to throw out everything within, then base your dumpster rentals on that. For example, if you need to clear out a 15x15 living room, a 10x15 bedroom, and an 8x10 bathroom, each with about 6 feet of trash, that's almost 3,000 cubic feet of garbage to get rid of. Also, consider that the trash has likely settled and/or compacted in place so that it will expand when thrown away and plan your dumpster rentals accordingly. Too much dumpster is probably better than not enough in this case.

Research as much as possible: While unlikely, it is possible that there are treasures hidden among the junk in the home. If anything is in halfway decent condition, make sure to try to find out its value before you throw it away. You may not be interested in the antique butter churn hidden away in a corner of the garage, but you may be able to find a buyer who is willing to pay top dollar for the antique. If you are able to find anything of value, selling them off may be able to more than pay for the dumpster rentals required to clean out the house.

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