Lowest Cost Way to Empty a Home

Undoubtedly, a quick and low-cost clearout is not for the faint of heart. Because downsizing and estate clear outs can involve extreme emotions, a fast and inexpensive estate clearout can be traumatic, especially to the person or people who accumulated the belongings in the first place! If circumstances demand a low-cost, rapid clearout, whenever possible, I highly recommend arranging and supervising the process through a third party without emotional ties to the house.

Here are my tips for the lowest cost way to empty a home:

Sort Out High Value and Manageable Items
One thing that can really slow you down when you are in a hurry to clear out a home is to get bogged down with trying to sell furnishings or housewares. It just takes a lot of time and, paradoxically, it can cost more than you think to handle and move items to auction or consignment. If you have sterling silver, precious metals, jewelry, or other easy-to-handle, easy-to-sell items, by all means take them to your local dealer. For the rest, if you are truly in a hurry, it may be far cheaper and faster to donate it.

Give Stuff Away
As a first pass, you may consider opening the home to friends and neighbors, inviting them to take whatever they can and want for free. Although this approach may seem drastic, it can be an effective way of removing household items from the property at no cost.

Then, consider donating any usable furnishings and housewares. Look for a local charity that provides free pickup of usable household items. While this process varies widely from town to town, the volume and type of items they are willing to take is usually up to the driver and the crew that arrive with the truck. Ideally, you’ll have donations sorted out and ready to go, but you may be fortunate enough to have a driver and crew willing to take as much as they can.

Have a Plan for the Rest
Giving stuff away can be effective, but there will definitely be things left over. You’ll need to be prepared with a backup plan for any items left over.

If you have a large volume of stuff to clear, you may consider an onsite dumpster or roll-away trash container. These services will drop off a container for a set amount of time, and then come back to get it. However, keep in mind that you may need to hire extra hands to physically remove items and put them in the dumpster. It’s a big job to transport heavy and bulky items, even if you’re just going to the driveway. Most people will need a lot of help, especially if they’re older. That’s why I usually recommend a crew and truck that will do the heavy lifting for you.

Don’t forget that there are special procedures for removing household cleaners, cans of paint, fertilizer, oils, etc. that must be transported to your local hazardous waste collection. If your junk removal solution doesn’t handle household chemicals, you may have to do it yourself.

Even when you find the lowest cost way to empty a home, you’ll need to accept that clearing your home will involve time and expense. But with creativity, patience, and willingness to supervise the process, you can clear a home of its contents relatively inexpensively.

If you find yourself in a situation with no budget for sorting or no interest in any of the items in the house, a combination of inviting people to take things, arranging for a free donation pickup, and shopping around for smart junk removal is your best bet.