Turning to estate cleanout services can make cleaning out a loved one’s space much easier following their passing. There are items that people will want to keep, but there will also be items that will need to be donated or trashed. Junk King Katy is here to help with those items. We have partnerships with places where we can donate otherwise unwanted items, and we also recycle up to 99% of what we pick up. This means on top of us taking what you don’t need, very little will ever end up in a landfill. Book now and you may be able to save $20 at the same time! To find out how we can help with an estate cleanout, read on!

When a loved one passes on, it can be hard to find time to grieve. You’re immediately tasked with making funeral arrangements, contacting others, and much more. Even after the funeral, there’s still a lot to be done, and it can be very taxing on you and your emotions. Dealing with your loved one’s estate can be especially difficult. Going through their belongings is likely to bring back memories and make their loss even harder.

However, estate cleanout services such as Junk King of Katy can help. While we won’t make any decisions on your behalf, we are here to remove any old furniture, appliances, and anything else you decide you simply can’t keep. We’ll take care of removing those items so you don’t have to add renting a truck or dealing with the landfill to your long list of things you have to deal with.

When Do You Have to Clean Out a Loved One’s Estate?

The time you have to deal with estate cleanout varies greatly by where your loved one was living. If they owned the home they lived in, you will have a good amount of time to clean it out. Even if their will specifies that the home is to be sold, you’ll still have weeks or even months to handle that because of how long the probate process takes. You won’t necessarily have to go through anything, although if there is a mortgage on the property, you will want to contact the lender and make certain the payments continue to be made.

If your loved one lived in an apartment, rental property, or assisted living center, though, you may not have as much time. The landlord or center administration is likely going to want to rent out the property as soon as they can, so you may only have a few weeks or a month to sort through your loved one’s possessions and either take them or get rid of them. Some people simply call estate or assisted living cleanout services and have everything boxed up and put in a storage unit.

While that’s a solution if you don’t feel like you can face the chore itself, you do have to be careful that you don’t simply leave everything in storage for years. The amount of storage unit fees you pay will add up. If you have the items stored in your home, there may be a good amount of usable space that you’re giving up. It’s perfectly okay to store items for a short period of time while you process your grief, but try not to let them sit for years. You can always make use of a junk removal service such as Junk King once you do sort through everything and know what you want to get rid of.

Should You Hire Estate Cleanout Services?

The next question to ask is whether or not you need to hire estate cleanout specialists. If you don’t have a truck or have a lot of stuff you decide you don’t need, you’re going to want someone to haul it away for you. It will be much easier, faster, and even more affordable than renting a vehicle and trying to do it all yourself.

If your loved one lived in their own home or apartment, they likely had a good amount of furniture that you won’t need. Even those in assisted living may have had some of their own furniture that you now have to move out of the center. What do you do with it? You may have some friends or family members who could use some of it, but you also will likely find yourself with a sofa, bed, table, and more that you simply don’t need and have no room to store.

Many people want to donate these items, especially if they’re still in good condition, but even that can be difficult if you don’t have a truck. While there are some donation organizations that will come pick up items, many don’t have a large vehicle. They won’t be able to take more than one or two pieces of furniture. If you have a whole house of stuff, it’s not practical to ask them to come back multiple times.

While people generally think of us as a trash removal service, Junk King actually does much more than that. One of our goals is to reduce how much stuff we put into a landfill. To that end, we do work with local Houston charities and other organizations that accept donations. If you have furniture that’s in good condition and appliances that still work, we won’t haul them off to the dump. Instead, we will set them aside for donation. It’s perfectly fine to call us and say that you have a lot of items that are in good shape. We will make sure they get donated to the right place.

We Also Recycle

In addition to cleaning up the home and donating items to charity, Junk King is also a firm believer in recycling. If your loved one had items that are no longer useable, there’s a good chance those things can be recycled. Even if the entire appliance or piece of furniture can’t be, we can often disassemble it and recycle some of the components. Again, we want to limit what goes into the landfill, so we work closely with local recycling centers to recycle everything we possibly can.

When Should You Call an Estate Cleanout Service?

Once you’ve decided you do need some help with junk clean up, the question becomes when to call them. With Junk King, you’ll need to know what you’re getting rid of for us to give you an estimate. This means you’ll have to go through everything before you call us. That may be fine in some cases, but you may have so much to go through that you simply don’t have the space to sort it out. There’s no space to put stuff you want to keep separate from the stuff you want to get rid of.

One solution if you have too much to sort through is to rent a dumpster. With a dumpster, you’re able to take more time to sort through things. When you decide you don’t need to keep something, you can take it out to the dumpster instead of leaving it in the house. This will give you more space to sort things and will help you visualize exactly what you’re keeping. It’s a good middle ground for when you want someone to help you clean out a house but also need time to go through everything.

Are You Ready to Clean Out a Loved One’s Home?

The last thing to ask yourself is if you’re prepared to start the cleanout process. Unfortunately, as discussed above, if your loved one lived in a rental property or assisted living facility, you may not be able to wait until you feel fully prepared. The best thing you can do in this case is to ask a friend or family member to help you. With someone you trust beside you, the process can be easier. You’ll still be hit with emotion, of course, but having someone there with you means you’re not going through it alone.

Another thing before you start searching for “junk removal near me” and making plans is to ensure that you can legally remove items from the property. If you’re in the probate process and there are several heirs, talk with your lawyer first. While it may be fine to get rid of some personal items, you may need to hold off removing furniture, electronics, and other high-ticket items because they may need to be split between those set to inherit the estate.

Even if your legal counsel says it’s fine, you should still reach out to your family and close friends of your loved one to ask if there’s anything they want. They may even volunteer to help you sort through things. This can turn the process into something of a memorial gathering, and it may actually be more cathartic than you expected.

Call Junk King for Help

Once you have sorted through things and know what you want to get rid of, it’s time to call the best Katy junk removal experts. The Junk King team will take just about anything as long as it doesn’t contain hazardous materials. This includes furniture, appliances, electronics, mattresses, and much more.

Many people do ask the question of how much does an estate cleanout cost. There’s not a set cost—each job is different, but we do provide free, no-obligation estimates for every client. Simply give us a call or text us to let us know what you need hauled away. For a large job such as an estate, we do often need to do an in-person assessment. When we do, we can often bring the crew and truck with us. This means if you accept the quote, we can go to work right away.

Want to know more or arrange for an estimate? Call us at 1-888-888-JUNK or send us a text to 1-737-888-5865.