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Guides 17

• Clearing an estate: the first few days

  What to do before anything is sold, donated or thrown out, and why the order matters more than the speed.

• Where to start when there is too much stuff

  A house full of possessions is not one job, it is a few hundred small decisions. This is the order that keeps you from making them twice.

• Clearing stuff out when you have no truck

  Most of the pain in a cleanout is the trip to the dump. Measure the pile in loads before you rent anything, know what the transfer station wants, and spend the first hour of a rental on the worst stuff.

• Selling used furniture without the runaround

  Photographs, measurements and pickup logistics decide whether furniture sells. The price matters less than most people think.

• What to do with a mattress nobody will take

  Most charities won't take a used mattress and most haulers won't pick one up without a call first. Work through the store, the hauler and the donation desk before it ends up in the alley.

• Sorting a record collection: the fast pass

  Most of a collection is worth very little and a few records are worth a lot. The skill is separating them without listening to all of them.

• Sorting a house full of photographs

  Photographs are the one thing in a house you can't judge by size or weight. Start with the albums, keep the ask pile separate, and write names on the back while somebody can still answer the question.

• Selling used clothing and shoes

  Clothes sell by size, brand and condition, in that order. A good photo of the label saves ten messages.

• Emptying a kitchen before a move

  A kitchen has to be empty before the boxes are packed, and food can't wait. Work the pantry, the spice rack and the drawers first, then decide what's worth selling, then pack the plates so they survive the trip.

• Dividing a parent's belongings with your siblings

  The argument is usually about a chair, not money. Agree on what's already promised, photograph the house before anything moves, and keep the sentimental list separate from the valuable one.

• Identifying china before you sell it

  The backstamp tells you the maker and the pattern. Without it, a set of plates is just a set of plates.

• Sorting tools in a garage or workshop

  Rusty hand tools, dead cordless drills, a bench vise and a half-full can of old paint each leave the garage a different way. Clear the floor first and sort by type before you decide what any of it is worth.

• Before you recycle a computer or phone

  A drive you did not wipe is a copy of your life in somebody else's hands. Deleting files is not wiping.

• Going through a parent's paperwork

  A file cabinet is mostly junk mail and a few documents that are hard to replace. Pull the legal and financial papers first, keep the original order, and don't shred anything until you've seen the whole folder.

• Photographing stuff for sale

  Good photos are not about a good camera. They are about light, framing and photographing the flaws nobody wants to photograph.

• Sorting a bookshelf quickly

  Books are heavy and mostly worthless. A twenty-minute pass per shelf finds the few that are not.

• Sorting a storage unit without paying for it twice

  A storage unit is a monthly bill attached to a pile of decisions you have not made yet. Here is how to empty one deliberately.