parcelatoEstate clearance: a weekend plan for a house full of things
Adult children fly in for a weekend and face forty years of possessions. The temptation is to start with the skip. The regret, every time, is what went into it. This plan reverses the order: capture first, decide second, clear third. It fits in a weekend and leaves a record the family can trust.
Before the weekend
- Agree who is coming and who decides. If an heir cannot come, they take part through the record, with the same photos and the same vote.
- Book nothing yet. No skip, no clearance company, no charity collection. They come on Sunday afternoon, after the decisions.
- Bring boxes, labels, a phone with space, and the papers checklist. You will find documents in drawers; have somewhere to put them.
- Tell the neighbours. They know things about the house that you do not, and they notice who comes and goes.
Saturday morning: capture everything
Do not move anything. Walk every room, cupboard and garage with a phone. One wide photo per room from the door, then one of each thing anyone might want or that might be worth something. Give each a name and a condition. Open drawers and photograph the contents; papers and jewellery hide there. Put every document you find in one box, unsorted. By lunch you have a record of the house as it was, with dates. Nothing can go missing from a photograph.
Saturday afternoon: the papers and the valuables
Sort the document box into four piles: the house (deed, mortgage, tax, insurance), the person (ID, will, pensions, bank), the things (receipts, warranties, valuations) and the rest. Mark what is missing. Then gather the valuables in one place: jewellery, watches, silver, art, anything with a name on it. Photograph them again, closer. Decide now which few justify a professional valuation; everything else gets a range from the family and the internet. Lock the valuables away or take them with you; an empty house with known valuables is a risk.
Sunday morning: decide, item by item
With the list closed, each heir goes through it, in the house or from home, and says what they want. For each thing the outcome is one of five: keep, sell, donate, discard or get it valued. Uncontested items are done. For contested ones, use the method the family agreed, a vote, turns or a draw, and record the result with the date. Record the parent's known wishes against the items they concern before anyone chooses. Our guide on dividing a parent's belongings has the four fair methods.
Sunday afternoon: clear, with receipts
Now the skip, the clearance company and the charity van. Items marked keep leave with their new owners or go into labelled storage. Items marked sell go to the dealer, the auction house or the online listing, with the price recorded when it comes in. Donations get a receipt where the charity gives one. Discards go. Keep a log of what left the house and how. The sale prices are part of the estate, and together they are the best evidence of its value the family will ever have.
The money side of a clearance
Clearances cost: the skip, the company, the fuel, the storage, the valuation. Someone pays, usually the heir who organised it, from a personal account. Log every cost with who paid; it is repaid from the estate. Clearance companies sometimes offer to take everything for a flat fee and keep what they can sell. That can be fair, but only after the family has taken what it wants and recorded what was there, because once the van leaves there is no record.
Checklist
A weekend is enough if nothing is thrown away before it is photographed.
Where families fall out, and how to avoid it
Clearance weekends produce the same four arguments. All are avoided by capturing before clearing.
Capture before clearing. Papers and photographs go into the document box on Saturday morning, not into a pile on Sunday.
Decide sell versus keep before any dealer comes, and record the price for anything sold. Flat-fee clearances only after the family has chosen.
The cost log and the record of who was there show the work. Make the heirs who could not come take part through the record, so it is shared.
The Saturday-morning photographs answer this in seconds. Without them, nobody can.
How this differs by country
No legal requirement to inventory a home's contents for most estates, but the executor is responsible for them and the sale proceeds belong to the estate. Donation receipts can matter for tax.
The contents are part of the estate listed in the deed of acceptance and division; a household allowance (ajuar doméstico) is often valued as a percentage of the estate for inheritance tax, so the list and the photos matter.
The succession inventory normally includes the contents. Sale proceeds before the succession is complete should be recorded and declared to avoid later disputes among heirs.
Questions families ask
Can we clear the house before probate?
You can usually sort and secure, but selling valuable items before you have authority can cause problems. Record everything and ask the lawyer or notary about sales.
Should we hire a clearance company?
For the volume, yes. For the decisions, no. Capture and decide first, then let them take what the family does not want.
How do we include a sibling who cannot travel?
Through the record: the same photos, the same list, a vote on the same day. Distance should not cost them a say.
What do we do with a parent's papers?
Keep them for the estate: deed, tax, bank, pensions, will. Shred only what is clearly useless, and only after the executor has looked.
Does Parcelato sell the things?
No. Parcelato never sells on your behalf or holds money. It records what was there, what was decided, and what each thing sold for.
Parcelato keeps the record: who uploaded what, who decided, and when. For the law in your state or country, take the record to a lawyer or notary. It makes their hour shorter.
Related guides
Sources
- Applying for probate — GOV.UK
- Impuesto sobre Sucesiones, modelo 650: instructions — Agencia Tributaria (Spain)
- FAQs — National Association of Senior & Specialty Move Managers
Last reviewed 11 October 2026. Written and reviewed by the Parcelato team. We update guides when rules or our product change. Questions or corrections: info@parcelato.com.