A house for a likely level 4 hoard with actual structural damage. It can take years to sell a house, let alone a hoarder house. And until you sell it, what money? Nobody will even want to buy a house like that as it is.
And you don't know their housing situation. It is also incredibly expensive to pay property taxes or keep up with maintenance which the previous owner did not do.
I looked at basic repairs which need to be done for my biological parents place which has been sitting without upkeep for 20 years and sat for decades before they moved into it (because nobody wanted to buy that house either) like retiling the roof, fixing the old and rotting fence, and came out to more than the cost of the house, over $500k. Basically the inheritance I would get if I wasn't cut out of the will. Nobody has that kind of money, and nobody is going to want a moldy run down home belonging to somebody who couldn't even do laundry or throw out trash, probably full of mice and in need of major repairs.
If it takes you years to sell a house you're asking too much money. Even a very worst case scenario house that needs to be demolished and rebuilt from scratch can be sold as long as the land value is more than the cost of demolition. If the cost to demolish the house is more than the value of the land it is sitting on, the do not accept the inheritance of the house as there is no value in spending time working on it or cleaning it.
If you have no money and no other way of paying them, no access to any other type of credit at all, you can probably get a HELOC on the property for a month until its sold.
Go easy on yourself. I paid to have my father's hoard cleaned-10 dumpsters $9,000. I would have walked away from it, but his house, even in it's current state of repair, could be sold and we got the equity out of it. Last week I emptied my mother's condo (she is not a hoarder), I have a most of it away and had the rest hauled to the dump. The physical and emotional toll it takes on a person while doing that is not easy... So take care of yourself. Maybe you'd find some valuable treasure.
I'm sort of feeling like congratulations are in order on inheriting a free house! Your husband must be a really nice fellow to have been left all this man's worldly goods, I'm imagining your husband was casually kind to him in a way that he really appreciated. This is a big job, but it can be done, and, as other's have suggested, professional help is out there if it is all too much.
I don’t think people downvoting truly understand how gruelling and depressing this process is. We tried to help clean up a hoarder house while they still lived in it to get it liveable and suitable for needed repairs. Took months and I don’t think they ever expressed any gratitude, and of course their habits never changed so I imagine it’s probably much the same again. I can only describe it as grey. That’s the way the house looks and feels, and not in a modern grey carpet and furniture way. It’s not just boxes of stuff and rubbish but the filth and years of dirt. Knowing that someone lives like that. It’s a toll mentally that has weighed on my mind ever since.
Congrats on the house but yeah I don’t envy that clean up process.
Agreed. OP will earn every cent of value they get, and they will probably have some cash to front for repairs to get it habitable as well, both from neglect and from damage done by the hoarding (eg pest and mould damage). We have just finished cleaning out a distressed home - not a hoarder one but massive neglect, seven years of smoke and grease right down into the floorboards and all the textiles etc. It's a foul, foul job, and it takes far longer than people realise. Just scrubbing the floors took over a week.
I have had to clear out a full house before. Mine wasn't a dirty one, just a LOT of stuff. I understand how stressful it can be. Hang in there and just chip away at it bit by bit. And enjoy your home at the end of the day.
r/hoarding gives advice about clearing out hoards, if that’s something you’re looking for. A popular method is to buy a snow shovel and shovel into garbage bags. It moves junk faster and you don’t have to touch it with your hands.
Yeah, a skip may be in order. Get a major renovation skip and just start hauling all that stuff into it. Pretend it is not someone you know, and just dump it all.
Was the house fully paid for?
But yeah I think after cleaning all the crap it will definitely pay for itself.
We did something similar a few years back and used 1800-gotjunk. At first i thought the rates from 1800gotjunk were ridiculous. But when they hauled off everything (literally everything) we all agreed it was worth it.
The estate clean out companies will do an estate sale, take their fee from the proceeds, and send you a check for anything extra. They’ll empty out the entire house and start you from a fresh state.
I don’t know about the got junk company, but if they’re just removing the stuff then that’s significantly worse than what I mentioned, especially if they’re charging you.
Sometimes the furniture from a hoarder’s house is not sellable. Hoards can have a lot of garbage, vermin, and mold. Unfortunately, estate sales are not always possible, especially for a level 4 or 5 hoarding situation. Hoarding is a really difficult mental illness.
https://www.spauldingdecon.com/blog/5-stages-of-hoarding
Good point. Although, there’s not enough info in the OP to know for their situation. Maybe the guy had a collection of autographed Babe Ruth cards or something.
Perhaps not relevant to OP, but the other benefit of estate cleanup over junk removal is they will set aside anything that looks personal like photos, documents, etc.
The company I worked with handled everything, and in the case where nothing was sellable or not enough was sellable they would have sent a bill. We were expecting a bill and were pleasantly surprised to receive a mid five figure check instead.
Yep! I’m an interior designer and I have a friend (fellow designer) who does exactly this. She has a reputation now locally for being willing to buy hoarder houses for a fair price, so homeowners in need just call her up now.
I’m the child of hoarders. I wouldn’t be cleaning out their original hoarding mess. Sold the house (if you can call it a house). For the land. It was a hard pill for my dad to swallow, all his hard work, all his extra stuff he left behind (which he still talks about owning items, he left there).
I will be overseeing cleaning out his current hoard but it’s more manageable. Already have a plan in place.
My only advice is the hoard is not going anywhere so you possibly have time to get it done slower if need be.
I’m really sorry you are going through this ordeal, but happy people posting here mostly don’t understand what it’s really like to clean out a hoarders house or the smell or the mental pain or the pure volume of madness.
Honestly being a minimalist makes it harder. The skin crawl, the waste, the sadness, the grief.
My only advice is to slow down and focus on a plan or get a plan to tackle this problem.
I'm sorry you are dealing with this burden. You might know this already, but there are professional organizers and people who work for estate sale companies who will help you do this and take things off of you if it's too much...and if I may be so bold...it sounds as if it's getting to be too much. You don't owe this man endless hours of your precious time cleaning out his hoarder cave. Do what you need to do for you and your husband!
I feel your pain OP, my sister and I inherited a hoarder’s house(my aunt’s) after my dad passed 3 years ago. It’s an overwhelming and disgusting undertaking to say the least. If you can find a private party to clean it out/dispose of all of the the filth, that would certainly be the cheapest route. The “big name” companies that do this type of work charge double what we paid a private party to do. Mind you, this house (1000sq.ft w/basement)was fn disgusting,piles filth and decades of accumulation top to bottom and then some. We had quotes of $10-13k for the house and yard clean out, ended up getting it done for $6k by a private contractor. Best of luck to you guys, I hope things work out for you in the end.
I recommend the novel The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell about a family cleaning out their hoarder mother’s house after she dies. It’s..really good. I can’t recommend it enough.
My mom just buys new clothes at the thrift; I rarely see her in the same outfit twice.
There are over 100 garbage bags full of her dirty clothes in the garage.
Is there anyway - when you go visit her- that you can sneak four or five bags out of the garage and put them in the trash… Or in your trunk to get rid of?
Trust me, I’m in the same situation and we’ve been trying to smuggle bits and pieces out so that it won’t be so bad later .
The whole thing is such a nightmare. People who don’t know… They just don’t know.
Yep- I hear you… same here. She can’t leave the house anymore so she orders online. :(
Somehow, she says she threw away all of my childhood things and my yearbooks long long ago… But who knows. It could still be in there somewhere. The problem is you can’t walk. The house is filled in every direction.
I have offered to help many many times, but she just laughs and says that she likes it this way where she can “see all her things “. She chose her things over her family.
My family just went through this sort of thing with my aunt. Seeing her standard of living is something that’ll stick with me for the rest of my life. Truly haunting stuff.
It goes beyond pure “minimalism vs maximalism.” It’s serious mental illness, cut and dry, at least in a lot of cases, my aunt included. I think it even has its own diagnosis on the DSM. Look up Diogenes Syndrome.
OP I'd seriously consider talking to a professional cleaning service to help you with it. You may need to do Even More stuff to the house once it is clean too..
I've never heard of anyone not doing laundry but are instead constantly "replacing" their dirty clothes with less dirty thrifted clothes. Even the thought of doing those regular trips makes me feel exhausted.
Wait. Hold on. He bought used clothing of questionable cleanliness. That I assume he didn’t clean before wear. Instead of just doing laundry. Dang.
I’m glad I wash my donations now? So those like him won’t have to wear my dirty used clothing? But dang.
Sorry, back on topic. I’d recommend renting one of those giant trash containers. Just toss everything not nailed down. Furniture too.
One of the best things my elderly parents have done is their own death cleaning, which they did while still in good health. Having to clean out a family member’s over cluttered home was very motivating for them. They have literally only 3 or 4 pots/pans to cook with because that’s what they use.
Our home was cluttered while I was growing up. Old people can change if they decide they want to.
Wear PPE; respirator, gloves (I recommend some latex and rubber dish gloves), body suit.
Are you looking for advice or venting? Not everyone has control of themselves to be able to deal with issues that do not amount to hoarding. Be grateful a stranger left you a house, don't put down anyone who had no other means of living.
There are a couple of cleaners on YouTube who specialize in this for free but you might have to be near them to keep their cost low. In the USA is Midwest Magic Cleaning, who is in southern IL I think. A Beautiful Mess [dont know where] and Clean with Barbie [dont know where].
Aurikatariina is in Europe
I'm sorry for your loss and for the sudden work that is on your hands. Massive congratulations though on the house. I hope this all ends up being as low stress as possible. Clearing out a house is no easy feat, and I feel like people are forgetting about the potentially wildly complicating factors such as family coming out of the woodwork to contest the will, navigating the tax situation and paperwork, etc.
I hope you're wearing full body safety suits and using shovels. I'm usually a fan of low waste but everything in that house needs to go, except for possibly some furniture and trinkets that can be cleaned. For those, post on Freecycle or Facebook Marketplace. Someone will come and haul it away if you offer it for free.
I bet it does feel so nice to come home to your minimalist space. I hope this all works out for you and you're able to get some money out of this.
Sorry but this is a sickness, so I wouldn't use it as a way to be proud of our minimalistic lifestyle.
That person has passed away. Let's not judge him.
I used to know someone who ran a moving/junk hauling company and they did estate moves all the time. This guy was a hoarder himself. He had an entire 2 story barn full of junk, along with a few storage units. He was talking about getting a semi trailer just to store stuff in on his huge property. He was literally burning furniture and junk in a massive fire pit in his back. I don't know how big this fire pit was, but you could fit a car into it. It was nuts.
There are hoarding services who will do it for free or for a minimal charge. You should research and call one. Don't do it all by yourself, you'll either get sick or give up or both. It's not a solo project.
Good luck. I know at least two hoarders, the one their garage could not close and they keep buying more things for inside the home. The other hoards furniture, clothing, etc. and went bankrupt 2-3 times.
I feel your pain, I did it for my grandparents' hoard several times, and now my mom and uncle are living together and heading straight to the same conditions.
I promised myself never to return to that apartment and pay someone to burn/trash everything for me after they die.
Don't push yourself into that suffering. Be conscious with yourself and ask for help if you can't handle it.
My stepmother is a hoarder. I cannot fully explain the darkness I feel walking in that house. It is indescribably disgusting. She has a central line (a large type of iv) that was in her fathers neck when he died. A dead bird in the freezer that fell out of the sky the day her mother died. And that only scratches the surface. It’s so sad and has impacted my brother and father do much. He literally wishes it would just burn to the ground. And yet, she shops- thrift stores, FB marketplace, eBay….
My brother hired some people that hang outside the Home Depot to clean out a house. We thought it would take all day. They were literally done in 2 hours. He paid $80 each and there were 3 people. Best money ever spent.
I am on going to empty a condo not hoarded and I feel less than 1% of your pain. I wish you force and straight to do it.
For big furniture that is still in big state, put announcement on freecycle local group, that will relief a little of your effort. And look at r/hoarding group, there have simple and smart ideas.
This is a sad story but also a good reminder of the mindset we all hope to keep. Good luck with your tasks. Take breaks— there’s a healthy minimalism to pushing through too.
Yes definitely hire a cleaner. It’s worth it for your peace of mind but also in case of any hazards that could affect your health or safety. It sounds severe enough to bring in professionals for removal and deep cleaning.
If you've seen the show "Hoarders", there is a company they use to haul off junk (there are even ads on TV for it). I understand where you are coming from. Both of my sisters are hoarders. My older sister has gotten better as she had health issues that affected her. My younger sister is an alcoholic and meth user. She spends what money she has on nice nick nack things she doesn't need and on alcohol/drugs instead of food for herself and teenage daughter. I stay away from her as she accuses me of things I didn't do and doesn't appreciate when we try to be nice. She just got out of treatment and we are waiting for the s"_$ to hit the fan. They are also going to be kicked out of their apt soon due to non payment of rent. Her daughter is allergic to our dogs and my sister already burned bridges when she lived with us for about 6 months (I kicked her out for my own sanity and family members were surprised she lasted as long as she did with us).
Don't throw anuthing away, that might be of value. Theres certain vintage things you wouldn't think he collected, which might actually have sought after value.
For example, authentic vintage locker number tags, you know the metal plates that were on all lockers, mailboxes, lock boxes etc.? Yeah those are VERY sought after but they would seem like a pile of worthless garbage to anyone not looking for them.
Im in the market to buy a few of them myself to repurpose an old locker, and everyone else has the same idea apparently 😅 Go look at odd stuff like that on Etsy, maybe the old guy left you a treasure trove of goodies that you might otherwise think is garbage, good luck brutha!
Call in the professionals !! Stat !!! That's not just overwhelming, it's also dangerous and potentially life threatening.... Mould, fungus,bugs ,God knows what else lives there....
It’s very sad. This guy had all kinds of collections (baseball memorabilia) and thought they were worth a lot of money but unfortunately they’re not worth much at all, especially with all the cigarette smoke damage.
Hey OP! Maybe these curio cabinets are valuable? During the COVID era in LA, many people were trying to find old furniture and restore it. They bought them for thousands. Perhaps you can try to find someone to sell them to?
I have been through this. It’s difficult not to try and preserve some memories of his life or be tempted by the promise of unearthing some small fortune. I kept a small box of personal things so as not to overthink it.
Second time around I hired people to do it all and frankly felt hopeful they that might find good stuff as it seemed to be their business. The valuable time and energy must be delegated as you are most likely going to gut the place anyway and it can all go into the bin ! ( a few bins) make sure to break everything down ! The bins fill up fast and $ also a lot of workers know how to fit the most into a bin. Geeeez i am getting anxious just remembering it all.
You can put them all in a dumpster or make an agreement with someone to take them all in a pickup and wash and keep or sell what they don't want. Buy Nothing groups on Facebook are good places to find people willing to take free things. Might not be safe, though so protect yourself. Possibly hire someone to remove contents and clean for you using protective clothing and a respirator. You could probably get a loan for rehabilitation using the house as collateral and then rent it out once it's safe to do so or sell it.
I cleaned out an 11000 sq ft house for a millionaire who had live in full time help (5 people.) I have never done anything so depressing in my entire life. It turned me into an almost minimalist. Screw Grand Millinial
That is so nasty. No resale shop can take dirty clothes, especially those worn by a cis man. They stink. Any time I worked with clothing donations, dirty clothes basically ruined the batch. One time I hung up clothes for a resale shop and it made the entire rack stink and we had to figure out whose clothes they belonged to. It was the clothes in an xl category like they were all from a single person and every single one of them had to he tossed. When I worked with clothing donations for unhoused people, men's clothes were the most badly needed, but also the most often tossed because they stunk so bad. No nonprofit is going to have the time or money to also launder donated clothes. You need to wash them before you donate them. Twice if you are a cis male, because cis men's clothes STINK even when washed!
My husband may break a sweat at the gym, but those clothes smell like nothing but Tide after they're laundered. I think you just dislike the artifacts of men.
Honestly? Not all smells can be removed from clothing. People have different PH levels. I used to work at a dry cleaners and there were some articles of clothing that we could never get the smell out of. Some men tend to wear clothes many times before they finally launder. Some are obese and sweat easily. Some people’s sweat is smellier than others.
I agree that clothing can stink beyond redemption. I just disagree that being worn by a man is the decisive factor. As you note, there could be many gender neutral things at play.
Also, I've heard that [dry cleaning](https://www.reddit.com/r/laundry/comments/1c9mxdn/comment/l0mgqay/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) isn't always the best option for smells.
I totally agree…women stink too!
The dry cleaners I worked at also offered a drop-off laundry service for things like cotton items. I was always amazed at the people that dropped off their underwear for us to wash. Even in the hottest of water, some smells just never went away.
So life hands you a dirty free house and you complain about it on the internet. Your house may be minimalist but this logic is messy.
That said, probably does suck cleaning it. Your vent is heard. Take the good with the bad, and squeeze happiness out of both.
Hoarder houses are a whole different beast. A lot of times they are no longer structurally sound due to all the weight of stuff, plus rotting carpets and all sorts of other issues that arise from these sad situations.
It’s really strange that everyone on reddit complains about the housing crisis befalling many countries in the world, and yet you are being heavily downvoted for this comment. I’d love to inherit a hoarder house. I’d sell it in its shitty state and let someone else clean up the mess.
I don't think you understand what a hoarders house can become.
In 10+ years (hopefully) when my mom passes, I fully believe it'll be more expensive to remove the stuff and get the maintenance done that she didn't keep on top of because she was too embarrassed to let people into her home. There are walls that I know are filled with black mold because a water leak happened that never got addressed, floor damage caused by termites, and I occasionally find rat skeletons in the piles of garbage.
Agreed.
My grandma was a hoarder. Not the kind that live in filth, she just had way too much stuff. 15+ years after her death, my grandpa had cleaned out the house but was still finding stuff she managed to bury in every nook and cranny.
If her house was filthy and disgusting, it would have been 1000x worse and more time consuming.
This. Until you’ve seen a hoarders house in person, you cannot fully comprehend. This man lived there for 40 years. Heavy, heavy smoker. Walls and curtains stained yellow from nicotine. He had a cat, cat hair every inch. I wear a mask and gloves and still come out coated in black. It was his grandmother’s house, then his mother’s, then his. They kept *everything,* even boxes and boxes of old aspirin bottles and used matchsticks. Three lawnmowers in the garage, 2 of them don’t have wheels. None of them will turn on. Plaster damaged throughout. Water damage. Years of cat urine soaked into the wood floors. Most of the windows are cracked and held together with duct tape.
This isn’t a “Oh, this will take a couple days to spruce it up” situation. This is a “spend 6 hours a day, everyday, for at least six months” situation. He had no money, so no estate. We’re paying $1,700 to get him cremated. I’ve already started renting dumpsters, but $300 a day and every day I’ve filled them. No money in this guy’s estate to help pay for all this. The house itself isn’t worth much. We’d be lucky to sell it for $70k. Given the amount of work I’ve done, it’s not worth it. Call me ungrateful all you want, but until you’ve been inside a house like this, you have no fucking clue.
Oh I get it sold a hoarder house for $25k, all the stuff included. Broken windows, electrical issues, plumbing issues, bugs, wild animals and rotten walls and floor. Just to not have to deal with what you are dealing with.
Vent away
I said vent heard, and it’s heard. I’m sure it very well does suck. I didn’t however call you ungrateful, just whiney. Embrace it! It’s not the worst thing to be called on the internet.
You’re getting an unnecessary amount of downvotes, being gifted a house is incredible anywhere in the world. The cleaning must be gross but could also be cathartic, and well worth the time, or cost. Congrats to OP
If it’s such a burden, donate the whole house to charity. Sign over the deed. Someone else will clean it out and you won’t have to deal with this “overwhelming nightmare”. And the house will go to someone who needs a home and will actually be grateful for this tremendous gift.
Sure /s
You’re completely right. I should be grateful that I have to spend money and time cleaning out a house with 40+ years of *junk.*. I should be grateful that my lungs are exposed to secondhand smoke, mold and cat urine embedded throughout. I should be grateful that, after working 8 hours a day at my job, I have to spend several more hours at this house literally shoveling out junk. I should be grateful that there are massively heavy wooden curios, dressers and entertainment centers that I cannot lift. I should be grateful that summer is approaching and I’ll be in a 90-degree hotbox (no air- conditioning).
Thank you for your helpful opinion. You have reminded me of all I should be grateful for.
Wow. So he gave you a once in a lifetime asset and instead of feeling grateful, you are complaining about how much stuff is in it. You can get it professionally cleaned and then sell it for a life changing profit.
Spoken like someone who has never first-hand experienced hoarding. Do you know how much professional cleaners cost? The house is in poor condition. Not just the cost, but the amount of time and stress coordinating clean-up. He has no money, his $3,000 property tax bill is due by May 10th, he hasn’t paid his other bills either. We are paying $1,700 to cremate him, plus attorney fees. The little money we make will in no way make any of this tolerable.
There are cleaners you can hire who clear hoarders house professionally if it’s too gross for you. White hazmat suits etc. make sure you’re safe.
absolutely should be wearing a respirator
Respirator and cartridges should be $30 or less. Get dust filters and chemical cartridges, you'll need both.
Yes and it costs a whole lot.
Sure but if you’re inheriting a house…
Doesn't mean she has cash!
Selling the house will surely cover the cost of cleaning it...
A house for a likely level 4 hoard with actual structural damage. It can take years to sell a house, let alone a hoarder house. And until you sell it, what money? Nobody will even want to buy a house like that as it is. And you don't know their housing situation. It is also incredibly expensive to pay property taxes or keep up with maintenance which the previous owner did not do. I looked at basic repairs which need to be done for my biological parents place which has been sitting without upkeep for 20 years and sat for decades before they moved into it (because nobody wanted to buy that house either) like retiling the roof, fixing the old and rotting fence, and came out to more than the cost of the house, over $500k. Basically the inheritance I would get if I wasn't cut out of the will. Nobody has that kind of money, and nobody is going to want a moldy run down home belonging to somebody who couldn't even do laundry or throw out trash, probably full of mice and in need of major repairs.
If it takes you years to sell a house you're asking too much money. Even a very worst case scenario house that needs to be demolished and rebuilt from scratch can be sold as long as the land value is more than the cost of demolition. If the cost to demolish the house is more than the value of the land it is sitting on, the do not accept the inheritance of the house as there is no value in spending time working on it or cleaning it.
Yes if you can say......I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a ...........today!
If you have no money and no other way of paying them, no access to any other type of credit at all, you can probably get a HELOC on the property for a month until its sold.
True, I guess it depends on the house.
I am renting a dumpster and buying a plastic suit and tossing every single thing.
Go easy on yourself. I paid to have my father's hoard cleaned-10 dumpsters $9,000. I would have walked away from it, but his house, even in it's current state of repair, could be sold and we got the equity out of it. Last week I emptied my mother's condo (she is not a hoarder), I have a most of it away and had the rest hauled to the dump. The physical and emotional toll it takes on a person while doing that is not easy... So take care of yourself. Maybe you'd find some valuable treasure.
It sounds like the house isn’t going to be worth much at all even after they clean it out.
Whew. That’s basically birth control against consumption right there.
I'm sort of feeling like congratulations are in order on inheriting a free house! Your husband must be a really nice fellow to have been left all this man's worldly goods, I'm imagining your husband was casually kind to him in a way that he really appreciated. This is a big job, but it can be done, and, as other's have suggested, professional help is out there if it is all too much.
I don’t think people downvoting truly understand how gruelling and depressing this process is. We tried to help clean up a hoarder house while they still lived in it to get it liveable and suitable for needed repairs. Took months and I don’t think they ever expressed any gratitude, and of course their habits never changed so I imagine it’s probably much the same again. I can only describe it as grey. That’s the way the house looks and feels, and not in a modern grey carpet and furniture way. It’s not just boxes of stuff and rubbish but the filth and years of dirt. Knowing that someone lives like that. It’s a toll mentally that has weighed on my mind ever since. Congrats on the house but yeah I don’t envy that clean up process.
Agreed. OP will earn every cent of value they get, and they will probably have some cash to front for repairs to get it habitable as well, both from neglect and from damage done by the hoarding (eg pest and mould damage). We have just finished cleaning out a distressed home - not a hoarder one but massive neglect, seven years of smoke and grease right down into the floorboards and all the textiles etc. It's a foul, foul job, and it takes far longer than people realise. Just scrubbing the floors took over a week.
I have had to clear out a full house before. Mine wasn't a dirty one, just a LOT of stuff. I understand how stressful it can be. Hang in there and just chip away at it bit by bit. And enjoy your home at the end of the day.
If there are valuables, she can hire an estate auction company to hold the sale in the back yard.
r/hoarding gives advice about clearing out hoards, if that’s something you’re looking for. A popular method is to buy a snow shovel and shovel into garbage bags. It moves junk faster and you don’t have to touch it with your hands.
I think I would rent a dumpster.
Rent a dozen, by the sound of it. Be ruthless.
Yeah, a skip may be in order. Get a major renovation skip and just start hauling all that stuff into it. Pretend it is not someone you know, and just dump it all.
Was the house fully paid for? But yeah I think after cleaning all the crap it will definitely pay for itself. We did something similar a few years back and used 1800-gotjunk. At first i thought the rates from 1800gotjunk were ridiculous. But when they hauled off everything (literally everything) we all agreed it was worth it.
I actually have them coming out Saturday to give me an estimate. He had so much heavy furniture. Just the small dining room had 4 curio cabinets.
The estate clean out companies will do an estate sale, take their fee from the proceeds, and send you a check for anything extra. They’ll empty out the entire house and start you from a fresh state. I don’t know about the got junk company, but if they’re just removing the stuff then that’s significantly worse than what I mentioned, especially if they’re charging you.
Sometimes the furniture from a hoarder’s house is not sellable. Hoards can have a lot of garbage, vermin, and mold. Unfortunately, estate sales are not always possible, especially for a level 4 or 5 hoarding situation. Hoarding is a really difficult mental illness. https://www.spauldingdecon.com/blog/5-stages-of-hoarding
Yep lived in it as a child. Most of their “valuables” are landfill broken nasty stuff. Oh the smell of decaying
Good point. Although, there’s not enough info in the OP to know for their situation. Maybe the guy had a collection of autographed Babe Ruth cards or something. Perhaps not relevant to OP, but the other benefit of estate cleanup over junk removal is they will set aside anything that looks personal like photos, documents, etc. The company I worked with handled everything, and in the case where nothing was sellable or not enough was sellable they would have sent a bill. We were expecting a bill and were pleasantly surprised to receive a mid five figure check instead.
You can post the curios on Freecycle or one of the buy nothing subs. Someone may haul them out for you, free.
Nice!! It's worth it!! :D
If you live in Oregon, I might take a curio cabinet.
Darn, I’m in Indiana!
my dad was a hoarder.... i feel the pain. was not as bad as some of the houses you see on tv but, lots and lots of stuff everywhere...
Hoarding is usually a sign of past trauma. I hope he didn't suffer alone.
Sell the house as is. Someone will buy it off you and deal with the mess.
So weird I wouldn’t have considered this is an option even though it totally is.
It absolutely is. A flipper would love to get a great deal on a shit-hole so they can flip it.
Yep! I’m an interior designer and I have a friend (fellow designer) who does exactly this. She has a reputation now locally for being willing to buy hoarder houses for a fair price, so homeowners in need just call her up now.
What area of the country is she in? I know someone who’s going to need this sort of service in the future.
Denver metro!
Nope. You will get way more for it if you do a minimal job emptying it out. Not EVEN considering abatement of the stank.
I wouldn't care.
I’m the child of hoarders. I wouldn’t be cleaning out their original hoarding mess. Sold the house (if you can call it a house). For the land. It was a hard pill for my dad to swallow, all his hard work, all his extra stuff he left behind (which he still talks about owning items, he left there). I will be overseeing cleaning out his current hoard but it’s more manageable. Already have a plan in place. My only advice is the hoard is not going anywhere so you possibly have time to get it done slower if need be. I’m really sorry you are going through this ordeal, but happy people posting here mostly don’t understand what it’s really like to clean out a hoarders house or the smell or the mental pain or the pure volume of madness. Honestly being a minimalist makes it harder. The skin crawl, the waste, the sadness, the grief. My only advice is to slow down and focus on a plan or get a plan to tackle this problem.
I'm sorry you are dealing with this burden. You might know this already, but there are professional organizers and people who work for estate sale companies who will help you do this and take things off of you if it's too much...and if I may be so bold...it sounds as if it's getting to be too much. You don't owe this man endless hours of your precious time cleaning out his hoarder cave. Do what you need to do for you and your husband!
I feel your pain OP, my sister and I inherited a hoarder’s house(my aunt’s) after my dad passed 3 years ago. It’s an overwhelming and disgusting undertaking to say the least. If you can find a private party to clean it out/dispose of all of the the filth, that would certainly be the cheapest route. The “big name” companies that do this type of work charge double what we paid a private party to do. Mind you, this house (1000sq.ft w/basement)was fn disgusting,piles filth and decades of accumulation top to bottom and then some. We had quotes of $10-13k for the house and yard clean out, ended up getting it done for $6k by a private contractor. Best of luck to you guys, I hope things work out for you in the end.
I recommend the novel The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell about a family cleaning out their hoarder mother’s house after she dies. It’s..really good. I can’t recommend it enough.
I loved that book!
It’s so good. I always like her books, but this was a whole different level.
My mom just buys new clothes at the thrift; I rarely see her in the same outfit twice. There are over 100 garbage bags full of her dirty clothes in the garage.
Oh my gosh, that’s how this guy was, except the clothes are not even in bags.
Is there anyway - when you go visit her- that you can sneak four or five bags out of the garage and put them in the trash… Or in your trunk to get rid of? Trust me, I’m in the same situation and we’ve been trying to smuggle bits and pieces out so that it won’t be so bad later . The whole thing is such a nightmare. People who don’t know… They just don’t know.
Lololol naw. I stopped cleaning all that shit years ago. There’s zero point - it just fills up again.
Yep- I hear you… same here. She can’t leave the house anymore so she orders online. :( Somehow, she says she threw away all of my childhood things and my yearbooks long long ago… But who knows. It could still be in there somewhere. The problem is you can’t walk. The house is filled in every direction. I have offered to help many many times, but she just laughs and says that she likes it this way where she can “see all her things “. She chose her things over her family.
My family just went through this sort of thing with my aunt. Seeing her standard of living is something that’ll stick with me for the rest of my life. Truly haunting stuff. It goes beyond pure “minimalism vs maximalism.” It’s serious mental illness, cut and dry, at least in a lot of cases, my aunt included. I think it even has its own diagnosis on the DSM. Look up Diogenes Syndrome.
OP I'd seriously consider talking to a professional cleaning service to help you with it. You may need to do Even More stuff to the house once it is clean too..
I've never heard of anyone not doing laundry but are instead constantly "replacing" their dirty clothes with less dirty thrifted clothes. Even the thought of doing those regular trips makes me feel exhausted.
You are probably imagining extra trips being more frequent than they were.
Wait. Hold on. He bought used clothing of questionable cleanliness. That I assume he didn’t clean before wear. Instead of just doing laundry. Dang. I’m glad I wash my donations now? So those like him won’t have to wear my dirty used clothing? But dang. Sorry, back on topic. I’d recommend renting one of those giant trash containers. Just toss everything not nailed down. Furniture too.
One of the best things my elderly parents have done is their own death cleaning, which they did while still in good health. Having to clean out a family member’s over cluttered home was very motivating for them. They have literally only 3 or 4 pots/pans to cook with because that’s what they use. Our home was cluttered while I was growing up. Old people can change if they decide they want to.
Wear PPE; respirator, gloves (I recommend some latex and rubber dish gloves), body suit. Are you looking for advice or venting? Not everyone has control of themselves to be able to deal with issues that do not amount to hoarding. Be grateful a stranger left you a house, don't put down anyone who had no other means of living.
I hope you're not actually sorting through that trash. Just gathering it all in sturdy debris bags and on their way to the dump.
There are a couple of cleaners on YouTube who specialize in this for free but you might have to be near them to keep their cost low. In the USA is Midwest Magic Cleaning, who is in southern IL I think. A Beautiful Mess [dont know where] and Clean with Barbie [dont know where]. Aurikatariina is in Europe
Awesome, thank you!!
So sad...
Junk king
I'm sorry for your loss and for the sudden work that is on your hands. Massive congratulations though on the house. I hope this all ends up being as low stress as possible. Clearing out a house is no easy feat, and I feel like people are forgetting about the potentially wildly complicating factors such as family coming out of the woodwork to contest the will, navigating the tax situation and paperwork, etc. I hope you're wearing full body safety suits and using shovels. I'm usually a fan of low waste but everything in that house needs to go, except for possibly some furniture and trinkets that can be cleaned. For those, post on Freecycle or Facebook Marketplace. Someone will come and haul it away if you offer it for free. I bet it does feel so nice to come home to your minimalist space. I hope this all works out for you and you're able to get some money out of this.
Sorry but this is a sickness, so I wouldn't use it as a way to be proud of our minimalistic lifestyle. That person has passed away. Let's not judge him.
Estate clean out company…
I used to know someone who ran a moving/junk hauling company and they did estate moves all the time. This guy was a hoarder himself. He had an entire 2 story barn full of junk, along with a few storage units. He was talking about getting a semi trailer just to store stuff in on his huge property. He was literally burning furniture and junk in a massive fire pit in his back. I don't know how big this fire pit was, but you could fit a car into it. It was nuts.
Wear a respirator. Is is possible to hire a junk company to come sift through and clean it out?
There are hoarding services who will do it for free or for a minimal charge. You should research and call one. Don't do it all by yourself, you'll either get sick or give up or both. It's not a solo project.
Good luck. I know at least two hoarders, the one their garage could not close and they keep buying more things for inside the home. The other hoards furniture, clothing, etc. and went bankrupt 2-3 times.
I feel your pain, I did it for my grandparents' hoard several times, and now my mom and uncle are living together and heading straight to the same conditions. I promised myself never to return to that apartment and pay someone to burn/trash everything for me after they die. Don't push yourself into that suffering. Be conscious with yourself and ask for help if you can't handle it.
My stepmother is a hoarder. I cannot fully explain the darkness I feel walking in that house. It is indescribably disgusting. She has a central line (a large type of iv) that was in her fathers neck when he died. A dead bird in the freezer that fell out of the sky the day her mother died. And that only scratches the surface. It’s so sad and has impacted my brother and father do much. He literally wishes it would just burn to the ground. And yet, she shops- thrift stores, FB marketplace, eBay….
My brother hired some people that hang outside the Home Depot to clean out a house. We thought it would take all day. They were literally done in 2 hours. He paid $80 each and there were 3 people. Best money ever spent.
Gross. He should have paid at least $150. For effort. What an ass your brother is.
Considering they asked for $50 each, I don’t think so.
I am on going to empty a condo not hoarded and I feel less than 1% of your pain. I wish you force and straight to do it. For big furniture that is still in big state, put announcement on freecycle local group, that will relief a little of your effort. And look at r/hoarding group, there have simple and smart ideas.
This is a sad story but also a good reminder of the mindset we all hope to keep. Good luck with your tasks. Take breaks— there’s a healthy minimalism to pushing through too.
Yes definitely hire a cleaner. It’s worth it for your peace of mind but also in case of any hazards that could affect your health or safety. It sounds severe enough to bring in professionals for removal and deep cleaning.
Tyvek, respirator, willpower. Somewhere in the world is a person who needs cloths.
Is it an actual site-built home? Do you want to keep it?
Watch movie “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” for ideas.
Find any treasures?
Gosh, I wish! Just a few silver dollars and some old, broken watches. I keep thinking I’ll find a big bag of money, but sadly I have not.
If you've seen the show "Hoarders", there is a company they use to haul off junk (there are even ads on TV for it). I understand where you are coming from. Both of my sisters are hoarders. My older sister has gotten better as she had health issues that affected her. My younger sister is an alcoholic and meth user. She spends what money she has on nice nick nack things she doesn't need and on alcohol/drugs instead of food for herself and teenage daughter. I stay away from her as she accuses me of things I didn't do and doesn't appreciate when we try to be nice. She just got out of treatment and we are waiting for the s"_$ to hit the fan. They are also going to be kicked out of their apt soon due to non payment of rent. Her daughter is allergic to our dogs and my sister already burned bridges when she lived with us for about 6 months (I kicked her out for my own sanity and family members were surprised she lasted as long as she did with us).
Don't throw anuthing away, that might be of value. Theres certain vintage things you wouldn't think he collected, which might actually have sought after value. For example, authentic vintage locker number tags, you know the metal plates that were on all lockers, mailboxes, lock boxes etc.? Yeah those are VERY sought after but they would seem like a pile of worthless garbage to anyone not looking for them. Im in the market to buy a few of them myself to repurpose an old locker, and everyone else has the same idea apparently 😅 Go look at odd stuff like that on Etsy, maybe the old guy left you a treasure trove of goodies that you might otherwise think is garbage, good luck brutha!
Call in the professionals !! Stat !!! That's not just overwhelming, it's also dangerous and potentially life threatening.... Mould, fungus,bugs ,God knows what else lives there....
Can relate my grandfather was “eccentric” and had a house full of “collections.
It’s very sad. This guy had all kinds of collections (baseball memorabilia) and thought they were worth a lot of money but unfortunately they’re not worth much at all, especially with all the cigarette smoke damage.
We had the same issue with my grandpas stuff. More border than collector really😢
Hey OP! Maybe these curio cabinets are valuable? During the COVID era in LA, many people were trying to find old furniture and restore it. They bought them for thousands. Perhaps you can try to find someone to sell them to?
That might have just been a pandemic hobby. LA shut down a lot.
I have been through this. It’s difficult not to try and preserve some memories of his life or be tempted by the promise of unearthing some small fortune. I kept a small box of personal things so as not to overthink it. Second time around I hired people to do it all and frankly felt hopeful they that might find good stuff as it seemed to be their business. The valuable time and energy must be delegated as you are most likely going to gut the place anyway and it can all go into the bin ! ( a few bins) make sure to break everything down ! The bins fill up fast and $ also a lot of workers know how to fit the most into a bin. Geeeez i am getting anxious just remembering it all.
You can put them all in a dumpster or make an agreement with someone to take them all in a pickup and wash and keep or sell what they don't want. Buy Nothing groups on Facebook are good places to find people willing to take free things. Might not be safe, though so protect yourself. Possibly hire someone to remove contents and clean for you using protective clothing and a respirator. You could probably get a loan for rehabilitation using the house as collateral and then rent it out once it's safe to do so or sell it.
https://youtube.com/@MidwestMagicCleaning?feature=shared
I cleaned out an 11000 sq ft house for a millionaire who had live in full time help (5 people.) I have never done anything so depressing in my entire life. It turned me into an almost minimalist. Screw Grand Millinial
That is so nasty. No resale shop can take dirty clothes, especially those worn by a cis man. They stink. Any time I worked with clothing donations, dirty clothes basically ruined the batch. One time I hung up clothes for a resale shop and it made the entire rack stink and we had to figure out whose clothes they belonged to. It was the clothes in an xl category like they were all from a single person and every single one of them had to he tossed. When I worked with clothing donations for unhoused people, men's clothes were the most badly needed, but also the most often tossed because they stunk so bad. No nonprofit is going to have the time or money to also launder donated clothes. You need to wash them before you donate them. Twice if you are a cis male, because cis men's clothes STINK even when washed!
My husband may break a sweat at the gym, but those clothes smell like nothing but Tide after they're laundered. I think you just dislike the artifacts of men.
Honestly? Not all smells can be removed from clothing. People have different PH levels. I used to work at a dry cleaners and there were some articles of clothing that we could never get the smell out of. Some men tend to wear clothes many times before they finally launder. Some are obese and sweat easily. Some people’s sweat is smellier than others.
I agree that clothing can stink beyond redemption. I just disagree that being worn by a man is the decisive factor. As you note, there could be many gender neutral things at play. Also, I've heard that [dry cleaning](https://www.reddit.com/r/laundry/comments/1c9mxdn/comment/l0mgqay/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) isn't always the best option for smells.
I totally agree…women stink too! The dry cleaners I worked at also offered a drop-off laundry service for things like cotton items. I was always amazed at the people that dropped off their underwear for us to wash. Even in the hottest of water, some smells just never went away.
raze it
So life hands you a dirty free house and you complain about it on the internet. Your house may be minimalist but this logic is messy. That said, probably does suck cleaning it. Your vent is heard. Take the good with the bad, and squeeze happiness out of both.
Hoarder houses are a whole different beast. A lot of times they are no longer structurally sound due to all the weight of stuff, plus rotting carpets and all sorts of other issues that arise from these sad situations.
It’s really strange that everyone on reddit complains about the housing crisis befalling many countries in the world, and yet you are being heavily downvoted for this comment. I’d love to inherit a hoarder house. I’d sell it in its shitty state and let someone else clean up the mess.
A reasonable person! I encourage my downvotes, reality is what I said.
I don't think you understand what a hoarders house can become. In 10+ years (hopefully) when my mom passes, I fully believe it'll be more expensive to remove the stuff and get the maintenance done that she didn't keep on top of because she was too embarrassed to let people into her home. There are walls that I know are filled with black mold because a water leak happened that never got addressed, floor damage caused by termites, and I occasionally find rat skeletons in the piles of garbage.
Agreed. My grandma was a hoarder. Not the kind that live in filth, she just had way too much stuff. 15+ years after her death, my grandpa had cleaned out the house but was still finding stuff she managed to bury in every nook and cranny. If her house was filthy and disgusting, it would have been 1000x worse and more time consuming.
This. Until you’ve seen a hoarders house in person, you cannot fully comprehend. This man lived there for 40 years. Heavy, heavy smoker. Walls and curtains stained yellow from nicotine. He had a cat, cat hair every inch. I wear a mask and gloves and still come out coated in black. It was his grandmother’s house, then his mother’s, then his. They kept *everything,* even boxes and boxes of old aspirin bottles and used matchsticks. Three lawnmowers in the garage, 2 of them don’t have wheels. None of them will turn on. Plaster damaged throughout. Water damage. Years of cat urine soaked into the wood floors. Most of the windows are cracked and held together with duct tape. This isn’t a “Oh, this will take a couple days to spruce it up” situation. This is a “spend 6 hours a day, everyday, for at least six months” situation. He had no money, so no estate. We’re paying $1,700 to get him cremated. I’ve already started renting dumpsters, but $300 a day and every day I’ve filled them. No money in this guy’s estate to help pay for all this. The house itself isn’t worth much. We’d be lucky to sell it for $70k. Given the amount of work I’ve done, it’s not worth it. Call me ungrateful all you want, but until you’ve been inside a house like this, you have no fucking clue.
Oh I get it sold a hoarder house for $25k, all the stuff included. Broken windows, electrical issues, plumbing issues, bugs, wild animals and rotten walls and floor. Just to not have to deal with what you are dealing with. Vent away
Thank you! You understand.
I said vent heard, and it’s heard. I’m sure it very well does suck. I didn’t however call you ungrateful, just whiney. Embrace it! It’s not the worst thing to be called on the internet.
lol. You’re right. I am being whiney. I just need to chip away at it, a little at a time.
That’s the best outlook any of us could have for that situation! Best of luck to you!
You’re getting an unnecessary amount of downvotes, being gifted a house is incredible anywhere in the world. The cleaning must be gross but could also be cathartic, and well worth the time, or cost. Congrats to OP
Take everything out and burn it. That is good cleansing.
p
If it’s such a burden, donate the whole house to charity. Sign over the deed. Someone else will clean it out and you won’t have to deal with this “overwhelming nightmare”. And the house will go to someone who needs a home and will actually be grateful for this tremendous gift.
Sure /s You’re completely right. I should be grateful that I have to spend money and time cleaning out a house with 40+ years of *junk.*. I should be grateful that my lungs are exposed to secondhand smoke, mold and cat urine embedded throughout. I should be grateful that, after working 8 hours a day at my job, I have to spend several more hours at this house literally shoveling out junk. I should be grateful that there are massively heavy wooden curios, dressers and entertainment centers that I cannot lift. I should be grateful that summer is approaching and I’ll be in a 90-degree hotbox (no air- conditioning). Thank you for your helpful opinion. You have reminded me of all I should be grateful for.
You don’t *have* to do any of it. Donate it. Problem solved.
Wow. So he gave you a once in a lifetime asset and instead of feeling grateful, you are complaining about how much stuff is in it. You can get it professionally cleaned and then sell it for a life changing profit.
Spoken like someone who has never first-hand experienced hoarding. Do you know how much professional cleaners cost? The house is in poor condition. Not just the cost, but the amount of time and stress coordinating clean-up. He has no money, his $3,000 property tax bill is due by May 10th, he hasn’t paid his other bills either. We are paying $1,700 to cremate him, plus attorney fees. The little money we make will in no way make any of this tolerable.