When my close friend died in January 2021, she left a three story house in Lawrenceville crammed to…read morethe rafters with a mix of antiques, ordinary household stuff, and junk. Her only relatives are in Arkansas, so my son ended up taking care of the clean up.
She was 80 when she passed and during the last decade, she had increasing mental and emotional problems, and became a hoarder, in addition to never cleaning. My son spent weeks throwing out the worst of the debris, but when we contacted Sue Baumgart at Before You Move the place was still a disaster. My first impulse was an embarrassment to have people see how bad it was, but Sue was quite reassuring and told us she's used to dealing with hoarders and messes.
Sue and her team spent two or three days organizing, cleaning, pricing, and staging the sale. When I saw the photos and video tour on her website, I was absolutely stunned. Of course they couldn't do anything about cracked walls and peeling paint, but they hauled out trash and cleaned up the sale items. Before, I was worried that no one would even want to touch the things because they were covered with years of dust and cat hair.
The video tour and photos made everything look great, which took a miracle, believe me. Before You Move did a wonderful job advertising the sale, and they really knew how to manage pricing and security.
Many of the large antique furniture pieces didn't sell and my son has to dispose of them, but you can't force people to buy stuff. I've read several articles with titles like, "Nobody Wants Your Grandma's Dining Room Set" pointing out that big, bulky, antique furniture is simply not wanted by younger people today who mainly want lighter, airier, minimalist decor. I don't blame Sue because they didn't sell, I'm only adding this for the purpose of keeping expectations reasonable.
Since my son and I aren't the owners of all this stuff the actual contract and financial dealings involved the relatives in Arkansas, but they were very pleased when they saw the set up online.
If you find yourself in a similar situation of liquidating a home's contents, I would recommend Before You Move.