Executor's checklist for clearing a parent's home
Do it in this order: secure the house and gather the paperwork, then stop — throw nothing away. Confirm with the estate's attorney what your authority is and whether anything has to be valued or accounted for before it moves. Let the family take what they are taking, and write down who took what. Only then have the contents valued, choose between a sale, an auction and a buyout, clear the remainder, and get the property ready to list.
Almost every expensive mistake at this stage comes from one of two things, and they pull against each other: throwing away something that had value, or paying to store and move things that had none. Doing it in this order avoids both, because the valuation happens after the family has taken what it wants and before anything reaches a skip.
You do not need to know what anything is worth to start. The walkthrough is free and carries no obligation to sell through us.
The order
- Secure the property. Change or account for every key, check that the doors and windows lock, and keep the utilities on — a house being cleared in the dark with no water is far harder to work in.
- Find the paperwork before it is boxed. Deeds, vehicle titles, insurance policies, bank and brokerage statements, safe-deposit keys, service records. Paperwork is the one category that is genuinely irreplaceable, and it is usually in a drawer nobody thought to check.
- Throw nothing away yet. Not the garage, not the basement, not the boxes marked junk.
- Ask the estate's attorney what your authority is and what has to be valued or recorded before it moves. That answer comes from the estate's own lawyer and the county, not from a liquidator, and it changes what you are allowed to do next.
- Let the heirs take what they are taking — and write down who took what, at the time. This is the step families skip and the one that causes the arguments.
- Have the contents valued. A walkthrough tells you what is there, what is worth selling, and which of the three routes fits.
- Choose the route: an on-site sale, an auction, or an outright buyout of the contents.
- Clear the remainder, so the house is empty and broom-clean.
- Get the property listing-ready if it is being sold.
What to look for before anything is moved
Not because these are the valuable things, but because they are the ones that get lost between the house and the skip.
- Paperwork of any kind, and anything with a serial number or a title
- Anything in a safe, a lockbox, a filing cabinet, or taped underneath a drawer
- Military uniforms, medals, discharge papers and service memorabilia
- Jewelry, including costume jewelry, and loose stones in unmarked boxes
- Photographs, letters and family papers — no value to a buyer and irreplaceable to the family
Where the legal questions stop being ours
Whether the estate needs a formal valuation, what the register of wills requires, what an executor may sell and when — those are the estate attorney's answers and the county's, and they vary by estate. We can tell you what the contents are worth and clear the house; we cannot tell you what your filings require, and would not guess at it.