Leftover Bulk Items After an Estate Sale? Call Junk.com

The Estate Sale is Over, Now What?

The junk removal experts at Junk.com who perform estate cleanouts offer advice on what to do with leftover items after an estate sale.

An estate sale, sometimes called an estate liquidation, is the sale or auction of a property’s entire inventory. Estate sales are typically held in the event of a death, but they can also happen because of a divorce settlement, a move to assisted living, or a foreclosure. Like garage or yard sales, they are held on residential property, but an estate sale involves everything on the property whereas a garage or yard sale is just the occupant’s castoffs.

Whether you are a professional estate liquidator or someone who has taken on the estate cleanout of a deceased loved one, you might come to the end of your estate sale with a significant problem: Leftover items.

Since the idea of an estate sale is that everything must go, leftover items are often an unwelcome burden. Get rid of the unwanted and unclaimed items with one of Junk.com’s suggested tips.

How to Sell a Much as Possible During the Estate Sale

Prior to the estate sale, find and claim anything of significant sentimental value or any important documents like wills and trusts, power of attorney, tax documents, and property records.

Then, as you prepare for the sale, try a few of these tips to make sure you sell as much as possible during the sale itself. 

• Hire Professional Estate Liquidators: While you may make more pocket money going the do-it-yourself route, a reputable estate liquidator can save you significant time and energy while working to maximize your profits. Estate sale professionals typically take a 30 to 40 percent commission of the sales, but if you need the estate cleaned out quickly with minimal headache, getting a pro on your team is the way to go. 

• Advertise Your Sale on a Variety of Channels: Beyond sticking an estate sale sign at a few key corners in your neighborhood, you can also advertise your estate sale through EstateSales.net, EstateSales.org,  or EstateSale.com as well on local social media groups. If there are items that would be of interest to a certain group of people, such as tools for hobby woodworkers or a large collection of vintage clothing in good condition, you should look for local interest groups that will welcome advertising for your sale. 

• Set a Fair Price for Items: As you work your way through categorizing the items put up for sale, you should get a professional appraisal of anything that might have significant value like fine jewelry and antiques. 

• Stage Items in an Attractive Fashion: A little tender care can go a long way in making your estate sale items shine. While you may not have time to properly wash all the vintage clothing or polish every piece of silverware, you should do your best to present your estate inventory so that items get to shine. 

• Slash Prices as the Sale Progresses: Once things are getting closer to the end of your sale, you should start slashing prices or be willing to accept lower offers. This gets items snatched up by the bargain hunters and out of your hair forever. The only exception to this rule would be if an item has been appraised as highly valuable. You should set a fair market value price for that item and refuse to accept lowball offers. 

If you follow these tips for your estate sale, you can sell as much as possible during the sale itself and be left with fewer unwanted items at the end of your sale. 

What You Can Do With Leftover Stuff After an Estate Sale 

Now that the sale is over, what do you do with all the remaining items? You should choose the options that make the most sense for the value of the item and what you’re willing to do in terms of effort, time, and energy to get the item gone. 

If you have hired estate liquidators, your contract might dictate what happens to the estate sale leftovers. A reputable estate sale professional will go over what your options are for the leftovers before you enter into an agreement. One of the options could be that unsold items are returned to you, or the estate sale professional could arrange for donation or disposal of unsold goods. Make sure you ask the estate liquidators about this as you vet them.

Here are a few options for how to handle the estate sale leftovers. 

• Put Items into Storage: If you need a little extra time to consider what to do with an item, you can rent storage space to keep the item. This gets the item out of house so that the house can be sold, renovated, remodeled, rented out, or ready for demolition.

• Sell Items on Consignment: You can make a little extra money for items in good condition by taking them to a local consignment shop. Some stores will offer you cash on the spot or store credit. This option works best for name-brand items that did not sell at fair market value during the estate sale. 

• List Items Online: If finding the top dollar amount you can get for an item is most important to you, then you can likely find the best value for the item by widening your pool of buyers. The best way to do this is to list the item for sale online on a site like Ebay, OfferUp, Craigslist, or Etsy for handcrafted, antique, or vintage items. 

• Donate Items to Charity: Items in good, functional condition can be donated to local charities to help a family or organization in need. Some national charities like Salvation Army and Habitat for Humanity’s Restore will perform pick-ups of bulky items for free if you are in their service area. This is not a good option for items that are broken or in poor condition.

• Get a Property Cleanout from a Junk Removal Company: Sometimes the items that are left did not sell for good reason. Whether that’s broken furniture, dysfunctional appliances, outdated electronics, a smelly old mattress, or any other boxes of assorted bulk trash, you need a way to dispose of these leftovers that’s not going to keep you up at night. Call a junk removal company that specializes in estate cleanouts, like Junk.com, and let the junk haulers handle all the sorting. Junk.com prioritizes donation and recycling, and any leftover garage is then responsibly disposed of.

After the estate sale is over, making a plan for all the leftovers enables you to wash your hands of the estate forever. Keep whatever treasured memories you find in the estate close to your heart, but don’t let the leftover clutter overwhelm you.

Call Junk.com to Get Rid of the Junk Fast

Get fast and affordable junk removal on your terms when you call Junk.com. Our team can handle full property cleanouts and estate cleanouts that will leave the house broom-clean once the estate sale is over. Get that unwanted junk out of your life by using our online booking tool or calling (844) 771-6830 to reach a same-day junk removal team in your area.