Feel Estate: Take the Pain Out of Decluttering Your Parents' House

There would be few tasks in life more daunting than clearing out a parent's home.

Whether they’ve passed or gone into care, disposing of their possessions is a momentous, and often heartbreaking, challenge.

It’s an intensely emotional job that also bears a heavy responsibility. Your parents’ things are imbued not just with love and memories but often material worth too. For the untrained eye though, determining the difference between sentimental value and market value can be very hard.

At times like this, you need to get Ruthless.

Recently, I helped a family clear out their parents’ apartment. It didn’t take me long to realise that interspersed with the standard furniture and homeware items was a semi-precious art collection that my client knew nothing about.

With my fine arts degree and commercial art background I was able to immediately recognise its value and advise my client on how to get the best return for it.

Collectors pay good money for Ephemera, antique letters and postcards

Selling fine art and collectibles is a bit of an involved process but well worth the time and effort. Chucking everything on Gumtree and hoping for the best will not get good results.

Ascertaining the true worth of an artwork requires expertise and experience, and, in this case, sheer endurance.

Knowing that I’d have to be very thorough, I went through every piece of paperwork with a fine-tooth comb. Eventually, amongst some ancient Telstra bills, I uncovered a 10-year-old insurance valuation for the collection. This kind of documentation is easy to overlook but it’s essential to establishing a work’s provenance and approximate worth.

Next, I contacted the auction houses, sorted out the sale of the artworks, and negotiated the commission down from 20 per cent to 6 per cent.

End result: an overwhelming chore was smoothly dispatched with a single hour long on-site client meeting and follow-up emails. Easy ... when you get Ruthless and leave the hard work to me.

My unique skill set includes:

●      Commercial art background

●      Fine arts degree

●      Professional understanding of auction houses and who to use for the best result

●      Expertise in craft: Sewing, needlepoint, fabric, etc...

●      Paperwork mitigation: what to keep, what to chuck

●      First-hand experience. My mother is in a nursing home. I’ve been there, I’ve done that, and I am very aware that family friction can be tricky

●      Relationships with removalists who are affordable and careful

●      I know what to do with everything: Eyeglasses, medicines & medical equipment, X-rays, clothes, brown furniture, kitchen items

●      Confidential, sensitive and discreet — what happens in the clutter, stays in the clutter!

If you want to achieve the best outcome with the least amount of fuss, get Ruthless!