How to get rid of your folks' stuff

Spiders, shredding and supplies

Arrange for a shredding service. The cost varies by community, but you can often get a commercial shredding service to come to a home for less than $100, Hall said. Any discarded paperwork with personal financial information, including Social Security and account numbers, should be shredded.

Bomb the place. Attics and basements may be overrun with insects and spiders; if so, Hall recommends setting off bug bombs a week in advance.

Accumulate the necessary supplies. Hall recommends getting:

• Thirty to 50 sturdy boxes.

• A box of 100 heavy-duty trash bags.

• At least six rolls of packing tape.

• Permanent markers for labeling boxes.

• A tool kit with screwdrivers, pliers, a measuring tape and a hammer.

• A hand truck.

• A wheelbarrow.

Those working in the house should wear work clothes and be supplied with:

• Leather and latex gloves.

• Respirators or dust masks.

• Kneepads and back supports.

Also supply plenty of water, soft drinks and snacks along with any meals your crew might need.

Designate a "safe" room and a "donate" room. Items that have been promised to the heirs get moved to the safe room; everything that's going to charity moves to the donate room.

Look for hidden treasures. Hall, who has found diamond jewelry atop attic rafters, money between the pages of books and valuables buried in flour, recommends checking the following:

• Clothing and shoes.

• Drapery hems.

• Canister sets (dump the flour or sugar through a colander).

• Books.

• Ice cube trays.

• Toilet tanks.

• Balls of duct tape.

• Picture frames (between the mats and the pictures).

• Attic rafters.

Take each bag of trash immediately to the curb. You don't want people tripping over bags, and getting the junk out of the house will give you a much-needed sense of progress.

Get your own house in order

Use the experience to simplify your own estate. There's nothing like sorting through someone else's clutter to inspire you to get rid of your own.

In fact, if you have kids, Hall suggests making their life easier by starting to:

• Get rid of the junk. If you haven't used it in the past year, ditch it.

• Give away family heirlooms while you're alive (and can enjoy the reaction).

• Make a list of who gets what when you die.

Hall recommends hiring an appraiser to go through your home and give you approximate fair market values for your better stuff. Also include on the list items that have sentimental value.

If your children are adults, you can circulate this list among them, letting them tell you what items they'd like (with the understanding that asking for something doesn't mean they'll get it).

Then you, the parent, should decide who gets what, using the values the appraiser has given to keep things approximately equal. Don't bother with putting stickers on the items, Hall said, since stickers can fade, fall off or be switched. Print up a new list with this information and give copies to all your kids so there are no surprises.

Will they fuss? Probably. "But they'll get over it," Hall said. But because you've made the tough decisions, she said, "they won't end up hating each other."

Liz Pulliam Weston is the Web's most-read personal-finance writer. She is the author of several books, most recently "Your Credit Score: Your Money & What's at Stake." Weston's award-winning columns appear every Monday and Thursday, exclusively on MSN Money. She also answers reader questions on the Your Money message board.

Updated May 19, 2009

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