and how they are run. I do know you have to give a certain percentage, but I would think they more than likely know the value of items like Persian rugs and other antiques.

Maybe even contact a local antique shop with a good reputation. IE one that won't screw you over.

Maybe look online for pieces similar to what you Dad has to get a rough idea of their value.

Don't know if the seller pays anything.

(Most are auctioneers primarily but can do all of it. If you happen to be in Southern New England or Metro NYC...I can recommend someone. I have no financial connection to them, I just know they do good work. Edit: I know one in S. MD/Metro DC too but I don't know if they're still doing it...they may have retired.)

They generally take a good chunk to cover the cost of picking through it all, assessing value, hauling away the garbage; but they also generally get way more for valuable items like the rug because they know what it is actually worth, who would be potential buyers and how to best go about maximizing value. (Sometimes it's auction, sometimes it's consignment, sometimes it's private sale, etc.)

What may not be important to you may be important to others in your fathers life. It helped my heal after my father died to speak to people I was not close to but were friends of my father. I learned things about him I did not know. It's a tough time and I wish you well through this process, it's not an easy thing to do.

Ask a nearby DUer to help with a sale. There very well may be items that are valuable.

We had a choice of three but only one was available as soon as we needed one.

This one was a thief and a liar, he sold things he was told not to and switched out some of my parents things with leftovers from prior sales.

We don't mind their having their 30% cut or whatever it was, that's a lot of work, but at least be honest about it.

Bastard.

Sorry to hear about your loss, I lost mom and dad both last year.

I hope it works out for you.

accidentally get rid of a valuable item. You never know, there are some quirky things that seem like junk that might be going for a lot of money on the Internet. As an example, I recently decided to look up the worth of a plastic toy that had been a cereal box order from my childhood, circa 1970 ... I got $200 for it on Ebay!

Good luck, and condolences on your father's death.

In my grandfather's case, his house (which was my great grandparents') is on a small farm with several barns on the property. We moved things into the barns and have a renter in the house. The house was never cleaned out after my great grandparents passed, so there was over 100 years of stuff (Depression era people so they didn't throw away much) in there. It's a super rural and (economically) depressed area.

First we offered anything to any family member who wanted it (offered at the funeral).

Second, he belonged to a club which went to shows around the country to buy and sell what he collected. So we let the club sell his collection and we used the $$ to cover bills from the estate.

Third, we listed the heavy equipment in the local classifieds (snowblowers, etc) and sold it for what they were worth.

Not sure what local area you're in, but contact some thrift stores in the area (the ones not owned by charity tend to be people like the Storage Wars type guys who continually buy and sell used goods--- I have a friend who does that). My friend's thrift store isn't the Goodwill type store where people bring used clothes and they sell it. He acquires his goods through estates and storage locker auctions (ie Storage Wars). PM me if you want more tips.

Especially if you're thinking of moving some of the stuff to your place, moving company may have ideas. They did when I liquidated my husband's apartment.

The moving company referred me to a 'junk' place that took stuff I didn't want that they could sell or contribute. Happened a year ago this coming week, so 'moving day' was 2 days, 'junk' day and actual moving day. My daughters and I wanted some stuff, and some is in storage for a daughter.

Good luck.

Yes, there is such a forum! And you will find there people who do this for a living.

I echo the caution about disposing of things willy nilly. A person not in the trade can't possibly know what has value. And many things do have surprising value.

Example: I once listed a horse racing program from the 1930s on eBay. It sold for $300.

At auctions, everything sells - even stuff that doesn't appear to have any value at all.

Very sorry for your loss.

We used auctioneers on my folks home, after retrieving what we considered family items we wished to keep.

Please be very careful about estate sales folks - all I interviewed wanted a lot of $,$$$ up front and then 50% of the sales. With their phoney "bless you for your loss" while examining the Waterford crystal just make me want to puke.
Find a trusted friend and see if they can help you find anything of significant value: books, artwork, rugs, china/crystal, etc. and then if you can't host a sale yourself, I'd donate everything. We used DAV and another local charity and they took everything that didn't sell; by donating, you can gain a nice tax break next year if you can catalogue and identify everything you donate.
PM me if you'd like - I'm happy to go over what we did earlier this year. It was incredibly difficult but my siblings and I are happy the way we handled things. I wish you peace and strength for the decisions you have to make.

.....I would be interested in hearing from anyone who needs to dispose of family member's collection of such items as post cards, sheet music, old photos, paper items prior to 1950s. If I buy it from you, I'll donate 10% of profit I might make to DU.

Assistance League they can do an Estate Sale for you. Not sure how the $ is divided but that's one of the things they do to fund their charitable work..

executor, I just closed on the sale of her house last week.

So it took me over a year to go through her house. Do you have a time limit that you need to accomplish this by? Are you the only heir?

Yard sales suck. For me the effort prepping for it was not worth the return and the aggravation.

if the house is paid for and the taxes up to date, take a little time to go through things. You might be surprised what you have after 59 years.

I'm sure my kids will just toss out everything I think/thought was valuable and saved or take 3 cents on the dollar for it.