Your loved ones will be forever grateful if you indulge in death cleaning before you die. This means they don’t have to go through the rigors of cleaning your home and deciding which item is valuable and which is not. Cleaning after a death can be a herculean task hence the reason why they hire a death scene cleanup service. Family members need not be burdened with the cleaning task. Many experts including the police will recommend a death scene cleanup service for tidying up a crime scene following the death of a loved one.
Death cleaning is becoming a trend amongst middle-aged and elderly people. There are many ways to do a death cleaning in a stress-free manner. These include:
Paper Trail
One way to do a death cleaning is by disposing of items that you are considered useless. This includes paperwork that you do not need. Having irrelevant paperwork stored in your home is tantamount to being a paper hoarder. You don’t need to keep several copies of a document or letter. Keep the original copy of a relevant document and one extra copy if need be and discard the remainder.
What if you want to keep these documents and letters for your loved ones as a reminder or reference? In that case, you can set aside two boxes. One will contain discarded items and the other will hold valuable documents. The former container will consist of personal letters which can be disposed of after you are gone and the latter will consist of relevant documents like car papers, proof of homeowners insurance, and deeds, among others. Make sure the containers are properly labeled.
All paperwork you do not need should be discarded. Uncertain about the relevance of a particular paperwork? Contact your attorney before deciding on the next line of action.
Clothes
Discard all the clothes that are no longer trendy, unfit to wear, or dislike. Make sure that the ones left in the wardrobe are worth it. There are many things you can do with your old clothes. You can donate to a charity organization, gifts to family members, or give them to your grandkids to play dress-up with. Alternatively, donate them to a thrift shop closest to you. No matter the condition, get rid of your old clothes during death cleanup.
The same can be said of jewelry. One of the good things about jewelry is that you can sell and make a great fortune off it. Get it appraised by a jewelry expert. The appraisal report will give you an idea of whether or not it’s worth selling. If otherwise, gift it to your loved one or still keep them.
Death Cleaning for Someone Else
Doing a death cleaning is pretty much an easy thing to do but this can’t be the case when doing the same for another person, for instance, your aged parent or grandparent. You don’t have the slightest idea of where and when to start. It is however important that you get the elderly partially involved when doing a death cleaning in their home. They are in the right position to decide which item stays and which one goes.
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