Clearing out my mum's house - advice??

[Tensmumym]

My sister and I have just started the daunting process of clearing out my mum's place with a view to renting it out or selling it to help pay for care home fees. Is it worth having a car boot sale to try to get a bit of money or is it best to clear as quickly as possible by giving most things away as we probably wouldn't raise much anyway? We've got the usual things ladies in their 80s like - nice decanters, vases, stainless steel bottle holder plus kids' stuff we could sell. Is it best to get a house clearance company in? Thanks.

[PigletJohn]

gifts for family and friends first

then ebay

then freegle.

then tip

for family and friends, make a note of what they want before you start distributing. There are certain to be people who would always like "as a keepsake" whatever is nicest or most valuable. See who else wants it. You may have to say "because of the care fees, we're going to have to sell that, but you're welcome to bid"

[Reasontobelieve]

I sympathise as I was in a similar position last year. It took me 5 years before I was ready to sell the family home afternoon parents died. I started off thinking that I could sell off some of the items, but found that they were not worth very much.

We did one car boot sail and having never done one before, was shocked to find that the 'customers' wanted to haggle the prices down to virtually nothing. In the end, I got a clearance company to take away most of the stuff, especially the furniture. They did this in a morning and worked with great sensitivity.

I took anything else that was saleable to the local charity shops and as I had signed up for Giftaid eventually got a letter confirming how much money they had raised. It was not a huge amount, given the number of bags that we handed in. On the other hand, every little helps and I would much rather give it to a deserving cause than virtually give them away at a car boot!

[Tensmumym]

Thanks very much for your replies.