Cleaning out a hoarder house: any helpful tips?

[BigBlueHen53]

Hang in there, guys! You're doing great!

 

[TheChickenGirl16]

Honestly, I think it sounds fun. I wish I wasn’t so far from AZ….

 

[WingItRanch]

It can definitely be fun. I just started on the house on the property I bought yesterday. There were some cool finds! Cookbooks from the 70s, an old wooden stock of a .22 rifle, a tin chest painted with Nuremberg in Christmas.

The guy even saved newspapers about the history of our little town and even our street. I'm keeping those and compiling them.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Lol, be careful you don't become a hoarder ... the local library might could use those newspapers, and maybe even store them electronically.

 

[EmmaDonovan]

We didn't find anything too exciting this time. There were a lot of women's clothes from Land's End that looked like they'd never been worn, and some really nice linens including a gorgeous queen size blue comforter and several towel sets.

We found a large flattish square box that was unopened and thought maybe it was a pizza plate but it turned out to be one of those pop up privacy tents.

In one corner of the hall was a bait-less mouse trap, still set, hadn't been sprung, looked like it had been there for years.

A big, heavy unopened Amazon box had a brand new retro Frigidaire bar fridge inside, that was pretty neat.

There was also a set of walkie talkies new in box, a collection of stuffed animals still in their packaging (all bunnies), a hygrometer, several dog leashes and harnesses that still had name tags on them - clearly from someone's beloved pets which made me a little sad, and some nice purses including a black Calvin Klein tote with a $250 price tag. My friend took that home with her.

 

[WingItRanch]

Lol, be careful you don't become a hoarder ... the local library might could use those newspapers, and maybe even store them electronically.

Haha no risk of that happening since I can't stand clutter but I'm turning that house into a guest house styled to look like a hunting lodge so I'm going to frame some of those newspapers and use them as decore.

I also found an old wood burning stove in the barn. I'm going to *attempt* to restore it because there's already a perfect place with proper ventilation piping for it in the house!

 

[EmmaDonovan]

Haha no risk of that happening since I can't stand clutter but I'm turning that house into a guest house styled to look like a hunting lodge so I'm going to frame some of those newspapers and use them as decore.

I also found an old wood burning stove in the barn. I'm going to *attempt* to restore it because there's already a perfect place with proper ventilation piping for it in the house!

That sounds beautiful!

 

[EmmaDonovan]

We returned to the house yesterday but instead of attacking the hallway again, we went to work on the huge piles of papers in the kitchen. Lots and lots of junk mail and catalogs but also financial and medical information so we are going through it piece by piece. We didn't uncover any long-lost family treasure other than one uncashed check for $25. The piles must have been building for a long time, I found some election mailers from 2014!

She brought a shredder and a case of Waterloo sparkling water, and to keep things from getting too tedious we watched What Women Want and a bunch of Keeping Up Appearances episodes (rest in peace, Patricia Routledge). We actually had a pretty good time.

 

[EmmaDonovan]

Took a break over Thanksgiving but we're still working on the house.

We cleaned out the kitchen pantry which was basically just throwing out a lot of old food. We found mice droppings on the floor at the back of the pantry, although we didn't see any evidence that mice had been in any of the food so those droppings might be old. She is calling an exterminator anyway. We haven't seen any evidence of mice anywhere else, yet.

Curiously, the pantry also had some Chinese porcelain stored up on a top shelf. There was a lidded vase and also a table lamp. She kept the vase and gave me the lamp. It is very pretty!

We started clearing some of the kitchen counters. Found an old 3x5 card box with hand-written recipes in it, an unopened box of cake decorating supplies, several tea balls of different sizes that looked new, a toaster oven that was buried under everything and we didn't even know it was there, rolls of Scotch tape, an old boom box (still works!), several nice boxed Cross pens, and an expensive mini flashlight.

We also started on another one of hall closets. It has lots of books, some paperback and some hardbacks, also some card and board games, and some framed artwork that wasn't on a wall for whatever reason.

Steady as she goes!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Tip: be careful the things she's been hoarding don't become the seeds for your hoard.