Clearing a loved one’s home is hard, and it often has to happen before anyone is ready to decide what to keep. For most families the answer is to split it: store the things you can’t decide about yet and clear what you know is going, so the house is emptied on time and nothing that matters leaves in the van by mistake.
When storing first helps
- You’re waiting for probate, and don’t want to sell or give anything away yet.
- The family hasn’t agreed who has what. A unit keeps everything together, and you can give relatives their own access to it.
- Furniture, jewellery or paintings still need valuing for the estate.
- The house has to be empty by a set date: a sale, the end of a tenancy, or a move into care.
When it’s simpler to clear now
If nobody wants something and it has little resale value, let it go with the clearance, rather than paying to store it and then paying to clear it later. Storing only the keep and undecided piles also means a smaller unit, which costs less.
Sort first, then store and clear
Go through the house once and give everything a label: keep, undecided or to value, sell, donate, or clear. Before anything leaves, check drawers, pockets, books and paperwork for wills, bank letters and cash. Photograph what goes into the unit and keep a simple list for the valuation.
Cash, deeds and share certificates belong with the executor or the solicitor. A few things can’t go into a unit at all, such as food and anything flammable from the shed or garage. Our list of what can’t be stored has the rest.
When you choose a clearance firm, a quick check on GOV.UK confirms it’s a registered waste carrier, and it’s worth asking for a written receipt.
How storage fits around you
If you’re the executor, you can rent a unit for the estate straight away, in your name as executor, without waiting for probate. If a parent is moving into care, their things are still theirs; if you act for them under a lasting power of attorney, call us and we’ll talk through setting the account up. If a tenant has died, their belongings are part of their estate, so store them safely and take advice before anything is cleared; see our guide to storing a tenant’s belongings.
The minimum term is two weeks, and there’s no deposit, so all you pay up front is your first four weeks’ storage (and contents cover, if you take ours). When you’re done, email us your end date: notice is normally 14 days, and we refund any unused days once the unit is empty.
If the last few weeks have been hard, Cruse Bereavement Support’s free helpline is on 0808 808 1677. When you’re ready, call us on 0800 2545585, tell us roughly what’s staying and what’s going, and we’ll help you pick a size. Or get a price online.
Related questions
- Who pays for storage while an estate is being sorted out?
- What should I keep in storage when clearing a parent’s home?
- Clearing an inherited house: a self storage guide for executors
Further reading
- GOV.UK: Applying for probate
- Cruse Bereavement Support: Helpline