Apartment cleanout/donations

Submitted by That_Golf9029 t3_yfkugj in newjersey

Hello, we are moving my grandmother to a nursing home and cleaning out her apartment. Aside from her clothes, a few sentimental heirlooms, and photo albums, most of the apartment isn't worth keeping. Does anyone know of companies that will come and clear out the rest of the junk and either trash or resell (they can have the profit, we just don't want to deal with it). My parents/uncles are older as well, we just can't do it ourselves. In Hudson County area.

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6Emptybottles t1_iu3zz1q wrote

I'm sorry to hear about your situation. Myself/and friends have had to do this several times recently. We did the work ourselves having Greendrop or Veterans Charity schedule a pick up. I would suggest if your grandmother is not mentally alert. Go through her clothing and furniture. Our relative had hidden cash for emergency we think. They were of modest means but we found a substantial amount they didn't remember. A friend had to fix a leak at his grandfathers and there were rolls of cash in the basement pipe area. His parents had no idea the cash was there. Good luck on helping your parents and grandmother its not easy.

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tashabunn t1_iu4l0jn wrote

I agree with this!! Hidden cash is something we found all over a relative’s house as well.

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SearchContinues t1_iu4nzi5 wrote

Yeah, my grandfather hid a $20 in the 20th page of several magazines and books. Like a few hundred dollars worth. Grandma put a false bottom in her nightstand drawer. WWII survivors know how to hide stuff.

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Newnjgirl t1_iu4794y wrote

Is it nice-ish stuff that you just don't want or have a need for, or is it junk that no one would want?

If the former, then an estate sale might be an option (or they might be able to point you to the someone who runs a thrift/antiques shop that can help with a clean out at no cost.) We do a lot of antiquing at estate sales, and not all of the "hosts" have houses full of swanky art and furniture. Especially if you don't care about getting any profits yourself, this may be an easy option, because you don't have to necessarily price stuff and organize it like at a yard sale. Sometimes you'll see a sale listed as a "diggers paradise", which basically means anything left in the house is fair game. A list of local estate sale companies can be found here: https://www.estatesales.net/companies/NJ/Northern-New-Jersey

If it's total junk that no one would want, then a paid clean out service is probably your best bet. You can look on Craigslist for "eviction clean outs" and find local people who do it, which is usually cheaper than 1-800-got-junk.

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JustSomeGuy_56 t1_iu48ec8 wrote

I went through this with my mother last year. I called everyone I could think of - Salvation Army, Goodwill etc. None were interested or available. I finally called 1-800-GOT-JUNK and paid them $700

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That_Golf9029 OP t1_iu4ijpd wrote

Thanks for this. When I looked at Got Junk it seemed like they would take specific things (you point to it, we take it), not just empty the whole apartment. Like, we don’t want to sort through and pack the kitchen drawers and shelves, we just want them to take it all. Was that your experience? If so, that may be the way for us to go and worth the money for the convenience.

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JustSomeGuy_56 t1_iu4le1d wrote

They showed up. I said "take everything". They looked around and quoted a price and took everything. The only exception was a couple of partially full bottles of Windex, laundry detergent etc (they don't take "chemicals") which we put in the trash.

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MajorScore t1_iu4um95 wrote

You don’t have to literally point at everything, you can tell him to just clear the place out. We used Got Junk for this exact purpose with great success. We took them to each room and were like “everything in here must go” then took them to the next room and so on.

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BCNJ09 t1_iu4is7c wrote

Back when I left upstate New York to move back to Jersey, I donated my remaining furniture to Habitat for Humanity, where they resell it at their ReStore locations. I've been to a few since then and think it's a great place to get good quality furniture and other home odds and ends. They came to pick everything up even, didn't have to do anything.

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BF_2 t1_iu40m0l wrote

You don't say where you are.

Near me there's at least one fellow who cleans out places the resells what he can at a flea market. I have no idea how far he will travel, or whether he charges. You might drop by local flea markets and look for guys selling miscellaneous goods, especially when they have trailers with signs advertising such services.

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brickxbrickxbrick t1_iu53gwg wrote

Great tip. And if you're near the Meadowlands, there is a flea market every Saturday in the Metlife Stadium parking lot

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mortparv t1_iu4odxx wrote

Try giving Habitat for Humanity a call! I believe there's one in Jersey City

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MerryMermaid t1_iu5zpyy wrote

Perhaps go to craigslist and give all away for free to whoever wants and will pick up.

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There is a free section on craigslist.

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I did this with my grandma's stuff.

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Also freecycle and trashnothing.

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gulers t1_iu3vdi3 wrote

I think your best bet is the craigslist. I don’t think any organization would come to specific address to pick up something. But you can always reach out to the local charities, maybe they know someone who would take the furnitures.

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adoryable12 t1_iu4mjpv wrote

Junkluggers. We did a cleanout of our garage and they were great to work with. They will also talk through the logistics - for example, we can’t have trucks parked on our street, so they figured it out. The guys who showed up were nice and professional.

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