Estate, garage and basement cleanouts

Cleanouts we do

• Estate cleanouts after a family member passes or moves to care
• Garages, sheds and basements that have filled up over the years
• Attics, including tight pull-down stairs
• Rental units between tenants and after evictions
• Pre-sale cleanouts so a house can be listed or staged
• Hoarding situations, handled discreetly

How a cleanout day goes

We walk the space with you first and agree on what stays. Keep piles get marked or moved to one room. Then the crew works room by room, loading as we go, and sweeps out at the end.

For estates, family members often cannot be there for every hour of it. We can work from a list and send photos as rooms are finished.

Pairing a cleanout with a move

A lot of cleanouts happen right before or after a move. We do both, so the same crew can move the furniture that is going to the new place and haul off what is not. One booking, one truck schedule.

Estate cleanout services in Fairfield County

An estate cleanout usually lands on someone who already has too much going on. The person handling it might be an executor, an adult child who lives two states away, or a realtor trying to get a house ready to list. Our estate cleanout services are set up around that. One point of contact, a clear plan and regular updates.

We start with what the family wants kept. Photos, papers, jewelry, tools and anything with a name on it get set aside before the haul starts. If paperwork turns up in drawers or closets, like bank statements, deeds or old tax returns, we box it and leave it for the family instead of throwing it out.

Timing around a closing is the part people worry about most. Give us the closing date or the date the realtor needs photos, and we plan the work back from that. If an appraiser, an estate sale company or family members need to go through the house first, we schedule after them.

• Work from a keep list if the family cannot be there
• Photos of each room when it is finished
• Coordination with the realtor or executor on access and lockbox codes
• Broom-swept rooms so the house is ready to show

Garage cleanout

A garage cleanout is usually the job people have been putting off the longest. Old paint cans, a broken lawn mower, bikes nobody rides, boxes from three moves ago and a workbench covered in stuff. We pull everything out to the driveway, you pick what goes back in, and we load the rest.

Some things in a garage need special handling. We cannot take paint, gasoline, motor oil, pool chemicals or propane tanks. Most towns in Fairfield County hold household hazardous waste days for those, and we can leave them grouped together for you to drop off.

Basement cleanout

A basement cleanout is mostly about stairs and moisture. Everything comes up one narrow flight, often with a turn at the bottom, so we plan the order before we start. Heavy pieces like old furniture, a broken treadmill or a chest freezer go first while the path is clear.

Boxes that have sat on a damp basement floor are often softer than they look and tear when lifted. We bag or re-box them as we go so nothing spills on the stairs. If there is mold on drywall or framing, that is a remediation job and we will tell you so. We remove the contents, not the walls.

Once it is empty, a basement is a good time to check for leaks, look at the water heater and see what the space actually looks like again.

Hoarder cleanup

Hoarder cleanup takes patience and discretion. We park where we are told to, keep the conversation between us and the family, and do not post photos of the home. The person who lives there is often present, and we work at a pace the family agrees to. Sometimes that means one room per visit instead of the whole house in a day.

We go through items carefully because important things turn up in these homes. Cash, mail, keys, medication and documents get set aside rather than tossed.

There are limits to what we do. We are not a biohazard or crime scene cleanup company. If a home has human or animal waste, needles, a death that was not found right away, or heavy mold, a licensed remediation company needs to handle that part first. We can come in after them to remove furniture and belongings.

Foreclosure cleanout and rental turnover

A foreclosure cleanout or a rental turnover has a different feel. Nobody is sorting keepsakes. The goal is an empty, broom-swept unit as quickly as possible so it can be repaired, shown or rented again.

We work with landlords, property managers and agents handling bank-owned homes across Norwalk, Stamford, Bridgeport and the rest of the area. Leftover furniture, mattresses, kitchen trash, appliances the owner does not want back and whatever is in the basement or shed all go. If the unit needs a few small repairs before the next tenant, our handyman service can patch walls, swap fixtures or rehang doors on the same visit.