One Year On - A few more thoughts on House Clearances

for Recycle Week

I first posted a version of this article a year ago. Just a couple of months ago, I came to the end of the whole process of clearing out a friend’s flat after her untimely death and thought I would share my updated thoughts for Recycle Week. This is an extended version of the original post, though much of the content remains the same.

The whole process from someone dying to their home being cleared out takes a lot longer than I expected. My friend owned her home, so there was no deadline imposed by a landlord on when the property needed to be vacated. On the contrary, the legal situation requires a property owned by a deceased person to remain empty for at least six months, a sale can’t even be completed until the will has been finalised (a process known as confirmation in Scotland, or granting probate in England and Wales). Given the housing crisis facing us, it would surely be helpful to speed this process up? (though I do understand why all the finances, including properties need to be sorted before an estate is divided up.)

My friend had asked me to be the executor of her will and also left all the contents of her home to me. Legally this meant I could do what I wanted with the items right from the start, which may not always be the case). I put aside all her family heirlooms and family history (photo albums and the like) for her family. But the rest was quite daunting, she had many belongings! I tried to be as thoughtful as I could with passing things on, which meant a fair bit of trekking round town, but it's worth it to be sure that items will reach people who could most gladly make use of them.

So for this year’s Recycle Week (22-28 September); here is a full report on what I did with my friend’s possessions, including updates on tasks I hadn’t completed by the time last year’s post went live:

I donated in-date canned foods and unopened toiletries to the Pennywell Pantry, run by the Community Renewal Trust. The pantry is a well stocked shop, where people in need can buy items at reduced prices.

I donated winter coats to the winter coat outlet at Leith Collective's base in Ocean Terminal. Last year, it redistributed over 7,000 free coats to those in need, which is an impressive figure.

I'm going to take towels to the Edinburgh Cat and Dog Home, who collect towels and blankets for the animals to rest on. UPDATE: The cat and dog home isn’t on a bus route and we don’t have a car, but I took a bag of towels, the others ended up being taken in the final house clearance.

I donated several boxes of hand knitted scarves that my friend had made (knitting helped her arthritis) to Granton Goes Greener, a church based project in North Edinburgh that has several projects including distributing clothes to people in need.

I’m going to donate my friend’s musical instruments to a local musical charity, though I haven’t decided which. UPDATE: On the recommendation of a colleague who also works in adult education for people with mental health problems, I chose the OM Music Sanctuary, a small community project based in Edinburgh, where people experiencing isolation due to mental health or other challenges can get involved in making music.

My friend was a member of the Iona Community, an ecumenical Christian community, so I'm giving her religious books and related items to the community. UPDATE: I did this!

I’ll take her old spectacles to Specsavers Opticians who will recycle them. UPDATE: I did this!

I’ll make sure her old mobile phones, laptop and other devices are recycled or refurbished ethically. UPDATE: I took all her devices to the Eric Liddel Centre in Edinburgh, which has a tech recycling box in the foyer.

Another of my friend’s friends came round to the flat, helped me tidy things up and left with a fair amount of stuff herself. My friend’s downstairs neighbours came round and took a few things. There were items that I took for myself too.

A lot of things will make their way to second hand shops UPDATE: This process continues, but should be over soon (Did I mention that my friend had a lot of stuff?)

Of course there will be a final house clearance, which I'll arrange through a charity. In the UK, the Salvation Army, British Heart Foundation and Age UK all organise house clearances, at a cost of between £400 - £900. You can find out a little more on the Zero Waste website, but to access the service, you're probably best contacting your local branch of the relevant charity. UPDATE: I chose the British Heart Foundation for the final house clearance. I can’t fault the people who carried out the clearance, they were respectful and efficient. However, I think for the most ethical house clearance of all, particularly if you don’t have time to sort through things yourself, it may be better trying House Clearance Scotland, who will sort through things to donate directly to people in need, donate to charity shops, recycle or dispose of ethically. They even claim that they will reuse leftover cleaning products etc.

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The whole process of clearing out my friend's flat (and having helped clear out several homes before, including my father's) has made me think about just how much stuff we all tend to accumulate. I like the idea of Swedish Death Cleaning, whereby you declutter your own life so that your loved ones aren't faced with such a task once you go.

To some extent, I’m quite ruthless. I get rid of books quite happily once I’ve read them, unless I know I’ll read them again (or use them for reference). The problem there is how many second hand books I buy! I go through my wardrobe every year to get rid of things I never wear or that no longer fit. But still, we have an amazing amount of stuff, including a lot of craft supplies, and a fair amount of stuff that we hope one day we can use in some way or things that currently are impossible to recycle, but one day maybe? We hate throwing things away!

If you’re clearing out a house, please check the legal situation in your country! You may need to wait until certain legal processes have been carried out before you can start to clear things out. Please check with a lawyer if in doubt.

Nature Notes

We spent much of the last week in Dumfries and Galloway, in the south west of Scotland, one of our favourite places to holiday! We saw lots of wildlife including Red Kites, which will feature in next week’s post!

What I’ve Been Reading

I loved Literary Gardens by Sandra Lawrence, illustrated by Lucille Clerc and you can read my review here.