In her 2017 book, author Margareta Magnusson introduced the world to The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, a Scandinavian method of organizing focused on decluttering your home while you’re alive to lessen the burden on family when you pass. The book promoted a checklist that included sorting through clothing, removing items occupying the most space, and even removing unnecessary digital files from your computer and mobile devices.
While engaging in Swedish Death Cleaning is a great way to reduce the inventory of items in your home while you’re alive, it doesn’t eliminate the burden of clearing out the remainder of your estate when you pass. That responsibility usually falls on grieving family members, which can be highly stressful for those ill-prepared to deal with such emotional tasks during a time of loss. That’s where Just Junk’s estate cleaning services come in.
“This responsibility comes on suddenly. It’s never a good time for it to happen,” said Jason Biggar, local owner and operator of Just Junk’s Sault Ste. Marie location. “Sometimes you’re dealing with an estate that may be hours away from where you live. You have other things to worry about, whether it involves hospitals or decisions around retirement homes, banking, or making funeral arrangements. My job is to make your life is easy and as stress free as possible.”
According to Biggar, an aging Boomer population has more people considering the need to both reduce their volume of possessions and coordinating plans for estate cleaning after they’re gone.
“It’s really increased in the few years since the pandemic,” said Biggar. “People are living longer and healthier. Their kids are leaving soon, they’re considering a move to a condo or smaller house, and they realize they’ve got 30 years of stuff to get rid of. I’m starting to see more of a trend toward pre-cleaning that is almost equal to the volume of actual estate clean outs, and it’s usually older folks downsizing or considering it.”
The process of estate cleaning can be daunting for any individual tasked with the responsibility, especially in cases where it’s a child or relative of a deceased person who has to figure out what to keep and what to remove.
“Most people have it in their head they have to go through everything,” he said. “I understand that completely. People don’t want to miss anything. They think there are things of value in the boxes and totes sitting under the stairs or in closets. The truth is, I can walk with someone through the house, give them an idea of what we can do, the work involved. Then I get an idea of what they want to keep.”
For people who want to conduct a preliminary clean out of an estate prior to having the Just Junk team come in to finish the job, Biggar suggests there are a couple ways to make the job easier.
“What I tell people is to either have a room cleaned out where you can put things you really want to keep, or you go through the house and put sticky notes on such items. That way our team won’t touch it during the actual clean out. Things like furniture pieces are the main things people keep.”
As part of his company’s estate clean out service, Biggar said Just Junk opens every bag, every box, every closet and every cupboard.
“We remove everything you want removed. We handle it all. We do all the work. We donate items worth donating, we recycle what we can. We can do most houses in a day or a day-and-a-half. It doesn’t take long, and it’s unbelievably stress-free.”
According to Biggar, the hardest part of the estate clean out for most people is making the leap of faith in Just Junk to do the job. However, Biggar said that clients quickly see the value in having a professional company like Just Junk on hand to complete the task.
“It’s learning to get people to trust us to come in and do the work,” he said. “Unfortunately, in this city we find most people are having to come back because it’s their parents’ home and they don’t live there anymore. They may have only a weekend to get it done and that can add stress. Within an hour of watching us work, they realize how much easier it is to let us handle it all. That’s usually when they go to lunch or go shopping and leave us to complete the job.”
Coordinating your estate clean up with Just Junk is easy according to Biggar.
“In any situation, have me come to the house. It doesn’t cost anything, it’s a free estimate, and it takes about 20 minutes. You pick a date that works for you. Or you arrange to have a real estate agent or local family member let me in and we can walk through the house over the phone. It’s a preliminary discussion. We estimate the cost. There are no hidden fees.”
For more information on decluttering or full estate clean out services, contact Just Junk online.