The result of a recent Orion’s Attic Alexandria home cleanout and downsizing project? A client decided to let us sell a pile of jewelry she hardly ever wore. The jewelry sale by itself generated $2,000 more than she paid for our service. This means we paid her to clear her entire home, including trash removal!
If you’re not using and loving something in your house, let it go
Better yet, our work enabled our client to quickly put her house on the market and make the real money — selling the house. Too many people make the mistake of delaying the sale of a house because they try to squeeze every dollar out of furniture, household items and collectibles that have little value today. Or because they struggle to let go of their stuff. She was downsizing — moving to a smaller home — and she wanted to release as much as possible.
Our advice to dealing with the burden of “stuff” is always simple: If you’re not currently wearing it, using it, or displaying it in a way you can enjoy, let it go.
Our Alexandria home cleanout and downsizing client took the strategic, emotionally sound approach from day one. She recognized her home would sell for north of $1.5 million, and there was no point in risking the pitfalls that come with estate sales. She also knew better than to take yet more risks by selling her finer things on Facebook Marketplace. Even if we sold nothing for her, our cost to clear her entire home including transporting donations to charities and hauling away the trash would have come to 0.33 percent of the homes value. Yes — just one-third of one percent!
Selling “junk” jewelry and costume jewelry adds up fast
Many people have owned their jewelry for so long that they don’t realize how much value is sitting in jewelry boxes and drawers of what they often dismiss as “junk jewelry.” It’s more politely called costume jewelry — but those piles often have fine jewelry in them.
Steve Gouterman at Paradigm Experts is our trusted jewelry and precious metals dealer.
“I don’t wear this stuff anymore so I want to go ahead and sell it,” our client told us. She kept the few pieces she did wear regularly. We promptly brought in our friends at Paradigm Experts to sort through her stash. A gold ring here, gold earrings there, and a few other other gold and sterling silver jewelry pieces later, she got a check for more than $7,500! Even she was surprised by the total.
We also took a few collectibles including some Washington Capitals’ signed hockey sticks. That generated more money.
Alexandria home cleanout and downsizing project in short?
Our client made strong decisions, let go of a lot of her treasures, sold her house for big bucks, and moved into her new house — free of the burden of clutter.
Contact us today about your downsizing project!Â
Orion’s Attic is a full-service estate liquidation, downsizing and home cleanout company based in Silver Spring, Maryland. We also buy antiques and collectibles. We serve the greater Washington, D.C./Maryland/Northern Virginia region. Our service area includes Montgomery County (Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Gaithersburg, Germantown, Olney, Potomac, Rockville, Silver Spring, Wheaton, Takoma Park, etc.), Frederick County, Howard County (Columbia, Ellicott City), Prince George’s County (College Park, Greenbelt, Hyattsville) plus DC and Northern Virginia.
Learn more about liquidating estates in our Estate Liquidation and Downsizing Guide.
