What to Set Aside Before a Junk Removal Crew Arrives

Junk removal looks simple on paper: point at the pile and watch it leave. The trouble is that a pile is rarely only junk. Mixed into the boxes in the garage and the drawers in the spare room are the things you'd be heartbroken to lose, or at least annoyed to replace. An hour of setting aside beforehand protects all of it. Here's what to look for, and how to do it without turning the day before into a second job.

Papers come first

Paper hides in every pile. Before anything is hauled, go through bags and boxes of mail, folders and loose envelopes for the documents that are hard to replace. Think birth and marriage certificates, car titles, deeds, tax returns, insurance policies, retirement and bank statements, wills, military discharge papers and the card that holds a Social Security number. If you're clearing a relative's home, look inside books, coat pockets and kitchen drawers, where people tuck important things for safekeeping.

Don't try to sort every piece of mail on the spot. Pull the obviously important items, put the rest of a questionable stack into one bin labeled 'check later,' and keep that bin with you. Sorting a single bin is a calm weekend project. Sorting an entire room under a deadline is how things get missed.

Photos, keepsakes and the small things that matter

Photos turn up in shoeboxes, crumbling albums and bags of loose prints. Gather them all in one place, even if the people in them aren't labeled. Add film negatives, slides and old videotapes. Families often want those five years from now, even when nobody knew it today.

The same goes for handwritten recipes, letters, medals, school projects, jewelry and the odd tool that belonged to a grandfather. If you can't decide, a rule of thumb helps: if it would start a story at a holiday dinner, set it aside. You can always let it go later, but you can't get it back off a truck.

Keys, cash and what disappears in a clean out

Walk each room and check for the small items that vanish in a big sweep. Spare house and car keys, safe deposit box keys, garage door openers and phone chargers all fit in a bag and get lost easily. So do envelopes of cash, checkbooks, gift cards, coins and stamps. People store these in odd places: freezers, cereal boxes, inside shoes, taped behind drawers.

Also look for passwords. A handwritten list in a kitchen drawer or an old address book may be the only record of an email account, a phone login or an online bank. Photograph it or tuck it into your keep box before anything else moves.

Medications and other things that need different handling

Collect all prescription and over-the-counter medications into one container and keep them away from the pile. A house in upheaval is a bad place for pills to sit where children or pets can reach them. A pharmacist can tell you how to get rid of old ones safely.

Do the same with batteries, paint, aerosol cans, propane tanks and household chemicals. These don't behave like furniture or bagged garbage, and it's wise to ask any hauler before the day what they can and can't take. Group them in one spot so nobody tosses them in by accident.

Things that look like junk but aren't

Some items fool even careful people. A scuffed dresser may be solid wood worth keeping. A box of cables might hold the one cord a camera needs. Old computers, phones and memory cards can hold photos and files, and those deserve a closer look before they leave. Check coat pockets, the insides of books, and the backs of framed pictures, where people slide letters and cash.

• Tools, hardware and anything with practical or sentimental use
• Collectibles, coins and old toys still in their boxes
• Laptops, tablets, phones and external drives
• Rugs, artwork and furniture nobody has ever had looked at by someone who knows
• Appliance manuals and warranty paperwork you still need

Mark what's staying so it's obvious on the day

Once you've set aside what matters, make the boundary clear. Move keep items to one room, a bin or a corner, and close the door. Put painter's tape on furniture that stays and a sticky note on anything that's easy to confuse. Walk through at the start and point to the line. Say it out loud even if it seems obvious; the person carrying the couch doesn't know the story behind the lamp.

If the volume is big and you're not sure what's in there, ask for an estimate first. Seeing the space in person is a better way to plan than guessing from a phone photo, and it gives you time to set things aside before the day, not during it.

JS Clean UP handles Junk Removal in Monroe, Lehigh Valley and Northampton County, Pennsylvania, and removes debris and garbage from homes. Call 484-898-7190 for a free estimate and tell them what you'd like to keep.