The response, to whether you save money calling a hauler rather than an organizer is “that depends.” If you are a family member anxious to clear out the old family home because a parent or relative is entering a care facility you might want the speed of a hauler. After all, your real estate agent is ready to get the house on the market The family has gone through and removed the important valuables and memorabilia. What could be left for an organizer?
Cash Stashed in Books – Hidden Treasures You Could Miss
You might be surprised by the creative ways people have for hiding their valuables. One of the more common is to hollow out the pages of a book to place a secret compartment inside. However, if you have a hauler come in and pack everything in boxes whatever they haul away belongs to them.
Sandy and I were brought in to go through the home of a family, to get it ready for the realtors to sell. The former resident was entering a care facility and had occupied the home for more than forty years. You can imagine the items that needed packing up for removal. The family had been tipped off that their relative might have squirrelled away cash in a book or two. We were asked to riffle through the pages of the books on site. They numbered more than 1,600. Two of them held jackpots. We discovered more than $7,000 in two very benign looking volumes.
What Happens When Organizers Find Hidden Cash?
To be on the safe side – we stop what we are doing and each person on our team counts the cash. We make a note of the total, then we divide the bills in piles of matching denominations; $100’s in one pile, $20’s in another and so on. Then we total it one more time and make a note of the total – write out a short note about what we found and where and then we call our family contact. Only then did we go on with our work. It took the family member about 2 hours to get back to us.
Our work continued for several days, examining the collection of books and carefully looking through boxes, drawers and file cabinets. When we found the bulky manila envelopes in the back of an old file drawer we carefully placed them on a card table for further examination. They revealed more stacks of cash that required a great deal longer to count and document than the first batch of cash. In fact, the new cash came to more than $63,000 making the grand total $70,000+. We had to sit down, just to catch our breath. Then we called the family contact and left a message. This time, he returned out call in less than a minute.
Would This Family Have Saved Money with a Hauler?
Every organizing project has a story and some are more intriguing than others. This family would have lost a windfall of funding that can now be used to support the extended care their relative requires. If they had left the job to a hauler, the hauler would probably be signing a contract right now with some reality show dedicated to hidden treasures. We are not implying that every project will turn up unimagined valuables, but you might want to consider the peace of mind a professional organizer can provide when it comes to a big project.