The executor's personal property checklist.

How to use this checklist

This is the order of operations we see work best in the estate cleanouts we handle around Lincoln — a hauler's field notes, organized so nothing gets thrown away too early and nothing gets forgotten at the end. Work the steps top to bottom; most of the trouble executors run into comes from doing step four before step three.

Secure the home and property

In the first days, the job is simply to make sure nothing walks off and nothing breaks. A vacant house is more fragile than an occupied one.

• Account for every key, garage remote, and door code — including spare keys with neighbors and under mats. If any are unaccounted for, consider re-keying the locks.
• Call the homeowner's insurance agent, tell them the home is vacant, and ask how the policy treats it. Keep coverage active.
• Keep utilities on — heat protects the pipes in winter, and power keeps sump pumps, freezers, and security lights running.
• Stop or forward the mail, and collect whatever has piled up — statements and bills in that stack are part of the paper trail.
• Move obvious valuables — cash, jewelry, firearms, important documents — to a safe place, and write down exactly what you moved and where it went.
• Photograph the exterior and every room on your first walkthrough, before anything is moved.

Inventory & photograph everything

You don't need appraisal-grade paperwork on day one — you need a clear record of what was in the house before decisions started getting made. Your phone and a notebook are enough.

• Walk room by room: wide shots of each room first, then open closets, drawers, cabinets, and the garage and photograph inside them.
• Keep a simple running list as you go — room by room, in a notebook or spreadsheet.
• Flag documents as you find them: the will, deeds, vehicle titles, insurance policies, tax returns, bank and investment statements. Gather them in one folder.
• Note anything with a title or paper trail of its own — vehicles, firearms, collections with appraisals — separately.
• Check the odd spots: coat pockets, books, freezers, coffee cans, under mattresses. Cash and papers hide in strange places, especially in older generations' homes.
• Resist the urge to tidy or toss as you go. Inventory first, decisions later — you can't photograph what's already gone.

The probate pause — talk to the attorney first

This is the step that protects you. Before anything is given away, sold, donated, or hauled, sit down with the estate attorney. Some items may need to be appraised, the will may direct specific things to specific people, and some property can't be distributed until the court process allows it. An hour of asking questions now can prevent months of untangling later.

• Ask the attorney before distributing, selling, donating, or discarding anything — get the green light in writing if you can.
• Ask whether the court requires a formal inventory or any appraisals, and for which items.
• Ask how items specifically named in the will should be handled and documented.
• Ask who is allowed in the home in the meantime, and whether family may take items before the estate is settled.
• Start a receipts folder now — securing costs, utilities, hauling, everything. Keep it with the estate records.

Sort: keep / donate / sell / haul

Once the attorney says go, sorting is where the house actually starts to move. Four categories are enough — more than four and every object becomes a debate.

• Set up four zones in the house — or four colors of sticky notes: keep (family), donate, sell, haul.
• Start with the easy rooms — bathrooms, linen closets, the pantry — and save the sentimental rooms for last, when you've built momentum.
• Give family a real deadline for claiming keepsakes, and put it in writing to everyone at once.
• Photograph anything you suspect has resale value before you decide its category — it keeps the record clean either way.
• When in doubt, set it aside. A "decide later" box beats a regret, and it beats a family argument.
• Keep the sorting pace humane. A lifetime of belongings doesn't have to be judged in one weekend.

Donation receipts for the estate file

Donations do double duty: usable things get a second life instead of a landfill trip, and the paper trail shows the estate's property was handled responsibly. In Lincoln, Goodwill and the Habitat for Humanity ReStore take most furniture and household goods.

• Get an itemized receipt at every donation dock — ask, they're used to it.
• Photograph each donated load before it leaves the driveway or gets dropped off.
• File every donation receipt with the estate records, alongside the inventory.
• If a hauler makes donation runs for you, ask for the receipts from those runs — when we handle a cleanout, we pass ours along for the estate file as a matter of course.

Final cleanout & broom-clean handoff

The last step is turning a sorted house into an empty one — ready for the realtor's photographer, the new owner, or the closing date, with a record to show for it.

• Schedule the haul only after the attorney's green light and the family's pickup deadline have both passed.
• Do a last-corners walkthrough: attic, crawl space, water heater closet, garage rafters, shed, and anything parked behind it.
• Decide with the attorney or realtor when utilities transfer or shut off — don't kill the power the day before the photographer comes.
• Finish broom-clean, with before/after photos of every room for the estate file.
• Hand over every key, remote, and code in one labeled envelope — the same ones you accounted for in step one.

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