It was the final clean out day before closing at our client’s father’s estate.  So many moving parts, a dumpster drop off, donation guys, junk haulers, movers, packers & even “Elvis”.

Our out-of-state clients reached out to us because they needed a full service team to handle the estate of their late father here in New Jersey.  After meeting with them, touring the home & presenting them with our Takeover & Makeover package, the clients decided we were the team to get the job done (AKA: take care of everything, plus net them the most money- an easy win!).

We jumped into action. Their father had lived a long life in his beautiful home for over 40 years, so to say we needed to do some de-cluttering before the renovation team began was putting it lightly.  With the exception of a few sentimental items- every closet & cabinet plus the garage were filled to the max with items that the family didn’t want or need. 

We broke the project down into phases (I felt like emotionally it would be easier this way for the family after their loss!). Phase 1- One entire dumpster, filled.  Phase 2- Renovations begin and conclude.  Phase 3- One more dumpster, filled.  Phase 4- Listed & sold in one weekend – piece of cake! Phase 5- One more dumpster ordered and final cleanout scheduled. 

This was it- we were wrapping up months of work… It was a beautiful Friday morning, the house was buzzing with excitement as our teams began their respective tasks to make this home 100% ready for its new owners. Everything was going swimmingly until about 6pm… dumpster number 3 was filled  & we still had a large pile to go.

The closing was Monday (OMG!). I made an emergency call to our go-to junk haulers  to see if they were available to help early Saturday morning (they were!). To keep the seller updated, I sent a photo of the pile to let them know. In the photo, our client spotted a black & white 2’ X 3 ‘ photo of a man from the neck down. He thought it was a misplaced photo of their late father and requested we arrange to have it sent to them.  We gave the junk guys specific instructions to leave the photo, take the rest.

Monday morning came around and Steph let herself into the garage. As the door was rising, there, on the back wall, was not the picture of our client’s late father BUT… of THE KING, Elvis himself! After a hearty LOL from all,  I couldn’t help but smile at the hilarious send off we received from the former homeowner. 

What I learned: Elvis had left the building.