This begins with some basic volumetric equations.
How many square feet of “stuff” is in the house, including all the furniture, everything in closets and drawers, and all of the boxes in the attic, basement and garage?
It takes between 0.8 and 1.5 man-hours per cubic yard of material to complete a house clean out..
Consider this example: If the house left in an estate has 3,000 square feet total, and the average height of all the stuff (furniture, boxes, etc.) is about 2 feet, then you are working with 6,000 cubic feet of material.
There are 27 cubic feet per cubic yard. Do that math and you are left with just over 222 cubic yards.
That means that going through everything, removing it from the estate and selling or distributing it properly could easily take more than 200 man hours and possibly more.
The more sorting and cleaning that needs to be done the longer it’s going to take.
Too often, DIY estate managers seriously underestimate the amount of work that goes into a house cleanout.
When that happens, the project can drag on for months or even years.