Probate made simple, handled with care.

Locks, post, heating left on enough to stop pipes freezing. Then ring the insurer: most home policies restrict or void cover once a property has been unoccupied for 30 to 60 days, and it is the executor who carries that. It is usually a phone call and an endorsement, not a new policy.

Will, deeds, share certificates, premium bonds, pension and insurance correspondence, recent bank post. This is the single most common thing lost in a clearance, and it is lost in the first hour, not the last.

Including inside wardrobes, the loft, the garage and the shed. It takes twenty minutes on a phone. It is your evidence of what was there, it settles family disagreements before they start, and HMRC accepts it as a record.

In writing, then labelled in the house. Verbal claims made across a kitchen table three weeks earlier are how families fall out permanently.

Not the kettle. Jewellery, watches, art, antiques, militaria, ceramics, tools, anything you would hesitate to price. A written valuation is what protects you personally if the figure is ever questioned.

With a firm whose waste carrier registration you have checked yourself. By this point the house holds nothing you cannot account for, so the clearance is simply the last mechanical step rather than the risky one.