Plenty of people in Ottawa moved here for work and left family behind in the GTA. Then one day a parent decides to downsize, moves into care, or passes away, and the family home in Markham or Richmond Hill needs to be emptied. You’re the one who has to do it, and you live four and a half hours up the 401.
Clearing a house that’s been lived in for 30 or 40 years is a big job even when you’re around the corner. From Ottawa, every trip costs you a weekend, a tank of gas and a hotel or a spare bed. The way to keep it manageable is to plan most of it from home and use your time on site for the work only you can do.
Plan the trips before you make them
Most families need two or three visits. The first is for walking through the house, taking photos of every room and deciding what matters. The second is the heavy clean-out. A third, if needed, is for the final sweep before the house is listed or handed over.
Use the first visit well. Photograph closets, cupboards, the basement and the garage, and open every drawer. Back in Ottawa, those photos let you and your siblings talk through who wants what over a video call instead of in the middle of a stressful weekend.
If you can, take a Friday off for the big trip. Leaving Ottawa after work on a Friday means hitting Toronto-area traffic at its worst, and you’ll lose half of Saturday to being tired.
Book the bin before you leave Ottawa
The single most useful thing you can arrange from home is a place for the junk to go. Curbside collection won’t take a basement’s worth of old furniture, and making repeated runs to a transfer station in a rented van eats the weekend you drove down for.
Book a garbage bin rental in Markham a week or two ahead and have it dropped off the day before you arrive. That way it’s sitting in the driveway when you pull in Friday night and you can start filling it first thing Saturday. Ask a neighbour or a family friend nearby to keep an eye on the delivery, and make sure the car is out of the way.
For most single-family homes, a mid-sized bin is enough for the first big push. If the basement and garage are packed, ask about a larger size or a swap partway through. Have it picked up a day or two after you leave so you’re not rushing to fill it Sunday night.
It’s also worth lining up a local junk removal crew or a couple of strong helpers for the heavy items. Old pianos, sleeper sofas and chest freezers are not a job for one adult child and a dolly.
Sort into four piles, and decide fast
Once you’re in the house, set up four zones: keep, family, donate and toss. A room or a corner of the garage for each works well, and coloured painter’s tape on furniture saves arguments later.
Keep the “keep” pile small. Ask yourself whether you’d pay to move it to Ottawa. If not, it probably belongs in one of the other three piles.
Papers deserve their own box. Tax returns, insurance policies, bank statements and anything with a signature on it should come home with you to sort properly. Don’t throw out paperwork in a rush, and shred what you don’t need instead of putting it in the bin.
Give yourself permission to let things go. Most of what’s in a long-lived-in house is ordinary stuff that meant something because of who used it, not because of what it is. Take a photo if it helps.
Know what can’t go in the bin
Older homes tend to collect things that need special handling. Half-empty paint cans, old pesticides, pool chemicals, propane cylinders, batteries and fluorescent tubes generally can’t go in a rental bin. Neither can electronics in most cases, or appliances that still hold refrigerant.
York Region runs household hazardous waste drop-off depots for residents, so check their current list and hours before your trip and set those items aside in one spot. Old TVs and computers can usually go to an electronics recycling drop-off.
Ask the bin company for its restricted items list when you book. It’s easier to plan around it from Ottawa than to discover a problem when the driver won’t take the load.
Get the house ready to hand over
Once the big items are gone, the house will look smaller and more worn than you remember. That’s normal. Most buyers will want an empty, clean space, so focus on that rather than renovations.
Book a cleaning crew for after the clean-out, and if the house is being sold, ask the real estate agent what’s actually worth fixing. Agents in the area usually know who to call for a quick paint touch-up or a handyman day, which saves you another drive down.
Before your last trip home, walk the house one more time. Check the attic, the crawl space, the shed and behind the furnace. Things get left in places nobody has looked in years.
Then let yourself drive back to Ottawa. It’s a hard job, and it’s done.
About The Author
