Guide · 8-minute read
Clearing a parent's house: where the gold and silver usually is
The short answer
Unless a tenancy or a sale sets the pace, nothing in the house has to go this week, and the executor decides what happens to its contents. Go room by room, because gold and silver turn up in drawers, tins, coat pockets and sewing boxes, photograph each find where it lies, and set aside anything with a name, a story or a maker's mark. Only then let a clearance firm in, with what they may take agreed in writing.
Before you open a drawer: whose decision is it?
Someone usually has to go through a parent's home, often at weekends and around work. This guide is for that person.
The first question is not a practical one. GOV.UK says the personal representative, meaning the executor named in the will or an administrator where there is no will, answers in law for everything the person owned: their money, their property and their possessions. So the contents of the house are theirs to deal with until they are passed on. If that person is you, the decisions are yours. If it is a brother, an aunt or a solicitor, agree with them before anything leaves the house, including things you are sure were meant for you.
Looking, sorting, photographing and keeping things safe can start straight away. Selling, giving away and sharing out are different: they wait until the estate is ready for them, which usually means the grant of probate is in hand. Selling jewellery as an executor before probate is granted explains the reasons, and what is useful to do while you wait.
If the house will stand empty
Small valuable things are safer out of an empty house than in it. If you take them away for safe keeping, write down what you took, from which room and on which day, and tell the executor. That note is the difference between looking after something and being asked, a year later, where it went.
Where the gold and silver usually is
Small valuable things are often kept close to hand, and seldom in one place. A ring comes off for the washing up and goes into an egg cup. A watch is put away when the strap breaks and never mended. Work through each room in the same order, and open everything that closes.
Where precious metal tends to turn up when a home is cleared
| Where to look | What tends to be there | What to do with it |
|---|---|---|
| Dressing table and bedside drawers | Rings in their boxes, a watch without a strap, earrings in a saucer, a locket | Keep each box with what was in it; a jeweller's name inside the lid helps later |
| Coat pockets, handbags and suit jackets | A wedding ring, cufflinks, a tie pin, a coin purse | Check every pocket before any clothes leave the house |
| Sewing box and button tin | Thimbles, a bodkin case, broken chain and odd earrings kept “for mending” | Tip the tin onto a tray rather than sorting it in the tin |
| Biscuit, tobacco and toffee tins | Old coins, medals, a sovereign wrapped in paper, a christening bracelet | Do not clean coins or medals, and keep medals on their ribbons |
| Watch and cufflink boxes | Wrist and pocket watches, chains, collar studs, a signet ring | Note any name on the dial; do not wind a watch or open the case back |
| The desk or bureau | Envelopes with a ring or a coin inside, old insurance schedules, receipts | Keep any paperwork with the piece it describes |
| The good cutlery drawer and the sideboard | A canteen, napkin rings, a cake slice, a sugar sifter | Keep a set together, including its box and its key |
| Loft, spare room and top of the wardrobe | Christening mugs and spoons, a tea set in newspaper, presentation pieces | Look for engraving and marks before anything is wrapped again |
| Bathroom cabinet and kitchen windowsill | A ring left beside the sink, spectacles in a gold-coloured frame | Photograph it where it lies; frames are often rolled gold |
| An envelope marked teeth, or a small box | Dental crowns, sometimes kept for years | Handle it as any other find; dental gold is checked like the rest |
Look for a small row of marks inside a ring or on the back of a spoon: a number such as 375, 750 or 925 with a tiny symbol beside it. EPNS or A1 means silver plate. Anything you cannot place goes in the “ask” pile, not the bin, and reading UK hallmarks explains the rest of the row when you have time.
What to set aside before anything is sold
Some things should not be sold for their metal, and some should not be sold at all until the family has spoken. Give them a box of their own, labelled, and keep it apart from the rest.
- What someone has asked for. A granddaughter who wants the charm bracelet, a brother who remembers a particular watch. Write the request down with the name and the date.
- What the will mentions. A specific gift in a will goes to the person named. The executor deals with it; nobody else should.
- Wedding and engagement rings, lockets, and anything engraved with a name or a date. Many families decide about these last, once everyone has had a say.
- Mourning jewellery, and anything holding hair or a photograph. Someone in the family may want it, and some of it has a collector's market.
- Every watch. A watch by a known maker can be worth far more than its case, running or not, and the maker's name is sometimes inside rather than on the dial. Do not wind it or open it. What to have looked at before you sell covers watches, signed jewellery and coins.
- Medals, badges and anything military. A named group is family history and has its own buyers. The guide to war medals and regimental silver explains why it should stay together.
- Old silver, whether its marks are complete or not, and christening sets in their boxes. Old silver can be worth more whole. Antique silverware or scrap explains how to tell.
- Anything set with stones, cameos, enamel or pearls, and old-looking jewellery with no marks at all. Older pieces were often never hallmarked, and a stone can matter more than the metal around it.
- Anything that might be ivory. Photograph it and leave it. The ivory guide explains the law.
If a word on a box, a receipt or a mark means nothing to you, look it up in the glossary. Sharing out comes later and has its own order. Dividing jewellery between beneficiaries sets out a way to do it that keeps a record and keeps the peace.
Clearance firms: what to agree before they take the contents
A good clearance firm can empty in a day what would take you months. Once the van has gone, though, you cannot check what was in it, so the time to be careful is before the firm starts.
- Do your own search firstGo through the house yourself, or with the executor, before any firm is inside it. Take out what you want to keep, what you are unsure of and anything small and valuable. The clearance is for what is left.
- Get the arrangement in writingAsk whether they will charge you, pay you for the contents, or set one against the other. Each is common. Whichever it is, have it written down with the address, the date and the rooms included.
- Name what they may not takeA room or a cupboard kept locked, with a note on the door, is clearer than a spoken promise. Ask them to hand back any jewellery, coins, photographs and papers they find, and write that into the agreement too.
- Check they may carry wasteIn England and Wales, the occupier of a home must take reasonable steps to hand household waste only to someone authorised to take it. Ask for the firm's waste carrier registration number and check it on the public register (the Environment Agency's in England, Natural Resources Wales's in Wales). Keep a note that you did.
- Be there, or have someone thereIf you can, stay while they work. If you cannot, ask someone you trust to. Photograph each room when they finish.
- Keep the paperwork with the estate'sThe quote, the receipt and any list they give you belong in the estate file. The executor may need to show what went and what the estate received for it.
If you clear houses as a business, the house-clearance page is written for you. Ask before posting anything, because we may need to know how the contents came to you.
What to photograph, and why it helps later
Photographs cost nothing and settle questions before they become arguments. They also mean nobody has to rely on memory.
- Each room before anything is moved, from the doorway.
- Each find where you found it, then on a plain surface in daylight.
- The marks, close up, with the light from the side. A phone held close reads a hallmark better than most eyes.
- The inside of lids and boxes, where a jeweller's or maker's name is printed.
- Groups as well as single pieces, so a set can be seen to be a set.
Then write it down. The printable estate inventory has a column for each thing worth recording: what it is, where it was found, the marks, whether it was photographed, and whether to keep it, sell it or ask. If the estate needs a figure for any of it, probate valuation of jewellery and silver explains which figure and who provides it.
Risks when clearing a parent's home
- Throwing out a tissue, an envelope or a tin without opening it. Small gold is often wrapped in something that looks like rubbish.
- Relatives taking things home to keep them safe, with no note of what went. Well meant, and very hard to account for later if nobody wrote it down.
- Mixing a parent's jewellery with your own. Once mixed it is hard to separate, and harder to prove which was which.
- Letting a clearance firm in before your own search. Anything missed goes with the van.
- Cleaning or polishing before anyone has looked. Polish takes value off old silver and coins; cleaning and polishing before you sell explains why.
- Selling to the first person who asks, often at the door or in the first week. Nothing in a jewellery box goes off, and nothing needs deciding while the funeral is still being arranged.
When not to send anything yet
Wait if any of these is true
You are not the executor and the executor has not agreed. The estate has not been valued, or the grant is not yet in hand and nobody has confirmed one is unnecessary. A member of the family has asked for a piece, or the will names it. You have not yet been through the house yourself. Any of these is a reason to keep the box where it is.
When the estate is ready, photographs are the simplest first step. Send them on WhatsApp to 07369 296063, or ring or text that number (6am to 10pm, seven days) if you do not use WhatsApp. We can tell you what the marks suggest, what looks plated and what may be worth more to a specialist, without anything leaving the house. That reply is a rough idea, not a valuation for the estate. Send photographs first explains what to photograph, and probate and estate jewellery explains how an estate's lot (everything sent together) is handled when you do decide to sell.
Questions sellers ask
Can I start clearing Mum's house before probate?
You can look, sort, photograph and keep things safe, as long as the executor agrees. Selling, giving away or sharing things out should wait until the estate is ready for it, which usually means the grant of probate. If you are unsure, ask the solicitor or the executor before anything leaves the house.
Where do people usually find gold in a house?
Drawers, coat pockets, handbags, sewing boxes, button tins, biscuit tins and the top of the wardrobe, as well as the jewellery box. Dental crowns are often kept in an envelope. Open everything that closes before it leaves the house or goes in a skip.
Should I let the clearance firm take the jewellery as part of the job?
It is better not to. Take out the jewellery, coins, watches and silver yourself first, and put in writing that anything else of that kind they find is handed back to you. The executor can then decide what happens to it, with a record of what there was.
My brother took Dad's watch to keep it safe. Is that a problem?
Not if it is written down. Note what he took, when, and that it is being kept for the estate, and tell the executor. The watch is still part of the estate until the executor passes it on, and a short note now avoids a long conversation later.
Do I have to clean anything before it is looked at?
No, and it is better not to. Tarnish, dust and tangles cost nothing. Polishing old silver or coins can take value off them, and pulling at a knotted chain can snap it.
Is any of this different in Scotland or Northern Ireland?
The practical steps are the same: search, photograph, write it down and set things aside. The legal process is different in each, so check with whoever is dealing with the estate. The household waste duty described above is the law in England and Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own rules and their own registers of waste carriers.
Clearing a house and found a drawer of this?
Before anything goes in a skip, photograph the odd bits. Broken chains, cufflinks, napkin rings, anything with a tiny stamp on it. A person writes back with what looks worth posting.
Nothing is sold until you say yes. Say no and everything comes back by tracked, signed-for post at our cost.
No WhatsApp? Call or text 07369 296063, 6am to 10pm, seven days a week.
Not everything is scrap
A clearance can turn up things worth more as they are than as metal. Where we see one, we tell you before any offer, so you can take it to a specialist, an auction house or a dealer instead.