Step 7: Shift Into Salvage Mode

          After you get the keys and make the home secure, you need to get busy emptying it out so it’s wide open, ready for you to spread your rehab wings and fly.

Circumstances may allow others to skip this step, but my pig’s ears have all come with more than their share of left behind stuff. It’s been the rule rather than the exception to find clothes in the closets, dishes in the cabinets, and helpful things in the junk drawer. 

This is when you should call for a dumpster delivery or come up with some other way of hauling trash away. You don't need to spend time on unusable things more than just once. As a rule, I always find out what I have in the house before I let any contractors inside, because I don't want everything to be thrown out. The things I usually save from the dumpster fall into one of two categories: sellables and useables. 

Sellables are anything valuable that folks would like to buy if they know you have it and are willing to sell it. Sometimes I turn these treasures into cash, selling them online or to people who will resell them in a shop or store. But I’ve also saved some interesting finds like special books, sports collectibles, fun chotchkes. And I always pocket any marbles I find—on last count, my cache came to over five hundred. 

One of my favorite salvaged items is a vintage milk bottle. I was a toddler in the Midwest when the milkman was becoming a thing of the past. Yet I still remember Mom going to the metal box outside our front door and pulling out the cow juice. Not only can I tell the kids about this pre-school memory; I can show them an example of how the milk used to be delivered to our porch. What makes my quart container even more special is that it still bares the label of the dairy farm once located in the town where my wife was born.

Next are the usables; things you suspect will be able to help you in the renovation. These are left-behinds like tools, pieces of hardware, miscellaneous materials, and anything else that might serve some purpose during the project. Think along the lines of Tom Hanks in Cast Away. Remember how his character kept those ice skates? He didn’t save them for figure skating, but just in case… which ended up having important uses; a tool to open coconuts and also pop out his abscessed tooth. It's simply practical to hold on to your usables.

Moving something throughout the rehab may still be better for the budget and schedule than driving to the store to replace a usable that you casually threw away. Gas is expensive, and you can take this from me; your time and money will be better spent if you make the most of anything valuable that’s been left behind. However, if you find yourself moving something a lot, something you’re not using, take that as a sign that you probably aren’t going to need it, and get it out of there.

Jump to Step 8: Clean the House Out