Finding Buried Treasures!

How fun is it when in the process of decluttering, you find an unexpected treasure?

Cash, jewelry, forgotten stocks and bonds. It’s doubly rewarding – you discard the excess while discovering forgotten riches!

Professional organizers helping people downsize their stuff and get rid of clutter often find treasures while sifting through the trash – uh, I mean, belongings…

I’ve never decluttered a space without finding money, checks or occasionally jewelry. People hide their valuables and forget about them, especially older folks who grew up during the depression (they didn’t trust banks).

Here are some things other professional organizers have found in their travels –

-- Shoe boxes under a guest bed with over $30,000 in cash inside

--Bearer bonds behind the wallpaper lining in a medicine cabinet in a powder room, about $35,000 worth

--Emerald and diamond ring in a wadded up tissue inside the pocket of a sweater

--Hundred dollar bills inside record albums. All told, in excess of $5,000

-- A ten-year old bank book with $57,000 still active in the account, under the bathroom sink behind expired toiletries

--Check for $40,000 in a pile of unopened mail, stuck in a laundry basket

--A manila envelope on a bookshelf with around $2,000 in cash in it – he had taken it on a vacation and forgot all about it.

-- A tiny box with 9, $100 dollar bills, found on a very cluttered basement floor. She kept the money in the box to prevent a roommate from stealing it.

-- Books containing $50 bills – every book in their library!

So if you’re waiting to get motivated to sort through your stuff, think of it as a treasure hunt! You never know what you might find.

Happy hunting!