Although we are a house clearance company, we also help remove the contents a house garage and shed too. In other words, we’ll clear the external as well as the internal area of a house.
As you can imagine, this leads to the team finding quite a few rusty bicycles, a whole range of garden equipment, and many crates of broken and unusable items which have been stored away with the intention of one day seeing to their repair.
However, there is often valuable finds in old sheds and garages too, with items often ending up in auction and the proceeds distributed between the Beneficiaries. Some of these items aren’t financially valuable, but there is often an emotional attachment, especially when it comes to personal possessions.
According to insurance company Policy Expert, your typical garden shed in the UK has contents worth around £1,150. It’s mostly made up of lawnmowers, gardening equipment and garden furniture. Having said that, 39 per cent of those questioned by the company admitted that it would probably cost between £1,000 and £5,000 to replace the contents of their shed.
Around 13 per cent of survey respondents said their sheds contained family heirlooms, while 11 per cent said they kept a car in it. Around one per cent of householders had a hot tub or boat as the contents of their shed.
One in four people had a barbecue stored in the shed. By far the most popular items were garden tools (88 per cent of respondents), lawnmowers (75 per cent) and power tools (51 per cent).
Some of the more surprising finds
There are, of course, a whole range of items that people keep in their sheds and residential garages. Some of these are vintage motor cars which can often end up making a lot of money at auction. Vinyl records are a common find, so too are old toys, furniture and even paintings.
Other downright weird shed discoveries
We’re not saying that we have found the following, but our research has led us to these discoveries by others (mostly members of the general public rather than specialist clearance companies like ourselves):
Church organ
Yes, it was a rather large shed that held a 10ft tall Victorian church organ. In fact, the £20,000 shed was built specially to accommodate the spectacular 424-pipe organ, which only cost £500 to purchase. The reason the organ was put in the shed because it had soundproofing built into it. This has the effect of allowing the organ’s female owner to play it to her heart’s content without incurring the wrath of her closest neighbours.
Century old Porsche
Yes, there is always one – vintage car, that is – found in a barn or shed. This particular vehicle was the Egger-Lohner car and it was found in a shed in Austria in 2014. It hadn’t actually seen the light of day since 1902. The car was built in 1898 by the founder of Porsche (Ferdinand Porsche) and it was his first-ever car. Topically, considering climate change, it was actually an electric car and had a maximum speed of 21mph. This shed sensation can now be found in the Porsche Museum of car manufacturing in Stuttgart in Germany.
Lost reel tape of 3 Stooges
Another fabulous shed find was an MGM film reel of a 17-minute short film of the Three Stooges, called ‘Hello, Pop.’ The film stunned the movie world when it turned up since it was believed to have burned in a fire back in 1967.
A negative of the movie was discovered by film fan Malcolm Smith in his shed in Sydney. An American preservation company helped him restore it, with the result the film was once again, available for public consumption.
Get in touch
Here at National Clearances we can help you clear the home and garage or shed of a relative who has left these to you in their Will.
We are also happy to carry out Probate valuations during clearances, and have a team of experts on hand who can do exactly that in both England and Wales. If this is the type of help and advise you are looking for then do contact us by telephoning: 0203 985 9552 or sending us an email via info@nationalclearances.co.uk. Read about our full house clearing service at our website www.nationalclearances.co.uk.