Clearing a Family House in Ibadan After a Sale or Inheritance

The parlour cabinet is full of plates kept for parties that stopped years ago. There is a metal box of papers under Baba's bed, a sewing machine nobody has used since Mama's time, two deep freezers that may or may not work, and rooms upstairs that have been locked for a long time. The house is sold or shared out, the siblings live in three different cities, and the place has to be empty by a set date.

Clearing a family house is slower than an ordinary move. Half the work is deciding, and only half is carrying.

Get the family to agree first

Before a single item leaves, agree how decisions will be made.

1. Choose one coordinator, or two at most. They hold the keys, the list and the final say on logistics.
2. Walk the house and photograph everything of value or sentimental weight: furniture, jewellery, photo albums, wrappers, trophies, the old radiogram.
3. Share the photos in the family WhatsApp group with a clear deadline for claims.
4. Agree in advance how to settle two people wanting the same thing. Some families leave it to the elders, some draw lots.
5. Agree what happens to unclaimed items: sell, donate or throw away.

Do not let anyone quietly carry things off before the list is settled. That is how families fall out over a clock.

Gather every document you find (land papers, certificates, old letters, photographs) and keep them with the coordinator. For anything to do with the property title or the estate itself, take advice from a lawyer.

Sort the contents into groups

Work room by room, and mark every item with coloured tape or stickers:

• Going to a family member (write the name and the city on the tape)
• To be sold
• To be donated to a church, mosque or community group
• To be thrown away
• Documents and valuables, which leave with the coordinator, not on a truck

Expect a lot of old heavy furniture in a house that has stood for decades: solid wardrobes, cushion chairs with wooden frames, dining sets, cabinets. Our guide to moving heavy wooden furniture helps with pieces that will not come apart.

Watch for hazards in rooms and stores nobody has opened in a while. Old gas cylinders, kerosene, broken glass, weak wooden floors upstairs, rats and insects are all common. Wear gloves and a dust mask, and leave old gas cylinders to someone who knows how to handle them.

Plan the drop-offs

A family clearance rarely goes to one address. A typical plan has items going to a sibling's house in Ibadan, an aunt across town, a buyer of old furniture, a donation point and the dump.

Group the items by destination before any vehicle arrives. Stage each group in its own corner of the compound, so the loaders can see at a glance what goes where.

Within Ibadan, one truck can often handle several nearby drops in a single run if you list the stops in order and the items for the last stop are loaded first. Tell the driver the order before you accept an offer, and have someone waiting at each drop-off to receive.

For siblings in Lagos or Abuja, make the intercity load a separate trip. Our post on planning a Lagos to Ibadan truck trip covers that road.

Old family compounds

Many family houses sit inside compounds shared with relatives or tenants. Before clearing:

• Tell the neighbours and anyone living in the compound what is happening and when.
• Identify items that belong to other occupants, so nothing of theirs ends up on the truck.
• Check where a truck can stop. Older parts of the city often have narrow roads, and our guide to moving furniture in Ibadan covers access.
• Lock the house properly at the end of each day. An emptying house can attract attention.

Do it in stages

Trying to clear everything on one day usually ends with the wrong things on the wrong truck. A staged plan works better:

1. Family walk-through, photos and claims.
2. Documents and valuables leave with the coordinator.
3. Family items go to their destinations.
4. Sale and donation items go out.
5. Rubbish goes last, followed by a final sweep of the ceiling space, the boys' quarters, under the beds and the back store.

How to do this on Sphere

1. Open the Sphere app and request a truck for each stage or destination group.
2. Add the pickup and every drop-off, in the order you want them.
3. Describe the load: big furniture by type, appliances, cartons, and anything awkward.
4. Note compound access, narrow roads and stairs.
5. Agree loading and offloading help with the driver before you accept an offer, then propose your price. Drivers accept or counter, and you choose.

More on moves in the city is on our Ibadan page.