Check the pockets of clothing before you donate or trash! When I helped my parents downsize, I found several hundred dollar bills stuffed in pockets for safe keeping.
True story. My H is a trust and estates attorney. More than 20 years ago, one of his clients died and the executor asked him to help going through the house. It was a Collier’s mansion. The executor started picking up dirty (as in porno, not covered with rubbish) magazines and was tossing them into a garbage can when an envelope fell out. It turned out to have a stock certificate in it… Needless to say, EVERY book, magazine and envelope was gone through. When they were done, I started trying to trace the stocks and the bearer bonds that they found. When we were done marshalling the estate, it was worth over $2 million!
wow!. I would resurrect him just so I could kill him again if I found $2 million after he died! (I’d really like to retire). I have no idea what sort of $ amounts he is talking about - I doubt it is anything substantial unfortunately. The den will probably be the last room to be tackled and then probably only if we end up deciding to move and downsize which is my ultimate goal (ok, dream)…
I know there is stuff in that den that I would handle differently. For instance there are several hundred dollars of rolls of state quarters. His dad was convinced they will be worth more than their face value and kept buying (getting - I guess you don’t buy them) a bunch which we and H’s sister then ended up with. They would be deposited in the bank if I had my way.
After our mom passed away, my brother and I were emptying out the refrigerator and freezer in her condo. There was a foil wrapped packet on one of the freezer door shelves. Mom labeled everything, and this had no label. Fortunately, my brother unwrapped it. To our dismay, over $1000 in cash was inside. Another brother, who would stay with Mom when he visited, knew about this cash stash. He said that Mom said it was her “cold hard cash”! As we cleaned out her condo, we found other small amounts of cash and coins in purses and drawers, totally another couple hundred dollars.
“wow!. I would resurrect him just so I could kill him again if I found $2 million after he died! (I’d really like to retire).”
:))
You guys are lucky - all I found in the pockets of my mom’s clothing were tic-tacs, rosary beads and bobby pins. =))
My father (dead for 20 years now) did keep cash in weird places – under the bathroom sink, behind a picture on the wall. My sister, who cleaned out the place, knew enough to look for it all. It amounted to around $1000, IIRC.
Old people sometimes worried about not having availability to cash when they needed it. I suppose if we had some huge power failure, we wouldn’t be able to operate ATMs, so maybe it’s not a bad idea.
This is so pedestrian after the stories of hidden money, but I did manage to get 11 contractor’s-sized garbage bags out with the trash on the most recent trash day.
Wow!!
My grandmother taped money and bonds under the drawers in the kitchen and bedroom. When we helped move her and her sister we had to check everything - drawers, behind furniture, in books, anywhere you can think. It seemed to be a carryover from the psychology of the Great Depression.
Smiling at the stories about stashed money. My sister’s father-in-law was known to do that too. So yup, every magazine, book, stash of papers had to be gone through carefully. BIL and his sibs divvied it up and saw to it that everyone had one last big Christmas on grandpa’s dime. 
My ex’s dad used to (and might still) keep cash in the pocket of a jacket hanging in the hall closet. Ex pleaded ignorance of the significance of the hidden stash when he told me about it, approximately half-an-hour after our divorce was finalized. This is the money my former FIL and ex were attempting to hide from the government, but hiding it from me didn’t matter to my ex once we were divorced.
That’s impressive @QuantMech - I’d be very happy with that (though unfortunately we can only put out what will fit in our trash can each week)
The guy with the $2M was never married and lived with his mom till she died. His only brother was very happy to get the money. Amazingly, the guy was a motorman with NYC trains.
When my dad died, all I got was his last electric bill, which I sent to my sister.
My mother taught me at an early age to alway have a stash of money hidden.
H and I have a place where we have cash hidden in case of an earthquake and unexpected need.
I have another stash that only my BFF knows about because I want it to go to her in
case of our demise. None is that much overall but really like knowing is there.
I’ve mentioned my father who was a hoarder upthread. I only participated in a small part of the clean up (2 days, 8 hour days and it made only the smallest dent) but we started finding cash and then had to go through everything. I’m pretty sure it was unintentional. I first discovered it in going through a cabinet largely filled with sheets and towels and something felt unusually heavy. There was a travel vest and each pocket had something of value in it – keys, a passport, a full wallet. From that point on, we had to pick up each item. In just those two days, we found $4,500.
Continuing to go through the house, packing it up. Took a full box of books to the library today. Garbage and recycling bins are filled to the brim for pick up tomorrow.
One more comment…I hired a handyman about 10 years ago to install a safe in between the studs in my closet. The safe cost about $250 and the handyman charged about $150, IIRC, to install it. I keep my jewelry, some papers and a stash of cash in case there’s an earthquake or other natural disaster. The kids all know the combination. One of the better $500ish expenditures I’ve made.
OMG. What a pain to have to go through every nook and cranny. But those returns! Better than bitcoin mining!
My mother in law did this with her good jewelry. There were rings in various tea cups in her china closet, etc. When she moved, my sister in law combed through everything very carefully.
This reminded me that my mother had my great-grandmother’s engagement ring stashed in one of her slippers, in the closet.