Helping Hand Errand & Concierge Services

unknown

unknown

Over the years I had amassed too many things. Each room held and quot;treasuresand quot; that just had to go. I knew I had to liquidate, but had no idea where to start. To add to the challenge, I had injured my back and wasn't much of a help. Helping Hand stepped in and took over. Sylvia asked detailed questions, understood my goals and concerns, and then made it all happen. Items for sale were selected, categorized and prepared for sale. Signage was strategically placed over one mile away, carefully leading customers to our sale with amazing precision. Tables were arranged and even covered in white cloth, making my and quot;junkand quot; into other peoples' newly found treasurers. I sat back and enjoyed coffee while Helping Hand made every sale. My kids even were able to make some money (and clean out their rooms too!) A few key items were sold online, and less valuable trinkets were donated to charity. I ended up with a spacious garage, clean closets and a pile of cash! The a portion of the money from the sales paid Helping Hand, and I got to keep the rest. I wouldn't do a garage sale any other way!

It was sure a lot of work putting this together and it was worth it for all her help.

I was moving out of my apartment complex into a much smaller unit across town. I had a lot of antiques and collectibles that I could no longer display in my new place because of space considerations, I didn't want to pay for storage so I decided to sell it alot of it to help pay for moving expenses. I had seen a flyer on the community board of my building for and quot;Helping Hand Errand Servicesand quot; and decided to give them a call. The lady that owned the company agreed to come out and give me a consultation, we agreed on a rate and a weekend for the sale. The owner Sylvia came out the day before (which was a Thursday) and started setting up my apartment for the sale. She brought in a bunch of folding tables and table cloths and started moving furniture around to highlight each piece that was going to be up for sale. It only took about 4 hours to get it all together and to talk about pricing and donations should things not sell. We also discussed packing of things we wanted to keep just in case they did not sell.....don't know why I worried about that because by the time the sale was over there were only a few things left and they were small kitchen items and a few articles of clothing. The reaction from my neighbors and people that came off the street to the sale were that they couldn't believe what great signage we had to find the place and second that my apartment looked like an antique store! Sylvia negotiated all the pricing for me and took care of making sure we had change on the day of the sale, all pricing, making arrangements for delivery of the larger pieces of furniture and so on. I literally just stayed in the apartment to talk to potential buyers about the age or condition of some of my pieces and barely lifted a finger the whole day. When the sale was over and all the money was counted I actually made even more than we had first talked about based on estimates of best case scenarios. Sylvia really did the most amazing job getting top price for everything and should I ever have to move again I would definitely give her a call first thing!

After my divorce my husband left behind his old furniture, my parents moved from a large house to a small condo and used my garage and a tent in my backyard to store their furniture until it could eventually be sold and or donated. In addition, my basement was also full of items from a former tenant of my house (when it was a rental). With all this stuff I was overwhelmed and wanted to get rid of as much as possible this summer but because of my busy work schedule I couldn't get my act together. I had mentioned my dilemma to my realtor and she suggested I call a professional organizer that had just helped her do a moving sale. I contacted Sylvia on that recommendation and had her come over. I showed her all the stuff I had to sell and told her my time frame for trying to sell everything. She suggested we take advantage of the last nice weekend in September and hold a three day sale. She did a quick inventory of my garage, basement and tent and gave me some tips about how to set up the sale that would guarantee the items would sell. I remember thinking there would be no way we could get it all organized in one day, boy was I wrong! Sylvia and her crew showed up at 8:00am and immediately she got to work moving things around and laying out her tables and what I had to work with as well. I was surprised by how many tables she brought. She set them all up with nice white table cloths and even cleaned off items that had dust or dirt BEFORE they were laid on the tables. Later the people that came by commented that they had never seen such a nice and organized sale and because of that I sold most of my items in the first two days with very little effort. I was also amazed by her negotiating skills because she had a smile on her face the whole day and was able to get top dollar for all my stuff (sometimes even more than what I paid for the items to begin with). Also, to her credit she helped me decide what to give to charity and made me follow through on making sure no items went back into my garage or tent. We settled up the fee as soon as the sale was over and I was so pleased by the amount of money I made and how much stuff we got rid of. I have already recommended her to friends for home organization and I would definitely use her again!

In January of 2010 my family home I grew up with came into my possession upon the death of my sister, my parents had died a few years before as had my youngest sister so there were no other relatives but myself for the property to go to. Unfortunately for me, both my parents had been hoarders and so was my recently deceased sister. The house had 9 rooms plus two out buildings all of them filled from floor to ceiling with items, you literally could not walk anywhere in a straight line let alone get into any of the bedrooms or other rooms more than a foot or so. I was completely shattered by the loss of my last immediate family member and just did not know how I was going to get the house cleared out. Initially I got a few guys from work source and we just started throwing stuff away to create a path through the house and around the property...after filling 2 giant dumpster's I realized there were things of value in between all the garbage and filth but I was so overcome with the huge task of going through it that I just gave up for six months and didn't know what I was going to do. During this time I was working with a realtor who was going to be listing the property once it was cleaned and all the derelict cars were removed from the front yard. She suggested I start the project with a professional who has dealt with hoarders in the past and gave me the number for helping hand errand services. I made an appointment to have the owner come out to the house and take a little walk through and see if she could tackle this giant job (I really didn't think it would be possible). The moment Sylvia showed up at my door she had such a great can do attitude that she gave me hope that maybe we could do this after all. Because of my finances we decided that she would work with me alone to start clearing out the house to a certain level, then she would hold an Estate sale once the house was cleaned and the yard was cleared, (she also offered me the option to have a team come in immediately and removed all the items and clean the house with no sale but I chose to have a sale instead.) Every day for three weeks she came and helped me go through all the boxes one room at a time. Because I was crying a lot and constantly reminded about my loss she ended up putting me on simple tasks like organizing pictures or cleaning while she quickly would open boxes and start to organize things in the living room other cleaned out rooms based on value or object type (she was very knowledgeable about the worth of the antiques and collectibles). As each room started getting cleared out it felt like a giant weight was lifted off my shoulders. When we finally had all the boxes opened and organized Sylvia had her crew come in and get the house ready for the sale by moving large furniture items and cleaning up the grounds and storage shed and starting to set up tables to display all the items. We had already decided to run the sale for two weekends in a row (there was that much stuff). Through her advertising efforts and sign age all around the neighborhood we had tons of people come and at points had large lines of people negotiating with her for the best price. The amazing part is that she remembered ALL the items in my house, I have never seen anything like it and she had a price ready the moment anyone asked about a particular item (plus she had ebay and craigslist advertising as well and did her research if she was unfamiliar with an item). At the end of the month and a half long process everything she predicted would sell did and the rest we had donated. It was a great process for me to do this with her help, I know as a potential hoarder myself that I needed Sylvia to keep me from filling my condo and living the same way as my parents and sister had. When it came time to settle up with what I owed her and what I had paid for dumpster's etc. compared to what we made during the sale I couldn't believe it when I realized that I had made enough money to pay for the house painting and my roof repair! Plus the house was completely cleaned from head to toe as we were clearing each room out (dusting, sweeping, vacuuming etc), just a little here and there all month which made it easy for my contractors when they eventually started working. The whole process was amazing and well worth the time and money and I would not have changed a thing if I had to do it all again! I can't say enough good things about Sylvia and her company!

After my divorce my husband left behind his old furniture, my parents moved from a large house to a small condo and used my garage and a tent in my backyard to store their furniture until it could eventually be sold and or donated. In addition, my basement was also full of items from a former tenant of my house (when it was a rental). With all this stuff I was overwhelmed and wanted to get rid of as much as possible this summer but because of my busy work schedule I couldn't get my act together. I had mentioned my dilemma to my realtor and she suggested I call a professional organizer that had just helped her do a moving sale. I contacted Sylvia on that recommendation and had her come over. I showed her all the stuff I had to sell and told her my time frame for trying to sell everything. She suggested we take advantage of the last nice weekend in September and hold a three day sale. She did a quick inventory of my garage, basement and tent and gave me some tips about how to set up the sale that would guarantee the items would sell. I remember thinking there would be no way we could get it all organized in one day, boy was I wrong! Sylvia and her crew showed up at 8:00am and immediately she got to work moving things around and laying out her tables and what I had to work with as well. I was surprised by how many tables she brought. She set them all up with nice white table cloths and even cleaned off items that had dust or dirt BEFORE they were laid on the tables. Later the people that came by commented that they had never seen such a nice and organized sale and because of that I sold most of my items in the first two days with very little effort. I was also amazed by her negotiating skills because she had a smile on her face the whole day and was able to get top dollar for all my stuff (sometimes even more than what I paid for the items to begin with). Also, to her credit she helped me decide what to give to charity and made me follow through on making sure no items went back into my garage or tent. We settled up the fee as soon as the sale was over and I was so pleased by the amount of money I made and how much stuff we got rid of. I have already recommended her to friends for home organization and I would definitely use her again!!

Sylvia Szabo the owner of Helping Hand Errand Services was referred to me by one of her former clients. I called her company because I was overcome by the sheer volume of things that we had to sell before we could move, Sylvia came in and advised me on what she thought I could sell and told me what the plan would be during the weekend sale. A week later she and her crew were out setting up all the tables (with table cloths) and organized everything beautifully , they also put in ad's in craigslist for me. The evening before the sale they had moving sale signs ready and posted around the neighborhood so there would be no rush in the morning. I have to say I have been to many garage and moving sales myself I have never seen such an organized sale to what I had at my own house. They had a very reasonable rate for the actual work plus a percentage of the profits (which I thought was very fair). During the two days of the sale they were there running everything for me so all I had to do was answer a question about an item every once in a while, wow what a relief. Also they made arrangements for delivery of the larger items that sold and they helped with taking things to be donated when the sale was over! I know I could NEVER have done this without helping hand and I would recommend their services to anyone who needs to declutter or actually move.