Next Avenue’s Richard Eisenberg recently wrote a post called “Sorry, Nobody Wants Your Parents’ Stuff.” He’s right, generally speaking, but it also kind of depends on what stuff your parents had. If there’s value — or at least value in the eyes of others — an estate sale could be worth trying.

Simply put, an estate sale is a sale of virtually everything in the house. An estate sale is probably way more stuff than you’d be able to haul outside for a yard sale. If you hire a professional estate sale company, which is a smart idea, the business will take a commission of typically 35 percent to 50 percent of the sale’s gross proceeds.