This is a sponsored interview in partnership with Tecovas.
Carl McQueary works in death. He runs Estate Services of Austin, spending days in people’s homes after they’ve died, organizing, sorting, and eventually selling the things they’ve left behind. We caught up with McQueary to learn about his unusual job, which he’s been in for 31 years.
💀 McQueary’s Strangest Estate Sale Items Were Human Skulls.
You didn’t read that wrong. McQueary ran an estate sale that had two human skulls. Including the skulls in the sale involved a lot of research, McQueary said.
“We went through all the 7,000 rules – what you can sell, what you can’t sell. I was terrified,” he said.
But the skulls were able to be sold.
🛍️ Every Sale Is Worth Something.
Every person has something fascinating about them, McQueary said. Teachers leave behind cabinets of old school work and supplies. Musicians leave behind records and instruments.
“My job is the best job anywhere,” McQueary said.
Most sales McQueary hosts, he could write a book about. Every sale has a weirdness or an oddity or something quirky.
“Everyone has an interesting fact. Everyone has an interesting background. Everyone has an interesting thing they’ve done or did or do and they all leave signs of it around,” he said.
✨ Taking Care of People’s Things Is a Serious Job.
Everyone has stuff. But, it doesn’t matter if you’re famous or rich or poor – everyone dies, Mcqueary pointed out. And what happens with your stuff then?
“Someone has to deal with your stuff, your things, your belongings, your ephemera, your personal things,” McQueary said.
McQueary makes sure people’s things are taken care of in a respectful and loving way after they’ve died.
“It's not always that way, but with us it is,” he said.
