Selling it All

[SouthernHiker]

Alright, so we're a few-several months out from boat purchase and sailing away (I HOPE ONLY A FEW).

House will be up for sale in a couple of weeks as I put the finishing touches on it).

So now we are well in to selling as much of our wonderful junk as we can.
We're trying to sell all the household stuff we can, from furniture to clothing. Only want the bare minimum for a life aboard, or wherever it takes us.

My question to you all, is how did you do it? I've had the yard sales, got a lot of crap on E-bay, and am still overly burdened with junk. In the end (when the home sales), I'll finally resign my self to one big goodwill giveaway, but before I'm trying to sell a little for the kitty.

My problem is not sentimentality, it's just trying to get rid of it all for a buck or two (or is this the problem)? Any tips or tricks you used to get rid of stuff, not junk really, just household stuff.

One of the seemingly big problems is that the bigger items would sell on E-bay if there was some way of shipping them at a low cost.

[JDGreenlee]

Hold an auction?

[scook1]

Craigslist can be a great way to market to folks in your area, especially if you are near a large town. Things like consignment stores are also good ideas for clothes.
Spencer

[SouthernHiker]

You mean like a physical auction in town? That's a great idea. I'll have to call some smaller auction houses, and see what the cost/process is. Thanks.

[SouthernHiker]

Tried Craiglist but had no luck. Live two hours or so outside of a big town.

Also, had some problems with them repeatedly blocking my posts from showing up as if it is spam. Very annoying.

[beau]

i understand,
We had the same problem, except I had only met Christine 2 years earlier and we had 2 of everything.
We sold what we could, gave all my non sailing books to a library. We invited all the neighbours over and said they could take what they wanted, some paid for items they really wanted but we still filled two large bins to go to the tip.
And you know what, I don't thing we have missed a single thing.

I noticed that i had so many things that I had carted around the world with me for years and never used.

Another hint, wait until you do a bit of cruising before buying for the boat, Things we thought we had to have turned out to be useless, like bikes etc. womens shoes???

i also found the cruising philisophy of "there is no rough weather if you don't have a schedule'' extremely important.
Good weather forecasting ability.

Plus probably the most important for us is that, I built a shallow draft boat (motor sailor trimaran) this gets us into so many protected anchorages where we just sit and wait (sometimes on the sand) for the right weather window or we don't go.
However things like fishing gear, bait net for dragging on the beach, yabby pump, compressor for shallow water diving helped us enjoy our life on the water much more.

Currently waiting for that weather window.

[Bergovoy]

i gave away most of my stuff, and what i 'sold' was basically for ten cents on the dollar.

my biggest issue in this process was timing.. I wanted to hold on to stuff for as long as possible before the move and that cant work, and i ended up selling stuff and living out of boxes/suitcases for the last month.

i have my home theater stuff to sell and a couple things to donate to goodwill and i am done... I will know i have gotten rid of enuf as i will need to move everything to florida via my chevy blazer, so if it fits into my blazer i am guessing it will fit onto my boat, and i will be having a public storage unit for my documents...

[SouthernHiker]

Originally Posted by beau

i understand,
We had the same problem, except I had only met Christine 2 years earlier and we had 2 of everything.
We sold what we could, gave all my non sailing books to a library. We invited all the neighbours over and said they could take what they wanted, some paid for items they really wanted but we still filled two large bins to go to the tip.
And you know what, I don't thing we have missed a single thing.

I noticed that i had so many things that I had carted around the world with me for years and never used.

Another hint, wait until you do a bit of cruising before buying for the boat, Things we thought we had to have turned out to be useless, like bikes etc. womens shoes???

i also found the cruising philisophy of "there is no rough weather if you don't have a schedule'' extremely important.
Good weather forecasting ability.

Plus probably the most important for us is that, I built a shallow draft boat (motor sailor trimaran) this gets us into so many protected anchorages where we just sit and wait (sometimes on the sand) for the right weather window or we don't go.
However things like fishing gear, bait net for dragging on the beach, yabby pump, compressor for shallow water diving helped us enjoy our life on the water much more.

Currently waiting for that weather window.

Love to hear about how you built this boat. I just finished a bedroom, bathroom addition on my home that I am selling, and have considered transferring my limited skills to boat building, but I'd be way behind on the learning curve. Have you found that building your self saved you $$?

I'd love a tri like the one you describe, and plan to just take my time cruising with the weather, but the tris are way out of my price range.

[SouthernHiker]

Originally Posted by Bergovoy

i gave away most of my stuff, and what i 'sold' was basically for ten cents on the dollar.

my biggest issue in this process was timing.. I wanted to hold on to stuff for as long as possible before the move and that cant work, and i ended up selling stuff and living out of boxes/suitcases for the last month.

i have my home theater stuff to sell and a couple things to donate to goodwill and i am done... I will know i have gotten rid of enuf as i will need to move everything to florida via my chevy blazer, so if it fits into my blazer i am guessing it will fit onto my boat, and i will be having a public storage unit for my documents...

I hear ya there. I read somewhere that you really need 6 months to try and get rid of everything by selling. Have no idea how long my house will take to sell, but I'm determined to live without all the junk however long the house selling takes, so that when it does, we can take the tent, the car, and a few boxes and travel until we find the right boat.

[matauwhi]

G'day, mate. Ditto on the auction. Also look for someone who does "estate" sales. All the best Cheers.

[callmecrazy]

Try using the phrase "Estate Sale" instead of Garage sale or Auction... People will flock.

I've had a lot of success with craigslist, but I haven't really been selling household items... If thats not working for you, the only resort left is ebay.

Are there any consignment shops in your area? I know around here there is one that deals in womens clothes and one that does teenager style clothes... other than that... pawn shops???

Just think of Goodwill as your therapist.. you go there "let go" of things... and trust me, It's best to just get it out

[beau]

Love to hear about how you built this boat.

Do a search on this forum under multihulls/title/ beau's boat.

I have changed a few things since the original idea if if are interested I can give you more information

[SouthernHiker]

Originally Posted by callmecrazy

Try using the phrase "Estate Sale" instead of Garage sale or Auction... People will flock.

I've had a lot of success with craigslist, but I haven't really been selling household items... If thats not working for you, the only resort left is ebay.

Are there any consignment shops in your area? I know around here there is one that deals in womens clothes and one that does teenager style clothes... other than that... pawn shops???

Just think of Goodwill as your therapist.. you go there "let go" of things... and trust me, It's best to just get it out

Thanks for the tips. Just started reading your blog, crazy. Looks like I'm a very similar path, budgetwise, and with the goals. It'll be good to read on someone that's ahead of me on this journey.

[SouthernHiker]

Originally Posted by beau

Do a search on this forum under multihulls/title/ beau's boat.

I have changed a few things since the original idea if if are interested I can give you more information

Took a look. Amazing stuff and very impressive. That type of building def. exceeds any skills I have.

For now, I believe I will resign myself to the cheap already built monos, but maybe one day in the future.

[beau]

Building in Aluminium is NOT, DIY, in my opinion.
but for a professional it is very fast.
Five weeks to lockup. and you have a solid boat with good resale value.
the reason mono's are cheap is that they are old technology.
Very few New mono's are now built in Australia but there are plenty of multihulls being built here.