Downsizing from House to Sailboat

[CaptainsWench]

Hello everyone,

I am new to this forum in posting but have been following your posts. We just bought our new beautiful Sailboat and will be downsizing from a 4 bedroom house with all the years of "stuff" you gather for 20+ years. Due to winter months, yard sales are out of the question. I have started selling items on Ebay for the large items, but how did you get rid of all that little stuff? The sooner we get this taken care of, the quicker we will be off to our new adventure. Thanks.

[Bash]

Welcome to the forum.

We had a garage sale where I made more than $2,000 in the first hour. Part of our strategy was to package stuff together rather than sell items separately. For example, I priced my whole tackle box of fishing lures for $50.00, and it sold right away. Much better than spreading a hundred lures out on a table and letting folks pick through them. Sold all our Christmas lights, bulbs, et cetera in one huge box. Same with all the yard tools--put them all in a barrel and sold the barrel for $50.00.

In was wild--I'd never want to go through that experience again. But by the end of the day we'd sold every scrap of furniture, beds, lawn mower, computers, TVs, all my darkroom gear.... everything. I think the key was the ad we took out in the paper, telling folks that we'd been married 20 years, had purchased a boat we were moving into, and everything must go.

[bobconnie]

Connie and I have done the same thing 3 times now LOL garage sales are good and e-bay is better for large goods we are selling out waterfront home furnished this time and selling all the other stuff garage sale time and our keepsakes we will package and take with us again, (kept the old crates this time LOL) we just got the CK on our old boat today, and are really looking for our next boat NOW !! Bob and Connie

[Cheechako]

Ebay much better for more expensive things. I tried to sell an alternator, old tiller auto pilot etc at a nautical flea market and couldnt get $125 for them. Put the A/P on Ebay and it sold for $600! Dito for other stuff.
But yard sales are worth waiting for... easy to make a couple thousand off one.... If you have enough might be worth getting a storage unit til spring.

[CaptainsWench]

So I guess yard / garage sales are the only way to go. I guess I will need to wait till March to get this done. It's not cold here in Texas, but the rainy season seems to have finally begun, which we dearly needed. Thanks.

[j dragon]

My wife and I just liquidated all our stuff. We have grown children and they were like sharks, they picked us clean. Didn't even get the " Yard Sale " sign up. I feel good that our collectables went to someone who will appreciate them, and I have visiting privileges when we are in port.

[wingNwing]

Here's a previous thread on this subject with 180 posts: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ard-30570.html

[Bash]

Originally Posted by j dragon

My wife and I just liquidated all our stuff. We have grown children and they were like sharks, they picked us clean. Didn't even get the " Yard Sale " sign up. I feel good that our collectables went to someone who will appreciate them, and I have visiting privileges when we are in port.

Well, there's your answer: Just invite j dragon's children to come and pick you clean!

[barnakiel]

We kept what we could, sold what we did not need and passed on the rest.

The only thing I ever miss is actually the apartment. I think we should have kept it.

b.

[j dragon]

Sorry Bash there all stocked up, I am sure someone else has children though.

[CaptainsWench]

Thank you for the thread, I will check it out.

[Nadejda]

Hello,

We just went through and are finishing up the process. We lived on a farm so some of the things we were keeping as spares and just in case items went to the dump. Some went to the thrift store. Keep sakes and family heirlooms went to other family members and a lot of stuff got sold on e-bay etc. We found that you have to get a bit brutal with ones emotions when going through the process. We also found that even the items we were really attached to weren't missed for very long and in fact you feel much more free when they are gone.

Hope that helps,

[ramblinrod]

We've been sailing about 16 years now, and on about year 2 decided we would head south from Ontario, to liveaboard in our retirement.

So when we moved from our hobby farm 14 years ago, it was to a fairly small house so we wouldn't get too used to big spaces.

At that time, any time we brought something new into the house, I referred to it as "future landfill".

About 10 years ago we adopted a policy, "For anything new coming in, something old leaves."

For the last several years, birthday, anniversary, and Christmas gifts have been trips, clothes, meals, adventures, and jewellery, and boat upgrades for the trip; no house junk.

Last year we started the minimalist shift, actually reducing what was in the house.

This year, will be a big basement and garage purge.

Then we will have 4 more years to pair down until all we have is what will fit on our Douglas 32. A very small boat to liveaboard, but still more than the minimum we need.

[Doodles]

Originally Posted by CaptainsWench

Hello everyone,

I am new to this forum in posting but have been following your posts. We just bought our new beautiful Sailboat and will be downsizing from a 4 bedroom house with all the years of "stuff" you gather for 20+ years. Due to winter months, yard sales are out of the question. I have started selling items on Ebay for the large items, but how did you get rid of all that little stuff? The sooner we get this taken care of, the quicker we will be off to our new adventure. Thanks.

We used CraigsList. It's free and localized for your area.

craigslist: galveston classifieds for jobs, apartments, personals, for sale, services, community, and events

[mikefossl]

"Does it fit on a boat?" That was my refrain for the last three years before we finally took the plunge.

I have to say that purging all our possessions that wouldn't was surprisingly satisfying.