When you finally have to get rid of all your stuff

[Birdseed]

Originally Posted by BandB

That's where good estate sale people come in handy. In a month they have it all gone. And the door knobs may be worth a lot. Assume some older fancy ones.

No, the door knobs are "Post Bush Era"

They want to sell as much as possible to maximize their fee. I think the house is more desirable with appliances. The 2500 sq ft garage with a half bath needs to be heated, they want to sell both furnaces.

I just got off the phone with another auctioneer. He sounds a little more educated. He'll stop by tomorrow.

[dpddj]

We (okay, I) have been trying to downsize for a couple years, buying only what I need, not want and getting rid of things bit by bit. Last year when wife's dad died, she had a UHaul pod shipped with all the crap her siblings did not want. Now I am stuck with stuff that will sit in boxes until she/we die and the kids get to toss it out.
When I/we get ready to leave next year, she will have her hands full.

[fjwiley1]

This has been a great thread.....Downsizing is very rewarding,not necessarily monetarily. It's been 2 years since we rid of so much "stuff" and have enjoyed not going back to old ways.
The reward of living on a boat is how little it takes to be Happy. Be Happy for what you have and not worry about what your neighbor has.

Life is good if you Keepa Smilin.....




Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by dannc

I have been pondering how we would sell stuff we no longer needed and having an auction finally popped into my head. Flip side, is that most of the valuable stuff we have, like my tools, would be needed on the boat. Some power tools would get sold but I could sell them for more money on Craigslist.

My big problem is books. I have lots of them that I want to keep and that are worth quite a bit of money. I figured we would have to store some things but that storage is going to cost a lot of money and is it really worth it....

We have some furniture made by a family member. This furniture is very important to me but once I am gone will the kids want it? Should I just sell it now and be done with it? Hard decision....

The reality is that we don't have much that we really want to keep. There are things we need that would go to the boat but we have very few things we would want to keep that would have to go to storage. This is good of course but we do have SOME stuff that has to go to storage.

I am seriously thinking of getting rid of anything that can't go on the boat. It had been tough to think about at first but it gets easier over time...

Later,
Dan

Dan,

I think one of the worst things we did was not give the important stuff to the kids. If you're leaving on an open ended journey, you may be gone way too long to keep on supporting the storage locker, it doesn't make sense for most of us.

I feel for you about the books, but just maybe there are still some book lovers who would be proud to have them, and isn't it ultimately "better" if someone has the use and pleasure of them than they sit gathering dust?

In your shoes, I think I'd ask the kids whether they'd want the family member's hand made furniture. If not, the same principle applies: in the event you're gone more than ten years, at $200 per month or so, will it have been worth it to you to retain?

What was difficult for me when we left was to dismantle my kitchen in the house where I had raised my family. I just donated everything to Salvation Army. I kept my favorite loaf pan, and last year, I brought back my ball bearing rolling pin to this boat, got tired of using a wine bottle for a rolling pin.

Ann

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

Dan,

I think one of the worst things we did was not give the important stuff to the kids. If you're leaving on an open ended journey, you may be gone way too long to keep on supporting the storage locker, it doesn't make sense for most of us. ........................................

This may not always work. We were passing our surplus "stuff" to our daughter, but now she, her husband and our grandson have moved aboard.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Hudson Force

This may not always work. We were passing our surplus "stuff" to our daughter, but now she, her husband and our grandson have moved aboard.

Somehow, that sounds like a success story to me!

A.

[dannc]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

Dan,
I think one of the worst things we did was not give the important stuff to the kids. If you're leaving on an open ended journey, you may be gone way too long to keep on supporting the storage locker, it doesn't make sense for most of us.

Yeah, I don't know think it will be practical or affordable.

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

I feel for you about the books, but just maybe there are still some book lovers who would be proud to have them, and isn't it ultimately "better" if someone has the use and pleasure of them than they sit gathering dust?

I have to groups of books, the books I could afford when I was a kid aka paperbacks and the good, hard backs I could afford as I got older. The paper back books are really trashed out now, just too old, yellowed and the bindings gone. Trash can time really. The hard backs are the problem. Some of them I really want to keep and I do reread books and many of the books are valuable. Some of the books are not valuable to anyone but me since they are old textbooks and I think they would just get recycled at best.

Ironically, we have some very good used book stores locally BUT I NEVER GOT TO THEM! I figured when I moved up here I would be at these stores once a month and I think I have gone twice in over two decades! Go figure. But these same books stores would be interested in buying some of the books if I decided to sell.

About 15 years ago we looked at The Boat Idea but one of the reasons we put The Boat Idea on the back burner was books. I must have something to read and not being able to have books on board means no boat. But then came Kindle and the problem was solved!

I read constantly. The Internet provides lots to read and but I still read books constantly. It is hard to measure how much I read now since so much of it is Internet content but in middles school I was reading a book every day or so. Amazing how much time is wasted in school. Today, I read constantly from the time I get up to the time I go to sleep. Much of it is work related during the day but if not for work I would be reading other stuff

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

In your shoes, I think I'd ask the kids whether they'd want the family member's hand made furniture. If not, the same principle applies: in the event you're gone more than ten years, at $200 per month or so, will it have been worth it to you to retain?

The kids will be able to get the furniture if they want it but I wonder if they will. They never met the people who built or owned the furniture, to them its just words and not memories. Not sure they will really want the stuff. If we are gone for 10 years and its $100 a month to store, I don't think it makes money sense to keep the stuff. It really is an emotional decision and as I have thought about it, I have become more rational/practical/realistic.

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

What was difficult for me when we left was to dismantle my kitchen in the house where I had raised my family. I just donated everything to Salvation Army. I kept my favorite loaf pan, and last year, I brought back my ball bearing rolling pin to this boat, got tired of using a wine bottle for a rolling pin.

Ann

We have some cast iron skillets that have to go on the boat. One was from my wife's grandmother that is so smooth nothing sticks. Nobody in the wife's family wanted the pan so it was given to me! Woo Hoo!

What has surprised us is how little "stuff" we have that we really want. The wife has very little stuff that is important to her, most of the "important" stuff is the furniture pieces and a few other odds and ends. It is not really that much.

Getting rid of the stuff fills me with dread but it is very common in our area to have auctions and get everything sold in one day. Never heard of a sale taking more than one day.

Later,
Dan

[Scott Berg]

I'd done this once before, reentered life, and did again 20 years later. Rule one: keep the stuff you want. We stored academic and art books, art, hand made furniture, china, great tools, etc that we know we'd want in 20 years

We had a yard sale for much of the rest. It ran two days and we sold almost everything; hell, even got an offer on the house.

Storage will cost us $20K over 15 years and we figure we are storing 100K+ of things we'd want, mostly in heirloom furniture, bespoke furniture, framed art, china. crystal, etc. Someday we'll buy a nice little house with a dock for a smaller boat; it will be nice to have some familiar items to furnish it with and we could never part with our books... readers will get that!

[Ex-Calif]

@Danc - Maybe one way to look at the books is "paying it forward."

There is a used paperback stall at the mall here. They sell novels for like 50c or a$1. I aksed them if they want to buy my 200 or so paperbacks - I travel a lot and would buy 2 books a trip before I got the eBook clue.

They said they don't pay for books. When I next move from here my choice is to drop the books with this outfit or donate them to the sailling club library. The club doesn't take care of them and I like the idea that someone will get to read some of these books for 50c. So decision made.

In regards to hard cover, I have a lot of them as well. Some I will never part with - reference and some history stuff. But others I am going to have to give up.

The hardest stuff is the family stuff. I have a (largish) box of stuff my son has made since kindergarten. He is 17 and won't value this for a while. If I give it to him now he will lose it/dump it. He'll want some of it when he has kids.

I have papers I wrote and work I've done since college days. No value except the history of it. Who knows - great grandkids may want to see this stuff.

My grnadfather wrote for radio shows in the 50's. At one point we had all his scripts. During one family move they all got dumped by my parents. I sure wish I had that stuff back.

For those deciding to store - consider a warehouse moving company solution as opposed to self store. I pay $130 a quarter for a couple of large pallets. I have access for free to my stuff 2X/year with prior notice. For teh stuff you absolutely want to keep until the kids get older, you come back etc. This is way cheaper than a storage locker.

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by Scott Berg

................. we could never part with our books... readers will get that!

Maybe not all readers would get that. I won't say that I don't sometimes read a book that I've read before, but most of our books are consumable. Nancie and I both keep an ever changing group of 15 to 20 books, but we're constantly looking for exchanges and leaving those that we've read.

I only have three books that I don't trade away, a diesel mechanics text, a marine eletronics guide, and an old book of sea shanty music & lyrics.

[JPA Cate]

Books on board, well, we have many, and some are keepers, some get loaned to special friends, and most get swapped with other readers. The problem is that more and more are going the Kindle way, so there are less with whom to trade.

I can't help myself, I love books.

Ann

Ann

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

Books on board, well, we have many, and some are keepers, some get loaned to special friends, and most get swapped with other readers. The problem is that more and more are going the Kindle way, so there are less with whom to trade.

I can't help myself, I love books.

Ann

Ann

My sister, brother and I keep threatening to share our kindle libraries. Apparently you loan them to each other easily on Amazon but we haven't spent the time to figure out what buttons to press.

[Hudson Force]

When Nancie and I were married in 1970 she had a set of old Samsonite luggage that held a twelve piece setting of china that her parents had given her. When we bought our first liveaboard boat in 1971 the luggage and china remained in the rafters of my in laws' garage and it stayed there unopened for thirty years. About a dozen years back we gave it to our daughter and it was used for two Thanksgiving dinners. Since she and her husband moved aboard a 36' trawler earlier this year they disposed of much of what they owned. I don't recall asking what happened to that luggage and china. Maybe it's in the rafters of my son-in-law's parent's garage?

There's a great freedom in non-ownership!

[BandB]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

Books on board, well, we have many, and some are keepers, some get loaned to special friends, and most get swapped with other readers. The problem is that more and more are going the Kindle way, so there are less with whom to trade.

I can't help myself, I love books.

Ann

Ann

We have hundreds, perhaps even thousands of books on board. Well, depending on how you define books. If you mean those things with paper and bound then just cruising guides and such that aren't available digitally.

[Bill4]

Five years ago I started offloading my stuff - sold it, gave it to charity shops, dumped it. A year later I only had about 10% of it left and 95% of that will be moving onto the boat with me.

My partner... Different story. After five years she managed to sell, give away or dump about 50% of her stuff.

We finally sold our house at the end of July and moved into a large rented apartment, along with boxes and boxes of her "stuff". So much so that we also had to rent a storage unit. We only gave the keys back to the storage unit about two weeks ago, but now the apartment has become the storage unit. We can't move for boxes of god-knows-what piled up from floor to ceiling. I hate it, I can't live like this. She knows... There have been arguments, full-blown blazing rows... At times it has not been good. She currently has 31 items on ebay... At the present rate of progress I'm naively hopeful that another 6 months should do it.

This dream to go full time liveaboard/cruising is as much hers as mine but it's been absolute agony watching the days, weeks, months and years tick by while she deals with her stuff from her old life (26 years married to someone who hated boats (she loves 'em). They separated a couple of years before we met).

Sorry, I don't know why I'm typing all this on a public forum but the topic struck a chord and I'm having a bad day.