Anyone here sold their Land House "Stuff" to move aboard??

[indiana_ct]

We have recently sold our house to move on board and sail away.
Originally we had the notion of selling everything but we have quite a few special things that could probably never be replaced and we knew there was a chance we might want to come back and maybe never sail again.

We started decluttering more than a year before we sold. We knew we had a huge amount of stuff, not all of which was worth keeping. As with the house, the question was " will we still want and need this if we come back in five years?"
Our house sale included quite a lot of the furniture. Other things were sold via eBay, Facebook or given to family.
I did some sums on keeping the house and found that the returns in renting were not that great and if we stayed away longer we were likely to face a hefty capital gains tax bill on its sale.
So, we bought insulated shipping containers for our remaining possessions and now rent a yard from a family member to keep them in.
We did not use the house proceeds to buy the boat so we can probably still buy a house in the future.
I am also winding up my now dormant business so I don't have obligations for annual/quarterly returns.
We want to sail, live on wind and solar power and experience the earth and oceans. We don't want to be worrying about problems with the house, tenants, late VAT returns or renting storage for years on end.
In summary, dont sell what you would regret, don't make it impossible to ever return, Do take the opportunity for a life with less stuff and more joy.

[Terrapin]

About five years before we were planning to sell the house and move aboard, our house was burglarized. Many of my precious possessions were stolen or trashed. I was upset at first -- the burglary was bad enough, but then the police trampled through -- but after a few days, I began to realize that it was all just stuff. Some of the stuff was attached to memories (my father's watch, my mother's necklace, my grandmother's engagement ring) but I still had the memories.

When it came time to sell the house get rid of our possessions, it was all just stuff. Stuff can be replaced.

[Taichungman]

Back in the 80's my wife, kids and I were planning on selling the farm and moving aboard a sailboat. We had taken sailing lessons in San Diego and owned a sailboat on a lake for a few years. We went through the same dilemma whether to sell everything or store.

We wanted to start our adventure in California so flew there to look at some boats. While we were gone the house burned down. Not the best outcome but problem solved.

I guess what I'm getting at is that we didn't really miss anything in the long run except the pictures. It's mostly just stuff and letting it go can take a load off your shoulders.

[iSaint]

Downsized from 2,300 sq ft to 1,200. Now getting ready to move aboard. I put my goods in a storage unit for my kids to have when they get their own places.

[lesterbutch]

Believe me, sell it, give it to your friends, donate it to charity, whatever! Just don't put it in storage! I did that, it cost me a fortune, only to later throw most of it away!

[Flyingriki]

Originally Posted by lesterbutch

Believe me, sell it, give it to your friends, donate it to charity, whatever! Just don't put it in storage! I did that, it cost me a fortune, only to later throw most of it away!

Ditto! Did the same and could have bought everything two times for the storage fees, and gotten NEW stuff!!
Now doing it again and trying to figure out how to sell, donate everything...

[geosailing]

Parrots

[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by geosailing

Parrots

Of the Caribbean?

[SVRocinante]

We just finished selling this past January (2017) & moved aboard in March.. this response will be a bit lengthy, but hopefully it will give you some ideas.

We've been married for 38+ years, so lot's of stuff! Although I must say, we're not typical consumers - for example, we only had 1 TV - The Horror!

We're also not "yard sale" people; I'm not suggesting that there is anything wrong with yard sales, it just pisses me off to no end when someone wants to knock down my $150 item that I'm letting go for $25 down to $5!

I'd throw it on the ground and stomp on it before selling it to them for & I don't like that side of me!

So we sold off our major items via Craigslist - Snow Blower, Patio furniture, all my stationary woodworking tools, a large saltwater aquarium and misc furniture... not our better pieces for similar reasons as stated above.

Then we sorted out the things we felt we wanted to take with us on the boat. This was obviously difficult, so we simply decided to not second guess ourselves - "Do we really NEED it?" We put it aside, no questions asked; our favorite pots & pans, coffee grinder, china & crystal, clothes, shoes, pocketbooks, tools, etc.

We put all of that stuff in a 5x10 storage unit, knowing perfectly well, that not all would make the final cut, but it made the process easier.

The one exception was our Christmas stuff and our books - we have 17 bins, yes bins, of Christmas decorations (wife put together 14 natural wreaths every year for our home). Those we've stored at my brother's house. Not quite sure what the eventual decision will be, but if it comes down to it, we did seperate out one bin's worth of our "favorite" ornaments that will go on the boat with us.

Then we proceeded to donate! We donated the vast majority of our stuff to the Vets; bags & bags of clothes (many with tags still on them) including all of my suits (except for 2), bicycles, golf clubs, pots & pans, books, exercise equipment,
toasters, our "everyday" china & glassware, household decor, etc., etc., etc.

Finally, the rest of the top quality stuff we gave away to friends and family.

I had inventoried every box in the storage unit, so when we started the move onto the boat, we chose the "must haves" first and put them away - A place for everything and everything in it's place!

Then we went back for more boxes of stuff!
This made it simple, in order to bring something onto Rocinante, something else had to go!

I started to give stuff away to the yard people and put things in the FreeCycle bin - no, we couldn't keep all of our pots & pans, so we chose key ones and got rid of the rest.

While I originally had a place for my computer printer, something else ended up taking presedence , so I use the library to print stuff out.

There was only one place on Rocinante that would hold our stemware - goodbye microwave! Yes, I'm serious and it's now August and we have not regretted any of the individual decisions we've made.

We continued this process through 4 subsequent trips back to the storage locker. Lamps we thought would be nice to have, simply don't fit in the smaller space.

We've hung our artwork using heavy-duty Velcro - if it didn't fit, it was history!

The locker is now down to a few more boxes of tools, clothes & misc stuff... Rocinante is full and we have no desire to simply jam things into the quarter berth... we didn't do that in our previous home, we're not about to do it now.

So, as time goes by, we'll see which things make the cut and which things don't. In 1 yrs time, we'll empty the locker of everything... total cost approximately $1,400. A small price to pay to slow the process down a bit and allow us to adjust and validate our assumptions.

Anyway, hope this helps!

[CaptsWife]

Originally Posted by SVRocinante

We just finished selling this past January (2017) & moved aboard in March.. this response will be a bit lengthy, but hopefully it will give you some ideas.

We've been married for 38+ years, so lot's of stuff! Although I must say, we're not typical consumers - for example, we only had 1 TV - The Horror!

We're also not "yard sale" people; I'm not suggesting that there is anything wrong with yard sales, it just pisses me off to no end when someone wants to knock down my $150 item that I'm letting go for $25 down to $5!

I'd throw it on the ground and stomp on it before selling it to them for & I don't like that side of me!

So we sold off our major items via Craigslist - Snow Blower, Patio furniture, all my stationary woodworking tools, a large saltwater aquarium and misc furniture... not our better pieces for similar reasons as stated above.

Then we sorted out the things we felt we wanted to take with us on the boat. This was obviously difficult, so we simply decided to not second guess ourselves - "Do we really NEED it?" We put it aside, no questions asked; our favorite pots & pans, coffee grinder, china & crystal, clothes, shoes, pocketbooks, tools, etc.

We put all of that stuff in a 5x10 storage unit, knowing perfectly well, that not all would make the final cut, but it made the process easier.

The one exception was our Christmas stuff and our books - we have 17 bins, yes bins, of Christmas decorations (wife put together 14 natural wreaths every year for our home). Those we've stored at my brother's house. Not quite sure what the eventual decision will be, but if it comes down to it, we did seperate out one bin's worth of our "favorite" ornaments that will go on the boat with us.

Then we proceeded to donate! We donated the vast majority of our stuff to the Vets; bags & bags of clothes (many with tags still on them) including all of my suits (except for 2), bicycles, golf clubs, pots & pans, books, exercise equipment,
toasters, our "everyday" china & glassware, household decor, etc., etc., etc.

Finally, the rest of the top quality stuff we gave away to friends and family.

I had inventoried every box in the storage unit, so when we started the move onto the boat, we chose the "must haves" first and put them away - A place for everything and everything in it's place!

Then we went back for more boxes of stuff!
This made it simple, in order to bring something onto Rocinante, something else had to go!

I started to give stuff away to the yard people and put things in the FreeCycle bin - no, we couldn't keep all of our pots & pans, so we chose key ones and got rid of the rest.

While I originally had a place for my computer printer, something else ended up taking presedence , so I use the library to print stuff out.

There was only one place on Rocinante that would hold our stemware - goodbye microwave! Yes, I'm serious and it's now August and we have not regretted any of the individual decisions we've made.

We continued this process through 4 subsequent trips back to the storage locker. Lamps we thought would be nice to have, simply don't fit in the smaller space.

We've hung our artwork using heavy-duty Velcro - if it didn't fit, it was history!

The locker is now down to a few more boxes of tools, clothes & misc stuff... Rocinante is full and we have no desire to simply jam things into the quarter berth... we didn't do that in our previous home, we're not about to do it now.

So, as time goes by, we'll see which things make the cut and which things don't. In 1 yrs time, we'll empty the locker of everything... total cost approximately $1,400. A small price to pay to slow the process down a bit and allow us to adjust and validate our assumptions.

Anyway, hope this helps!

Great post, thanks!

[SVRocinante]

Originally Posted by CaptsWife

Great post, thanks!

You're most welcome - I hope it helps.