Before you set sail, how did you eliminate all your STUFF?

[suenodelmar]

A great resource for downsizing is the book "Clutter's Last Stand" by Don Aslett. Among many other things, he recommends going from room to room, sorting everything into three large, heavy-duty garbage bags and one box. Label them:

1. JUNK -- unused or useless items. Dump it.

2. CHARITY-- items useable by others. Donate it.

3. SORT-- useable by you but you have not decided where to put it. Keep it, but sort it again in a month, pulling out the things you really do need. Eventually get rid of the rest of the stuff in the bag, dump, sell or donate it.

4. EMOTIONAL WITHDRAWAL BOX-- items for which you have an emotional attachment, even though they probably have no use to you or to anyone else, but it seems a sacrilege to discard them. While de-cluttering, don't let arguments with your emotions slow you down. Just put them in the box. When complete, write the date on the box. Six months or a year later, you will have forgotten what you put in the box. DO NOT OPEN IT. Just donate it or dump it.

NOW, REJOICE!

A helpful website is minimalist.com.

NOW, GET 'ER DONE.

[RickG]

We are down the boat, no storage, and two cars. Both cars are being sold in September with buyers in place. We are heading south and not coming back.

Downsizing is hard work. A lot of your prized possessions have no value to anyone else. I took photos of those items and they went in the trash. That was the hardest part.

Salvation Army will pickup anything, except alcohol related item and furniture with any pet hair. They have clear guidelines on valuing your donation for a tax donation. TurboTax Its Deductible values items at a higher value.

Clothes and books are easiest to get rid of. Salvation Army requires the books to be box and they like the paper backs and hard backs boxed separately; the paper backs go to their prison ministry, but the hard backs cannot. Donating clothes and books gets you a better tax write off than selling them, if your tax rate is 10% or higher. Clothing usually sells for significantly less.

CDs and DVDs take up a lot of space. We ripped both and sold the lot.

60% no-show rate for free items through Craigslist, Freecycle, etc.

Best prices were on ebay, Craigslist, then yard sale

Tools sell well at yard sales

More at: https://dinghylife.wordpress.com/201...-big-downsize/

Chris DiCroce writes 'Downsizing Tips for Future Liveaboard Sailors': Downsizing Tips for Future Liveaboard Sailors

Everyone I know who has downsized to the boat ended up with more stuff than they could fit on the boat. They either downsized to a reasonable amount of paid more than the items were worth in storage fees.

Cheers, RickG

[AKA-None]

Originally Posted by Davidhoy

We're in the same boat, no pun intended. We have the boat (a Morgan 462), and are doing some important (to us) upgrades, with a solid plan to move aboard next summer - already found the dock that will take the boat, us, and our two big dogs ;-). Starting to downsize, but it's a challenge. Trying to avoid the storage unit thing too.

One thing I've been considering is buy a good sized cargo trailer, and section off the front end for storage, and make a small workshop in the back end. We can then keep it onsite at the marina while we finish the refit (while living aboard), then put everything we want to keep into the trailer and stash that somewhere safe while we're off sailing. Anyone done something like this? Obviously we need a good water and bug-proof trailer, with some ventilation to prevent mold, etc.

Regards,
David

We did this the first time and stuffed items into a trailer. If when we do it again we’ll probably just use a small container and set it on some bare land that we have. It could be made damp and bug proof for not much $$
Eventually we will need what we kept if we live long enough. But based on Ann and Jim maybe not :-)

Oh one other thing, the new tax laws are making radical changes to donations due to how itemization has been eviscerated.

[CharlesV]

Few thoughts on a huge topic.

1. Unless something IS valuable, like artwork, it really has no value except the utility it gives YOU. This is why people usually overprice their stuff, they think the whole world needs that same utility in their life. They dont. Shocked?

2. Here is a method my friend recently did and it worked like magic. He is dumping huge amounts and offered me my picks of DVD movies. He brought a batch of about 400 and we met at a Starbucks. He was unloading the boxes from his car and out of the blue, people started appearing and looking at the open boxes which were now next to the car. I thought this was pretty interesting and told him to just wait a bit and see what happens. Soon he had a small crowd and sold them all for $1/disc in about 30 minutes. Next day he brought another batch of 400, plus other stuff to a supermarket parking lot, put the open boxes next to the car and sold all of that too in less than an hour.

3. I dont wish to repeat previous posts ive made on the topic but I started cleaning out and selling about a year ago. Seriously, I have never wasted so much TIME in my whole life. The effort to clean, sort, and manage the selling and disposal of stuff far exceeds what you paid for them in the first place.

My method is to list everything at a cheap price and if it doesnt sell within 3 months, I cut 50% off and if it doesnt sell in 30 days then straight to the dumpster. I listed two nearly new printers that cost me almost $500 each. I asked for $100 each. They didnt sell, so I marked them $50 each and still no closing so the other night I marched to the dumpster and gotta say it broke my heart. But the worst part was all the fking times I got calls on those and other stuff: "wow, amazing deal! I'll be there in an hour! save it for me!" And I never heard from them again. You can make the money back but never the TIME. Thats the extreme killer here.

4. If something is valuable, give to someone reputable to sell on your behalf at the maximum possible price and put it out of your mind. Otherwise, think twice about "stuff" and the time you are willing to commit to basically a worthless venture. Are you truly willing to put 20 hours of time to get $50 back which is itself already a huge loss?

5. Unfortunately, many people figure-in the sales of stuff into the coming boat. "Well, the boat is $40,000 and SURE we can get $15,000 for our stuff, so really the boat only costs $25,000." How many times have i heard this. Then they get $1,800 for the sad junk and cry all the way to West Marine where they then learn $1,800 takes them NO PLACE. If you go into a place like West Marine with only $1,800 in your pocket after the sale of all your goods you sacrificed for that boat, only one thing in going to happen and thats that 10 years from now you will still wont be able to shake the echos of all the people in the shop who were LAUGHING at you.

6. Dump dead dirt cheap or free: furniture, appliances and electronics. I wont sell any hand tools or related parts, in fact im still accumulating. Big tools: Ok if you have CNC or milling equipment in your garage-shop, consider renting them out instead of selling. My friends who opened a printing business didnt have $500,000 for a secondhand Heidelberg press but they did have enough to rent-lease one. Even a car or truck can become a rental in the right circumstance.

7. Dont be so fast to dump anything. I knew boaters who sold out everything and after two years they gave up and went home---to nothing--and had to start all over. For new boaters, at least store everything for a year or two to make sure that life is for you.

8. Dont be so fast to dump anything. Out there, there is an undercurrent of contrarian thinking about sea/land life. I know people who sold their boats for land. A boat cant sustain your life the way a mini-farm can, like in SHTF. Pigs, chickens, vegetables, fences, this is life, you can eat them or trade them. Example, if you keep everything for now and leave USA for the boating life, you might find that after a few years that you love another country and want to buy a little piece of land and build a house. In that case you can ship all of your stuff to your new life and eliminate the cost of buying everything new again. If, because of logistics or economics you must sell out first, yes go ahead but think twice, too, think ahead the best you can.

9. Let the current round of these machinations be the guide for the future. Think THRICE about what you buy from now on. For a long time now I have not bought anything I wanted, only what I desperately needed. Never again these *&#^ dumping exercises.

[buzzstar]

Photos, letter, and maybe art are the only things to keep aside from appropriate and necessary clothing, tools, and sailing books and instruments. Forget value on the rest. Sell what you can at a fire sale price, donate the rest, and what they dp not take, have hauled away. You can handle the sale yourself if so inclined, or have someone do it for a share of the proceeds. I think it was Alka Seltzer, which in my younger years had a slogan, "Oh, what a relief it is." It really is.

[nomadRD]

Also currently in process of ridding ourselves of things. The Boat Galley just did a nice brief article about this very topic. My first thing was to get rid of any higher end collector items on ebay. Next was the first rental of the dumpster to clear out basement crap. Then we bought a house for mom in law nearby where we will store our small amount of possessions and live temporarily while we are getting our much larger house ready for sale. We are dumping all of our lawn equipment and tools there that we won't take with us as well. We figured the cost of storage too high, among other issues with it. After several weeks, we rented the next dumpster and filled that up in a day. Geez, TOO MUCH STUFF! While some items were not an issue, I hated throwing away clothes and books but the work of packing them all up and distributing is daunting while at a full time job. It was easier to slip in an extra bag of trash or two in the weekly collection than haul all of that around town. All pictures are de-framed (trash) and packed in an archival box inside a plastic bin, which also contains small mementos of Christmas ornaments, kids things and so on. The best advice is to take pictures and send them around or list on a website if you have one. I didn't want to deal with Craigslist or a garage sale and unknown people. Letgo not working either. I've gotten rid of kitchen appliances through people I work with. My husband came home two weeks ago and announced that he sold our dining room set and our bedroom set to a coworker after he expressed an interest. I snapped and texted the picture of the furniture and it was a done deal. As of last week, I am now sleeping on mattress and box spring on the floor and my "dresser" is plastic bins. One last thought is on clothes. I got those large vacuum ziplocs for clothes that I may need again one day (think snow and hunting gear) but have no intention of throwing out. The bags are great. I also have also been going through all my clothes and being honest about what I might wear again. I figure without a job, that will reduce my clothes collection greatly (bonfire in two weeks, LOL). Second is to get rid of what I will never wear because I don't fit now or because it's a tshirt or other item that has semi-sentimental value. I'll have three things to wear, but hey, then you're following the "only buy when it's time to replace something" mentality which I hear serves one greatly when space is an issue. Good luck!

[TeddyDiver]

I'm right now into the very prosess. Gave to teens club some 500DVD's. Leaving the furniture to the next tennant. Still a lot of other things to go, fortunately I have several months time..

Teddy

[Siberian Sea]

Divorce really thinned out the pile

[Mike Banks]

Do you have any relative prepared to let you put a shipping container anywhere on their property provided you paint it white? It is astonishing how much crap one can stash in such a large moderately secure box. I have one currently stashed out of sight in a shed.

It contains HEAPS of stuff I thought important when I stowed it.

[Makena05]

We took a year, once we decided to leave, and started by pulling "stuff" out of the attic that hadn't been used in years. Most of it was unsalable (and we hate garage sales as well) so we donated the goods to charity. Phase two was more of the same, but from closets in the house. Phase three had the previous boat and one car up for sale, as well as the house. BTW we tried to offer our children the pick of our "stuff"....not interested! The final phase had the previous boat sold, one car sold, house under contract....and we literally donated what we were not taking with us, packed up what we decided to take (which was WAY too much) and shipped it. Two weeks later we boarded a plane and caught up with our boat in the BVI. The final car (an old Jeep) was given to a daughter....we told her to "do whatever you want with it"....We placed a few items in another daughter's attic (art, tax records, pictures....3 boxes). We have been enjoying a simpler life ever since. Good Luck!

[LoudMusic]

Storage for the stuff to keep (we have a cheap rent house).

Craigslist the big stuff.

Garage sale the little stuff.

Goodwill what's left.

We had spent about 11 years acquiring some very nice things and taking very good care of them. I was shocked at the response on Craigslist. The inexpensive "IKEA" items would often go for 80+% of what we paid for them. The high quality expensive stuff would only get offers of about 20% of what we paid for them. A few things we kept (dining table) because I couldn't bear to part with a $1600 item for only $300.

[PLANET EXPRESS]

We have had 2 garage sales so far what does not get sold goes in back of truck and off to charity shop thinking 2 more and then an estate sale where we open house and sell what’s left nothing goes to storage.
Other items on Craig’s list and pictures gone through scanned and put on thumb drive.
It is 30 years of stuff I am amazed at the amount accumulated.
Getting so close to just going hope to be off within a year now.

[john61ct]

Originally Posted by LoudMusic

A few things we kept (dining table) because I couldn't bear to part with a $1600 item for only $300.

Fatal flaw for many. Storage costs will usually very quickly cost more than the stuff will ever fetch.

Just give it a good home

[zeehag]

after keeping much STUFF for ever, i found dumpsters are our friends, especially those that are fairly clean in homeless areas so folks can benefit from your tossings. close eyes, toss. say bye bye. generally items not in use for 6 months to a year are for garbage or other folks.
funny how the loss into dumpster is not painful. very easy and clean. say bye bye works well. happy sails.

[chris mac]

Originally Posted by Makena05

We took a year, once we decided to leave, and started by pulling "stuff" out of the attic that hadn't been used in years. Most of it was unsalable (and we hate garage sales as well) so we donated the goods to charity. Phase two was more of the same, but from closets in the house. Phase three had the previous boat and one car up for sale, as well as the house. BTW we tried to offer our children the pick of our "stuff"....not interested! The final phase had the previous boat sold, one car sold, house under contract....and we literally donated what we were not taking with us, packed up what we decided to take (which was WAY too much) and shipped it. Two weeks later we boarded a plane and caught up with our boat in the BVI. The final car (an old Jeep) was given to a daughter....we told her to "do whatever you want with it"....We placed a few items in another daughter's attic (art, tax records, pictures....3 boxes). We have been enjoying a simpler life ever since. Good Luck!

Hey makena05, in regards to shipping stuff. I have been wondering about that as we get closer to buying. Was the cost and hassle of shipping worth it?
I debate back and forth with myself. Sell everything and buy new with the boat, or keep what I need and ship it? I'm thinking mostly of tools, kitchen/galley stuff, bedding, ect.
The clothes we bring will probably fit in suitcases.
From a hind sight point of view, what would you say?