How to sell our "Stuff"!

[ShellBack89]

For those full time live aboards, who got rid of most if not all of your "stuff", how'd you do it?


Did you sell it yourself through; Estate Sale, Craigs List, eBay, etc?

• And if so how'd you price everything out?

Did you use an estate sale company?

• Do you feel that the commission was worth the return and hassle?

We are a couple of years away from going full time but we want to start thinning our stuff down now.

[iTom]

Hi,
we are in a similar situation right now as we plan to move onboard next summer. We are both in our early 30's and luckily don't have tons of "stuff".

We started selling the first things 2 years ago, mainly on a European equivalent of craigslist. We constantly have 20-30 items to sell. As this is our last winter we will sell all our winter "stuff" in spring for example. For us this worked out pretty well so far and it is actually quite a relieve seeing less and less stuff in the apartment.

We try to find someone to takeover the apartment (we are renting) who buys most of the furniture.

We only keep "stuff" that goes on board and collect it in labelled boxes.

Hope this helps.

[Mike OReilly]

We started a few years ahead by first stopping any significant accumulation. This was especially firm in the book department. I stopped buying physical books; it had to be digital.

About six months out from Departure Day we first started by giving some stuff away to friends and family. After that we sold some of the higher value items to people we knew valued these things.

I sold many of the remaining higher value items on Kijiji (similar to Craig’s List in Canada). In retrospect this turned out to be the most annoying part of the process. I spent a lot of time managing prospective buyers who could or would not read the ad, who failed to follow through on their commitments, or would haggle over an already ridiculously low price. In the end, I’m not sure the effort was worth the recompense.

The next step was a two day yard sale. This got rid of a lot of stuff, and we netted a nice addition to the cruising kitty this way.

We then donated a whole bunch of stuff that still had some value. And then the final stage was landfill.

Even though we hadn’t accumulated nearly as much stuff as the typical household (the largest house we owned was less than 1000 sq. ft.), it was still a significant effort to get rid of it all.

[SV Bacchus]

We did much the same as Mike O, you will find others don't value your stuff as much as you do. The yard sale thing is a hassle, something bought for $25 is in your sale for $1 or $2 dollars and people offer you a dime. It ends up just pi-sing you off!

Lots of items were donated to local homeless shelters, churches and Goodwill. I took pictures for proof, got acceptable donation prices for the items off Goodwill's website and took a tax deduction for all I donated.

We finally put two sets of homemade wooden shelves (I had made them for storage in our garage) out in the front yard with signs saying "Free if it is on the shelves, the shelves are not free!" I didn't want people throwing the stuff in the yard and taking the shelves. Anyway, everyday we would put new stuff on the shelves and by evening most would be gone.

What you probably have that everyone wants is tools. I gave all those not suitable for the boat to my daughters & sons-in-law. I wasn't going to sell them for rock bottom prices.

In the end, what was left in the house that we were not taking with us stayed in the house when we left!

[Caribbeachbum]

If you're anything like us, you'll find that no matter how new or awesome your furniture is, no one will pay you for it. At least, no more than pennies on the dollar. Likewise for most of your other stuff.

We sold the easy things on Craigslist, eBay, and to friends. By "easy," I mean electric guitars and amps, late-model desktop computers, shop tools, and so on. For everything else, we used a company similar to "Everything But The House." They came in and took all of our remaining stuff like movers, only for "free." And then they sold it, or what they could sell anyway. And they sent us checks. We're not talking about a lot of money here. Essentially they paid us to move our stuff, plus a little extra.

Best of luck.

[Mike OReilly]

One thing to consider is, what is your main purpose during the sell off? If you are trying to recoup a significant amount of what you paid for all your stuff, then you are likely in for a long, hard emotional slog. As Caribbeachbum says, you’re never going to be more than pennies on the dollar for most of your stuff (which is really just junk).

If, as in our case, your main purpose is to just want to get rid of it all, then whatever money you make is gravy.

Never head of anything like "Everything But The House.” Wish I had. It sounds like a great idea.

[Chotu]

eBay. No reserve!!

It'll go.

[WingRyder]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

One thing to consider is, what is your main purpose during the sell off? If you are trying to recoup a significant amount of what you paid for all your stuff, then you are likely in for a long, hard emotional slog. As Caribbeachbum says, you’re never going to be more than pennies on the dollar for most of your stuff (which is really just junk).

If, as in our case, your main purpose is to just want to get rid of it all, then whatever money you make is gravy.

Never head of anything like "Everything But The House.” Wish I had. It sounds like a great idea.

This is one of several in my area:
https://collegehunkshaulingjunk.com

I am like you, I don't want the hassle of dealing with random people coming through my house and sniffing through my stuff. When the time comes, I just want it gone. I have a few things that I have already given to friends and family, but the rest is mostly old IKEA stuff anyway, and not worth much.

The time and hassle of a yard sale does not appeal to me either, plus, the HOA here would throw a fit! lol.

[LoudMusic]

Craigslist the big stuff, garage sale the little stuff, donate the rest.

In reality your stuff isn't worth as much to anyone else as it is to you. Don't expect to get much for it.

[hellosailor]

ebay can be a surprise. The rules for what and how to post a listing keep changing from time to time. You, as the seller, have to guarantee fulfillment and there is no option to charge the bidder for shipping insurance, you have to simply eat the cost on that, presumably by padding something else. Feedback ratings are nearly useless as well, a few years back they went to a system that allows negative feedback to be disappeared.

Then there are the bidders...some will file a complaint that they received an empty box, or the wrong item. I've actually had ebay support tell me You should make a video showing you packing the item". Right, sure. You name it, there's someone working a better-than-Nigerian scam on ebay. It can make the parade of tricksters working Craigslist look like boy scouts.
There's something to be said about hiring one of the folks who will take charge, do an "estate clearance" and yes, they work for their slice.

[PLANET EXPRESS]

Got rid of a few items on Craig’s list got sick of dealing with emails and lookey loos. Had garage sale that ended filling truck with items to charity, look into charity find a good one and keep taking truck loads. Return on items was just not worth spending time listing, managing, haggling, waiting, calling texting just let it go it is quite liberating not having so much.

[Cheechako]

Yard sale, Craig's List. If you have a ton you could try an estate sale company.. Have you cruised extensively? Remember, not everyone decides to do it long, which is fine, but you may want to store some stuff for a while first...
I've seen a number of cruises last a month or two, and a number a year or two. And two divorces which occurred very fast. Just sayin', you dont have to swallow hook line and sinker right off the bat!

[apirate]

We are going through this right now. In the last three weeks we’ve done our own estate sale - open 4 days. Here’s what we did:

- friend only Facebook event invite for those we know to come buy stuff

- posted the estate sale in buy/sell groups on Facebook

- posted estate sale in the neighborhood app.

- posted items worth over 500 in value on Facebook marketplace.

We’ve sold ~22k worth of stuff with that process. Now although there’s lots of stuff left it’s all going to goodwill. Fortunately we own a moving company so we’ll just have a crew come pick it all up and make it go away.

House will be on the market Monday.

[Lost Horizons]

Small items - dumpster.
Large items - the Salvation Army.
Firearms and ammo - local gun shop.

[stainless guy]

We are working through the same thing,

Same as what everything else here has posted

High dollar items easy to sell via variations of the above methods

Selecting items to bring with on our boat or in our case move to the ski hill vacation rental we will have once our acreage sells

What we can't get money for either goes in the garbage or we donate/give away it's been fairly easy so far. But still have a business to fold up along with a significant amount of machinery and tools to sell. This may be an auction or open estate sale