When you finally have to get rid of all your stuff

[autumnbreeze27]

I just wanted to share our experience so that you may benefit from it.

When the house sold we had to unload a lot of stuff, I did not want to pay for a storage unit. We were both under a lot of stress, so we decided to outsource selling all our stuff to an estate company.

The Pro's:
It's tough selling all your stuff, so better to have somebody else do it

The Con's:
They took 40%, but they sold most things for pennies on the dollar. I think most of the time estate sales end up with all the crap that nobody in the family wants, so it's of very little value. We had a lot of good stuff (I did sell as much as I could via ebay/craigslist before the sale) but so much stuff was "donated" that if I could go back in time I would have had an open house for all our friends and said "take what you want" and it probably wouldn't have made that big of a difference in the end $ wise.

The moral of the story I guess is start selling your stuff early, because it takes longer than you think!

[Ex-Calif]

Sounds like your "good" stuff was sold off on craigslist/eBay.

We move every so often and use the opportunity to downsize. We did a 3 day sale.

We had plenty of "good" stuff - Riding and push mowers, leaf blowers, edgers, dirt bikes, pedal bikes some good furniture pieces etc.

We netted 80% of the money on day 1 with about 50% of the items sold. 15% on day 2 with another 25% of the stuff sold with bigger discounts. 5% on Sunday with another 10-15% of the stuff sold.

On day 3 we were giving stuff away. We ended up hauling 10-15% of our stuff to the dump/Goodwill on Monday. Quite hoonestly bric-a-brac and clothes are not a huge seller but they can add "stickiness" as pepole browse the tables.

To your point if we had sold the good stuff on eBay/craigslist the weekend would have been pretty much a bust in terms of wasting our time vs. what we earned.

We netted over $3,000 and I certainly would not have wanted to give 40% to an estate salesperson.

[spostamento nobile]

We've been doing it in stages. We actually have been having fun tracking our 'profits'. We also have done some trading and buying as well. We sold off our 1st round stuff, computers we can't take, peripherals, furniture, and anything electronic that will fetch more now than later. As far as clothing we bundle it and sell it on EBay as lots. Some of the things we have that we know can't go (mixing tables, home stereo, etc) we plan on using until we move aboard, then we are going to give them away to our relatives' kids. It gives us a feeling of being in control, and it also helps fill the time between now and having enough savings to buy a vessel.
Though I have to say the first time I needed a type of cable I just thrown out I was pretty POed.

[Panope]

I want to get rid of all my stuff even though I am not leaving.

Steve

[MarkJ]

Its a pretty heart rending thing to sell all those loved possessions. But then its just a pain when you cant even give your treasures away! We ended up chucking 13 garbage bags of great stuff in the trash!

Worst was some of the expensive things that took so long to admire and buy and then when going cruising you realise they were just pieces of junk to try and pretty up a house but were an metaphoric anchor to a hum drum life.

Theres definitly freedom in getting rid of it all... They were not treasures at all!


Mark

[oldragbaggers]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Its a pretty heart rending thing to sell all those loved possessions. But then its just a pain when you cant even give your treasures away! We ended up chucking 13 garbage bags of great stuff in the trash!

Worst was some of the expensive things that took so long to admire and buy and then when going cruising you realise they were just pieces of junk to try and pretty up a house but were an metaphoric anchor to a hum drum life.

Theres definitly freedom in getting rid of it all... They were not treasures at all!


Mark

This is so very true, Mark. And while I have never been the interior decorator type, still I look around my house at all the "crap" that I just HAD TO HAVE at the time. I wonder now how much boat gear I could buy if I could get the money back for all the stuff I have in this house that I haven't touched and/or barely looked at in the past 5 years. And you are right, it is an anchor, no....it's a mooring.

We are in the process now of starting to clear things out preparing to put the house up for sale in the spring and I honestly can't wait to see it all GONE!!!

The last time we cleared out our house to move onto a boat I made a lot of money on eBay getting rid of all our small stuff. But eBay has changed and it's not as easy as it once was.

[Capt Phil]

Best disposal I ever had was walking out with a change of underwear, a couple of clean shirts and a bottle of gin leaving everything else to my ex and her new boyfriend... No muss, no fuss and no hard feelings. Never looked back... Best move I ever made!
Having attachments to things is never a good idea! Cheers, Phil

[travellerw]

We started organizing and selling "the good stuff" at 1 1/2 years out. Our date is now 11 months away and we have kicked it in high gear. We try to move 1 item (or bundle)every day... Yes I almost feel like crying when I sell stuff for 10 or 15% of what its original price was. Sometimes it was never used (tools).

Some days I hate people... I really really hate people.. The tire kickers who negotiate over e-mail, but disappear once they get the price they wanted. They have no intention of purchasing the item, they just enjoy the haggling. We now have a haggle in person rule..

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Worst was some of the expensive things that took so long to admire and buy and then when going cruising you realise they were just pieces of junk to try and pretty up a house but were an metaphoric anchor to a hum drum life.

Theres definitly freedom in getting rid of it all... They were not treasures at all!


Mark

I've been thinking about this "stuff" question more lately and realize some of this "stuff" hasn't been out of the moving box since I moved 2 houses ago. Just shows how important they really are!

[JTSmith]

Just finished the three-day sale yesterday. Netted a couple grand. My wife is keeping what will fit in her new house (divorcing amicably) which is a third the size of the one we just sold. I' making what will fit in my hatchback (tools, clothes, electronics, charts, etc.). Two problems. First is watching things with GREAT sentimental value go, like my grandfather's Lionel O gauge train set that left in my father's WWII army footlocker. The second was realizing 15 minutes after the washer and dryer left that I had three loads of laundry to do and two more weeks before D-Day to live in the house. Oops. Now down to a couple of wicker chairs and beds. C'est la vie. I'll be aboard for good on November 11th. Woohoo.


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[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by Capt Phil

Best disposal I ever had was walking out with a change of underwear, a couple of clean shirts and a bottle of gin leaving everything else to my ex and her new boyfriend... No muss, no fuss and no hard feelings. Never looked back... Best move I ever made!
Having attachments to things is never a good idea! Cheers, Phil

NICE!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

I've been thinking about this "stuff" question more lately and realize some of this "stuff" hasn't been out of the moving box since I moved 2 houses ago. Just shows how important they really are!

Exactly....

[denverd0n]

My philosophy is, if it hasn't been out of the box in a year then you don't really need it. I also have a philosophy about yard sales: Don't ever put anything back once you've put it out to sell; if it doesn't sell then it gets given away, donated, recycled, or thrown away, but NEVER put back!

Unfortunately, my wife does not subscribe to either of these philosophies.

[svrevelations]

We are actually going through this very process right now. In our case, we are fortunate to have a storage facility, but it it has been one hell of a task. We had to sort "what to keep in storage", "what to throw away" and what to take on board. We have been at it for a month now already - another day or two and we should be done and dusted.

[travellerw]

Personally, I think its easier if you don't have any storage. We do have access to storage, but decided we didn't have anything worth storing. That's just us personally, everyone has a different path.

For me, I was recently involved with 2 estate auctions where both partners had died. In one case, the family lived abroad so everything went to auction. It was crazy, things the couple cherished were sold in "lots" for like $5 or less. That made me come home and really look at my things and ask myself if they would have any value to me after being stored for 5 years. The answer for everything except a few small items was "No, they would not".

Now everything is going. It was hard at first, but get easier with every item.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[autumnbreeze27]

Originally Posted by Nobleshift

Though I have to say the first time I needed a type of cable I just thrown out I was pretty POed.

I know that feeling! Or the stupid thing I've had for 10+ years that I tossed when we moved I could have used like 3 days later. I just take a deep breath, and remind myself that I can replace those items for less than the cost of even 1 month in storage.

We basically walked from most of our stuff, it was very liberating!