How to Get Rid of All Your Stuff
 

Any suggestions on how to divest yourself from all the stuff that has accumulated in your old house before moving to TV?

Re: How to Get Rid of All Your Stuff
 

I would also like to know the answer to this question - especially the emotional aspect of parting with my "treasures."

Re: How to Get Rid of All Your Stuff
 

Re: How to Get Rid of All Your Stuff
 

For things that are reusable but not acceptable by Goodwill's, etc. standards, join freecycle.org in your neighborhood. It's a great way to give things to people who need them.

Re: How to Get Rid of All Your Stuff
 

We rented a dumpster. Threw out most of the basement and garage. Figured old tools could be replaced with nice new ones if needed (saws and garden stuff etc). Husband is retired and doesn't want to do any work. Anything good offered to relatives or gave to GoodWill. Had over 20 boxes of Christmas stuff that I reduced to 5. You just have to take a very hard look at what you want to keep. I do wish I had kept more of my garden tools. 1/2 of our furniture we sold with the house to include appliances. We had planned that everything was old when we would retire and move. Only good thing was freezer(2 yrs old) and we decided not to have one. We bought our house here in TV before we sold the other one. We had sizes for all the rooms and knew where we were placing everything large in size. Old pictures on walls stayed (hid fading areas) as we wanted a different decorating look. Last house we lived in for 22 years. Bedroom set was older than 20 yrs so that went to charity. If things are small and can't decide, then take them.

Packed our boxes ourselves except for what we wanted covered by insurance. Our car carried things we didn't want to lose, computer, safe, photos and things like that.

Best not to move during summer as heat will affect some of the things you bring down. Do not pack any candles in moving van boxes. They melted and ruined some of my stuff and that was my fault. I also broke some of my CHristmas ornaments.

So sad to see it all go. Space in houses here are at a premium. Store stuff under beds and bought a platform bed with drawers and plenty of dresser space.

I did keep a bit of my winter clothes for emergency trips back home.

Downsized to one van and now a golf cart.

Hope that helps!

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We had an auction. Made $11,000. It was like magic. I stood there and watched $200,000 worth of stuff chang into $11,000. But, hey, it paid for the move.

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Jan, how does one go about having an aution?

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We give our stuff away on FreeCycle. No money changes hands and they come and pick up the items.

We also donate many of our items to the Battered Womens Shelter and to another self help organization - once again no money is received for these items.

There is a Lakeland FreeClycle if you still have items you want to give away.

Hyacinth Bucket

Re: How to Get Rid of All Your Stuff
 

I just love Jan's answer. I just read it to my husband, who is the pack rat in our marriage. He keeps saying that when we sell the house and move to TV (oh happy day) he will be able to throw out stuff. Then I start pointing out things he says, "no not that, we got that when....." or "but our daughter/sons gave that to us, it would hurt her/their feelings" Our daughter and sons have said it wouldn't hurt their feelings to get rid of old stuff they gave us and I believe them. After all, the more we get rid of now the less they will have to deal with when they inherit this stuff. This is going to be fun when the time comes. But regardless we will be moving to TV so we can handle anything.

Re: How to Get Rid of All Your Stuff
 

Over the years we have accumulated a house,cellar and barn filled to the rafters with STUFF! My being a packrat has not helped. Hubby says hes just going to call in a few dumpsters and start tossing. I think Jan had the right idea, call an auctioneer to sell whatever you just cant use anymore. Alot of the auctioneers will come and pick up all your things to take to auctiion. Of course you will never get back the money you spent initially on these items but a move to TV is worth the loss.

However , I agree it is very hard to part with sentimental items.

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When we sold our home up north we threw in the SNOW SHOVELS to sweeten the deal! ::)

Re: How to Get Rid of All Your Stuff
 

ahhhhhhh, to never have to look at a snow shovel again! pity us, we had 6 inches today and a high of 20 degrees cold

Garage Sale Results
 

At the conclusion of the second day of our garage sale a neighbor congratulated us heartily for taking in a little more than $1,000. My response was to observe that it doesn't take a marketing rocket scientist to sell over $10,000 worth of "stuff" for $1,000.

One piece of advice: You simply cannot get rid of enough stuff before you move to TV. Regardless of how hard you try, you'll move stuff here that you don't need, you'll never use and you won't have room to store.

If when you begin sorting thru stuff to determine what should go, all of the following should definitely "go"...[br]

• Anything you haven't laid eyes on in the last two years
• Anything related to winter or snow
• Almost all suits, ties or formal ball gowns
• Most power tools (are you really going to "do projects" at your brand new house?)
• All the stuff you intended to sell on eBay but haven't gotten around to photographing and preparing the auction ad
• All that sports equipment you used to use when you were 35

[br]
Even if you do all that religiously...you still won't get rid of enough "stuff". Good luck.

Re: How to Get Rid of All Your Stuff
 

I recently sold several items without any cost through "Instant Auctions".* They sell on ebay, pay for shipping, take the photos, do the write up, handle all the scams from Nigeria, and keep 25% of what the auctioned items sell for.* You just need to be pretty sure the stuff you send them for each separate auction will fetch at least $30 or $40 to make it worth your while.* One way is to group related lower cost items and sell as a lot.

Here is their site with further explanation of how it works:

http://instantauctions.net/

Re: How to Get Rid of All Your Stuff
 

We lived in Vestal, New York. (A suburb of Binghamton). There was a well know antique dealer/auctioneer in the area. I use to see him at the gym where I worked out.

When we decided to move, I called him and asked the procedure for an auction. Here is what we did. We coordinated the auction with the actual move.

We tagged everything that we wanted to keep and had the movers take it out. Then the auctioneer started. They came to the house with a crew of about six people. They gathered up everything that was not tagged and grouped it according to classification. (dishes, silverware, tools, furniture, antiques, junk). They had already erected a large tent in the front yard and had advertised the day and date of the auction. The night before a and the day of the auction, workers were buzzing around the house getting stuff organized. They set up a check out clerk with a computer who handled all of the sales.

At 2 p.m. the day of the auction, a hot dog/ice cream truck and about 300 people with lawn chairs showed up and the auction began. I stood there and watched people clamor over our stuff. The things I thought were worth $500 sold for $50. The things I thought were worth .50 sold for $50. Those things that did not sell, were placed on a large table to the side. At the end of the auction, he auctioned off the entire table of stuff that didn't sell.

After it was all over, the auctioneer kept 30% we got the rest. They then sent a crew into the house to clean out every piece of junk, trash and paper that might have been left there. The house was absolutely empty when they were done.

Was it a good thing to do? It was absolutely the best thing we did associated with our move. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Re: How to Get Rid of All Your Stuff
 

Gee, Jan, why didn't you tell me about this auction set up BEFORE I moved here? It sounds like a great way to do it!!!!

I managed to sell a few things on craigslist, but I don't even want to discuss all the things I just dumped after the movers left.

Re: How to Get Rid of All Your Stuff
 

For regions that do not have a FreeCycle group, there is another similar organization called eCycle, which is a Yahoo group. Our region happens to have both, but that's not the case everywhere. You can post what you want to give away as well as ask for anything that someone else may have posted that you need--or post to ask for something needed. We have used both these groups extensively, and the idea that you're giving something to someone who needs it, with no money changing hands, is pretty satisfying. In addition to these two online organizations, no matter where you are there are community organizations that accept donations. We have a penchant for donating to those that GIVE away rather than SELL the donations they receive, but this is a personal thing; the latter organizations likely do as good work as the former.

Re: How to Get Rid of All Your Stuff
 

I thought we downsized before we moved here, however I still seem to be getting rid of items. I located a thrift shop in Ocala whose profits go towards the Humane Society so I took them a car full of things. My husband went back north after a visit and the car was loaded with winter clothes I had originally thought I could never part with; he will take the clothes to a Salvation Army. I cannot stress enough to the people who have not moved here yet - you will never have the storage space you are use to. I also just realized so many of my Christmas items I always placed on a fire place mantel. Needless to say many of those items will need to remain in boxes unless I decide to get rid of these items as well. The good news is getting rid of so much "stuff" actually felt good! So far I have not missed anything.

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One of my friends advised me to look at my sentimental items and think of them through my children's eyes once they inherit them.
Most of the stuff, the kids will look at and just say "junk" and toss it.
Of course saying that and doing it are two very different things!

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Having been married for over 40 years we have accumulated way too much stuff and it keeps getting moved with us each time even though I do get rid of some of the stuff. This year I have been very critical and going through lots of these items, tossing and selling quite a bit. The kids are really not interested in most of this so I had a big garage sale and priced it to go. I did make about $1300 so at least I got something for it. I still have a lot of furniture to get rid of when we finally sell the house here. Since we live in a small Arkansas town we are still trying to figure out how to get rid of those bigger items.

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I donated a large part of my personal library to local Tampa Bay area libraries before moving to TV and gave a lot of my clothes to a local Palm Harbor Church's clothes for needy people like outlet.

Hard to part with many of those books. >:(

Had to throw away a great deal of books too because the libraries are rather picky on what items they take.

Also tossed about 36 plastic and/or wooden models I had built over the 9 years or so we lived in Palm Harbor, Florida. No room for them here in TV.

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Even though I won't be moving to TV for 2 more yrs, I'm already thinking of things I won't be taking with me. My son and daughter-inlaw have a big new house so I gave them most of my Christmas decorations. They are thrilled and I am happy that my treasures will be in the family and I can visit them when I come back up north for the holidays!

Re: How to Get Rid of All Your Stuff
 

The big debate is it cheaper to buy all new furniture or pay to ship it from up north? What have most people done?

Re: How to Get Rid of All Your Stuff
 

Our friend who moved to TV in June 2006 lived in the family home in Newton, MA. She chose to give a lot of stuff away and the rest she threw away, said that she wanted to begin her life in TV with a new slate. She has absolutely no regrets and doesn't understand why we're having so much trouble getting rid of all of our junk. Intellectually I know she is correct; I couldn't believe my eyes when we visited her for the first time since she'd moved to TV; she looks 10 years younger and is incredibly happy! She moved to TV in her Toyota with a handful of personal items, her ancient dog and a friend to help with the driving . All the furniture in her house she purchased while in TV for the closing so that everything was in it's place when she arrived.

We will try to take her advice; I know it would simplify things but it's tough for us pack rats. 1rnfl

Re: How to Get Rid of All Your Stuff
 

I found the Mark Twain Library before we moved here so instead of selling or giving away my hundreds of books I brought them here with me to give to the MT Library. They loved getting them.

Re: How to Get Rid of All Your Stuff
 

Well we've got three years to rid ourselves of all our junk but,we have actually started allready. We wait for a boring weekend or rainy day and have attacked one room at a time tossing junk and deciding what we will sell on ebay. Allready have gotten rid of dozens of bags of our junk. ;D
Larry & Beverly

Re: How to Get Rid of All Your Stuff
 

I have had great success using craigslist. Stuff sells really fast at decent prices. I placed several ads with pictures, priced it fairly but low and sold most everything I wanted to sell within a week.

Re: How to Get Rid of All Your Stuff
 

It feels really good to be so organized and unburdened by stuff. There is still room for improvement and I have found some things I should have gotten rid of.For instance, way to many winter clothes!!! Husband the pack rat did really well in downsizing.We used a combination of donation to Goodwill, an auction for the antiques, gifts to friends and children,and yard sales. In the end some things did go to the dumpster.
I chose my very favorite antique pieces and they are in the guest room, we call it the New England room.
We brought our dining room table because it had been with us through so many celebrations and I still love the table. To brighten it up a bit I am planning on changing the chairs. We also brought our bedroom set which I really love and it looks great in our room.
Otherwise we bought our personal items, books and computers, and essential items.
It was fun and heartbreaking at the same time but a necessary exercise when moving to TV.

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IT is a laugh to go by houses and see peoples garages filled with stuff and they cannot park their cars etc in the garage. Someone went by ours and asked what was wrong with our garage. That was because it is empty. We have 4 cabinets and a work bench (doesn't get used much) and a few other things.

I now have the smaller stuff to go through - like photos and knickknacks and clothes which I can handle on boring days.

Then next trick is not to spend money on things you really do not need!

Re: How to Get Rid of All Your Stuff
 

There is a new thrift store that has just opened on 25 off of 441 in Belleview. It is for Opeation Shoebox. Go north toward Belleview, past the Sweetbay store. Go to the second light whichi is 25, turn right. Go down about 3/4 mile. The building is on the left with an orange sign on the front. If you have passed Salvation Army, on the right, you have gone too far. If you want things picked up, go to the Hibiscus Center on Mondays from 1pm to 3pm for ask for a pick up.

Opearation Shoebox in the Villages distributed over 30,000 stockings to the troops for Christmas this year. All donations are really appreciated and are tax deductible.

Re: How to Get Rid of All Your Stuff
 

After 22 years in the Air Force and probably ten moves in that time frame. I decided that if I hadn't looked for something in six months it was time to donate it to Habitat for Humanity, Goodwill, Oxfam, or somebody that needed it more then I obviously did.

Be Careful When Assuming You Can Give Stuff Away
 

I finally got around to weeding out clothing and shoes that for sure I'll never wear again. (My wife did he same, but sadly most of the pile was mine!) All the stuff was in great shape, some new and unworn. I carefully boxed the stuff. All was freshly laundered and pressed. Any worn shoes or clothing were simply discarded.

I took the stuff, which pretty much filled the back of my full-sized SUV to the Salvation Army in Belleview. When I arrived, the lady said there was no way they could take it all. She thought they could take about half of it and told me I'd have to take the rest elsewhere. That's never happened to me up north.

When I drove around the back of the building to see the older guy doing the unloading, he also commented that it might be too much for them. I slipped him a $20 bill and asked if he could make ALL the stuff disappear. He smiled and said, "you've never seen a magician like me". Thanks, I thought as I drove back to TV.

Don't assume your donations will be that easy to get rid of.

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If you're going to bring things here and don't think that one of the charitable organizations will be able to take them, do join Ocala freecycle. There really are a lot of people on that site that are in need of decent household goods, clothing, etc.

In California, there were very few posting of things wanted. Here, there are many postings of things wanted and needed. I can't say I buy all of the stories of why things are needed and some of the things asked for really blows me away (vehicles, etc.) but I think there are enough who are truly in need that giving to them can't help but be a good feeling.

I sold a bit of furniture on craigslist before I moved. I brought a couple of pieces with me, including my dining room set. However, once I got here, reality set in that it was just too large and I ended up selling the table and chairs on craigslist. It hurt because I loved that table but it did sell quickly for the price I asked.

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There is also a Lady Lake freecycle.