[Joaniesmom]

Originally Posted by CarolSells

I didn't want to hijack the other threads that mentioned "stuff" but they are so timely for me because I'm dealing with that right now. I thought that I got rid of lots of things when I sold my previous house but I couldn't believe how much furniture and boxes the movers delivered when I finally moved into my current home.

The kids aren't really interested in much of any of it. I'm trying to sell my mother's furniture that I inherited and it seems that I will have to practically give it away. I'm not talking priceless antiques but nice wood quality pieces. I haven't even started on all of the china, etc.

What did you guys do? Just sell to be rid of it? Garage sales don't bring that many people to our neighborhood. Any unique ideas for sales? Thanks.

We called in a highly recommended local auctioneer in Ohio and he set us up for an online auction. Slick as a whistle. He took pictures of everything. It was like we had our very own eBay. The only time anyone ever came to our house was to pick up the "stuff." And then there were auction personnel there to supervise. They collected the money. All that. We just got a check when they said they would send it to us. My only regret. We should have sold more!!!!

Suggest you inquire with local auction companies. It seems to be the upcoming thing. I was very happy with the way it was handled. And, believe me, I can't even remember most of what we sold! Getting rid of items was like a weight off my shoulders.

IMHO.

There were two 2 hour periods during the bidding when people were permitted to come to the house to look at the items. Supervised by the auctioneers, of course. The bidding period lasted a little over two weeks.

[createquilts]

we have given away, sold or trashed about 75% of our belongings in prep for our move to TV next week. I have no regrets.

What helped was we knew several college kids who just graduated as well as two nieces in college. They were ecstatic to get our leftovers. A few things we brought to a church that keeps a barn full of furniture that people that have fires or hard times can come and get. I had my mothers china, I gave it to a younger sister who was young when my parents died. It didn't have meaning to her then but it did now.

I remember cleaning out my parents house years ago, what a nightmare. I have seen people get dumpsters and trash their parents belongings. What a waste.

So my feeling is that I have eased the burden on my children as they don't want my stuff, I have recycled many items to be used by others, and have made my own life so much more peaceful.

[KEVIN & JOSIE]

Originally Posted by createquilts

So my feeling is that I have eased the burden on my children as they don't want my stuff, I have recycled many items to be used by others, and have made my own life so much more peaceful.

Well said!

[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by CarolSells

I didn't want to hijack the other threads that mentioned "stuff" but they are so timely for me because I'm dealing with that right now. I thought that I got rid of lots of things when I sold my previous house but I couldn't believe how much furniture and boxes the movers delivered when I finally moved into my current home.

The kids aren't really interested in much of any of it. I'm trying to sell my mother's furniture that I inherited and it seems that I will have to practically give it away. I'm not talking priceless antiques but nice wood quality pieces. I haven't even started on all of the china, etc.

What did you guys do? Just sell to be rid of it? Garage sales don't bring that many people to our neighborhood. Any unique ideas for sales? Thanks.

When we moved to Venice Florida in 1994, selling our Vermont home in late October with the new folks wanting to be in by end of December, we knew we wanted all new Florida furniture for the beachfront condo we were going to buy.........we called in a local auctioneer. Obviously, you will never get top dollar for furniture, no matter how good it is or what you originally paid........we just wanted to avoid endless days of strangers coming over to look at it and lugging it out.

The auctioneer and his sons took everything out in one day and even took everything out of my mom's home as she was moving down with us.

All we had packed up , in the basement, for Mayflower Movers, were boxes of personal items and clothing. Our adult children, at the time newly graduated from college and married, took all their childhood toys, books, etc. for their future children.........

So, we moved very "lightly".........but still had a lot of boxes....plus we put our car on the moving truck as we were flying down to Sarasota.

4 months later we moved back to Vermont with our Florida furniture and slowly over the years I've replaced it with more appropriate New England furniture.......contemporary.....now, I would do the same thing again.
Call in an auctioneer and have them move it all out. Not do personal sales to individuals.

The thing is..........we thought that at age 49 we had lightened our load after all the years of marriage, kids, etc......from age 20 to 49 when we moved to Florida.

Now, "it is all back again" due to the five grandchildren.........all the toys and games and books and stuff we bought to entertain them while they visit..........there is no way I would bring it all down again.......we even bought new toy boxes for up here......remote control cars, etc., doll houses, plus all the baby toys. This could be why we are dragging our feet about moving again. Been there, done that.

WE all have too much stuff. Good luck.

p.s. My husband did have a big garage sale, called tag sale up here, back in 1994; sold all his rifles, etc. and all the guy stuff...........only to have to buy it back again in 1995. But, we have been discussing how we will have to downsize whenever we move to The Villages. His garage is set up to resemble a hardware store. All of our local workmen love his garage.....you literally could go shopping in it.

What to do with all this stuff? Not to mention age 49 is a lot different than age 67 in the energy level.

[redwitch]

One thing I would suggest is taking pictures of the items important to you. My family moved a lot when I was a kid (to put it mildly). My poor mother was used to leaving everything behind but she sure didn't like it (neither did we kids -- 2 boxes each first filled with necessities and then we could add our "stuff" in whatever room was left). So, what she did was take pictures -- pictures of all the pictures my brother and I had drawn; pictures of the things we had made; pictures of special keepsakes; pictures and then more pictures. When she got them developed, she would toss those that made her cry and keep the ones that made her smile. As she said, the memories were always with her even if the stuff wasn't. When she died, I had the pleasure and joy of seeing the pictures she kept -- it was a trip through memory lane that brought many smiles and a few tears (especially the picnic basket we used in Japan weekend after weekend). She very carefully labeled each and every one of them (caused me to totally refresh my German to read them, though). It doesn't make leaving some things behind any easier but it does make it a little less painful.

[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by redwitch

One thing I would suggest is taking pictures of the items important to you. My family moved a lot when I was a kid (to put it mildly). My poor mother was used to leaving everything behind but she sure didn't like it (neither did we kids -- 2 boxes each first filled with necessities and then we could add our "stuff" in whatever room was left). So, what she did was take pictures -- pictures of all the pictures my brother and I had drawn; pictures of the things we had made; pictures of special keepsakes; pictures and then more pictures. When she got them developed, she would toss those that made her cry and keep the ones that made her smile. As she said, the memories were always with her even if the stuff wasn't. When she died, I had the pleasure and joy of seeing the pictures she kept -- it was a trip through memory lane that brought many smiles and a few tears (especially the picnic basket we used in Japan weekend after weekend). She very carefully labeled each and every one of them (caused me to totally refresh my German to read them, though). It doesn't make leaving some things behind any easier but it does make it a little less painful.

What a wonderful mom you had and what a great idea.

[YouNeverKnow]

Thanks for the great advice about the auctioneers. We will have to check it out when we get ready to downsize this spring.

[CaptJohn]

Enjoy this music video. I think I'm going to make it my theme song!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXyDJiUXqXY&feature=related]Too Much Stuff - Delbert McClinton - YouTube[/ame]

[CarolSells]

Originally Posted by CaptJohn

Enjoy this music video. I think I'm going to make it my theme song!

Too Much Stuff - Delbert McClinton - YouTube

LOL! Yeah. That's what I'm talkin' about!

Thanks to everyone. There are some really great posts and ideas on this thread!

[linedancingdottie]

Hi,

we had lots to get rid of as well so I did several things:
(1) identified a church organization in my area (I'm from Northern Va.) that helps out people who are just getting back on their feet financially. They would tell me what a family needed for their apartment, i.e., a certain size bed or a kitchen table, lamps, etc. If I had something to meet their needs, a volunteer with a truck from the church would then pick items up and deliver to family. It was a great feeling knowing someone could get use out of my stuff and wasn't going to be resold in a high-priced thrift shop.
(2) used Craigs List (some items I sold and some I just gave away if I needed someone to physically move an item out of my house). It helped to upload photos and provide detailed information about your stuff. I had numerous people who said my items were definitely much nicer than my photos (guess I won't make it to be a photographer). I did the Craigs list thing every day for about 2 weeks. I was always getting phone calls for people making appts to come over.
(3) Just by chance I had a neighbor stop by to say she wanted to see what I was selling so she ended up buying several large items from my dining room.
(4) I advertised a garage sale thru Craigs List also I think (only for 1 day) -- tools and lawn items go very quickly at garage sales.
(5) I gave lots of my work clothes (I had just recently retired) to "dress for success" organization. You donate them to the cleaners and they clean them up and pass on to the Dress for Success organization.
(6) Vietnam Vets picked items up from my house so I used them for donations as well.
..............hope this helps (start early and work with a checklist so the task is not so overwhelming)

[Down Sized]

Sold & gave away everything before moving south. I didn't think their was any need to pay $3 or $4 thousand to haul it down since most of the furniture was antiques. Then bought all new furniture after arriving.

[rmcpklinefelter]

...all of you folks need to talk to my dad, a hoarder from the great depression (not the current one).

[Joaniesmom]

Originally Posted by CarolSells

That's interesting. How does that work? I mean I realize that they take a % but what about items that may not sell?

They sell everything. I couldn't believe my eyes. They "lot" some of the less desirable items with some of the "goodies." It all goes! I was worried about all of my Christmas items. They put everything on a table as a "lot" and off it went! fascinating!

The entire experience was amazing exciting sad happy fun maddening you name it. But I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

[NotGolfer]

We had the same conundrum as you're experiencing. We had 2 or 3 garage sales and found that prices had to be really, really low for folks to purchase items. We were told by a man in the business of re-sale and estates (even antiques) that despite the quality of and what price we paid on furniture that we'd only get a fraction of what we paid for it. For instance a high end Lexington bedroom set that cost $8k would only bring a few hundred dollars at best. Our kids don't appreciate items as we did so didn't really want much of our items. We took loads to a thrift shop, put alot on the curb for "free".

Good luck!!

[stuckinparadise]

We used Craig's List and eBay to sell a lot of our things. It was better to sell the bigger (and heavier) items on Craig's list due to local pickup instead of shipping. We also sold a lot of our things at a yard sale.