Moving to Florida

[Khan]

I'm in Florida right now at a friend's house. Will be spending more time here and moving permanently in a year or two.

I need to figure out what to give away/throw away/sell...
I've been here ~35 years.

Have all ready spent some money on improvements to future residence.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation?

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Khan, keep the stuff that is really important to you, stuff you can't replace. Sell everything else as it will cost you a lot to move it. What you do keep probably won't fit in with the Florida décor anyway so really be selective. And, they have some really great consignment shops down here where you can pick up really nice stuff dirt cheap. Welcome to Florida.

 

[REWahoo]

What you do keep probably won't fit in with the Florida décor anyway so really be selective.

+1

Sell your long johns, keep your short-shorts.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Sunscreen and mosquito repellent

 

[kramer]

Downsizing is an iterative process. It is not something easily done all at once. So start on it quickly, don't put it off.

 

[FreeAtLast]

Moving to Florida was simple for me. Just a few suitcases and a bicycle. I came down to attend U of Miami and never left.

 

[Elbata]

I'm thinking of moving to The Villages area or Miami. I live in So Cal now and I love it, but I want to live in the east US. I hope I'm making the right choice.

For some reason, though So Cal is not the greatest, everytime I leave, whenever I come back, I'm glad to be back. And this is not my first home.

 

[Alan]

Good luck with your move Khan.

The clear out of the possessions in our moves usually takes the form of me selecting a few items to keep then DW adding a few dozen more. (In other words, I am not a good judge of what to keep)

 

[JoeWras]

I'm thinking of moving to The Villages area or Miami. I live in So Cal now and I love it, but I want to live in the east US. I hope I'm making the right choice.

Wow, that's a huge difference between those two places! Hugely different.

One thing I learned about my time in Florida is that the state has incredible diversity. CA is similar. You have the two coasts, that have two different vibes. You have the agricultural interior. You have the growing retirement interior like The Villages. You have areas where they are still fighting the Civil War. You have the panhandle.

Florida is a cool place, just make sure to check it out good before you move.

 

[MichaelB]

Kahn, +1 to what Johnnie and Kramer said. In Florida you don't need much, and there probably won't be much free space for you anyway. That doesn't make the downsizing any easier, so expect to go at it a couple of times.

 

[imoldernu]

Khan, keep the stuff that is really important to you, stuff you can't replace. Sell everything else as it will cost you a lot to move it. What you do keep probably won't fit in with the Florida décor anyway so really be selective. And, they have some really great consignment shops down here where you can pick up really nice stuff dirt cheap. Welcome to Florida.

+1
The consignment and resale shops offer goods at prices that are less than the cost of moving the stuff from the old home...
Suggesion... watch a few episodes of Hoarders, to get a good feel for the psychology that goes along with leaving what you've lived with forever. Not easy.

When we make the moves from our FL community and our camp, have made the conscious decision to sell all... in place, or to order a waste management dumpster... The selling process is too difficult to contemplate. As frugal as we are, have already mentally written off whaever value is there.

 

[JoeWras]

When we make the moves from our FL community and our camp, have made the conscious decision to sell all... in place, or to order a waste management dumpster... The selling process is too difficult to contemplate. As frugal as we are, have already mentally written off whaever value is there.

Dealing with my parents' stuff has been eye opening experience. I hope to continue to lighten my load as I go on.

I will say that selling the stuff at tag sale was difficult, but sometimes joyful. As my siblings and I reminisced over that set of flower-child plastic-ware from the late 60s, we also got some joy and satisfaction at the hipster couple who loved the retro-groove and walked away with a great deal and a huge smile on their face.

Did we "give away" some antiques? Perhaps. But honestly, it almost all made it into the dumpster anyway. I was more than happy to see delight on customers' faces, and also take some time to share the stories of the objects' history.

 

[Dawg52]

Kahn, +1 to what Johnnie and Kramer said. In Florida you don't need much, and there probably won't be much free space for you anyway. That doesn't make the downsizing any easier, so expect to go at it a couple of times.

So true. When I was down sizing from two houses to one, some stuff I thought I might keep the first time through didn't make the final cut. And when I sold one of the houses sooner than expected, I had a week to get rid of the last remaining items. Lot's of stuff was donated to the Salvation Army, some to the city landfill and some stuff to neighbors.

Khan you will have more time to decide what to get rid of. Some items will be easy to eliminate, some won't. But get started now and the process shouldn't be that overwhelming over your time frame.

 

[cj]

Funny, we have been in "purge mode" for a while. It started when we had carpet taken out and replaced with hardwood a month ago. Since we had to move everything out of several rooms, we realized how much stuff we were shuffling around that we didn't need!!! We have tossed/shredded/donated SO much stuff in the past month. It is really freeing. We know we are going to move to a less taxing place sometime in the not-too-distant future. We will be ready!

 

[Huston55]

DW and I are going thru this now. We plan to FIRE in 2014 and will move to NoCal. We're in a 2/3 BR flat now and expect to be in a somewhat smaller 2 BR apt after the move. So, part of our plan is to purge, incrementally, until then. We've already started as listed below. This may not work for you Khan but, should at least give you food for thought.

Our approach is to start with the stuff we never use, followed by the stuff we rarely use, followed by what makes cost sense to lose.

1. Started with storage room; sorting out what to sell, donate, trash; two rounds thus far, and expect a couple more. (Thankfully, we don't have a garage. We purged that during the last move a few years ago.)
2. Next is pseudo-storage in our 'living space.' By pseudo-storage, I mean the stuff in cabinets and under counters that we never use. There is more than one would think.
3. Next will be to evaluate the books...again. We (mostly DW, she's the studious one) have lots of books, even after two mega-purges the past 6 years. I think we should keep what we have left, DW is still pondering.
4. Next will be to evaluate furniture and other large items (treadmill, elyptical). This will likely be the most difficult, as we don't have a lot of excess furniture, due to ~15 moves in the past 30 years. So, for us, this will likely be a cost/benefit decision (cost to move versus cost to repurchase).

Hope this helps. And, hope you enjoy Florida. Keep us posted.

 

[Khan]

I've been improving the place (mostly from a distance). Right now a person is installing a satellite dish and dvr.

 

[Free To Canoe]

Downsizing is an iterative process....

Boy isn't that the truth. Every time we move we have a yard sale before we move and one After we move. I don't know why the after sale is needed. Every year we try to reduce more but it is a struggle.

Best wishes Khan on your new home.

 

[Lisa99]

+1
The selling process is too difficult to contemplate. As frugal as we are, have already mentally written off whaever value is there.

We're about to move back to Nevada and plan to retire fairly soon. We're downsizing from 3600 sq ft to 2200 sq ft and most of our current furniture won't fit the new space.

Instead of selling we're giving virtually everything to the salvation army. With us both working selling piece by piece is too much of a hassle so we've sucked it up and are giving virtually everything away except a few cherished furniture pieces, our electronics, my kitchen stuff and our artwork.

We'll selectively replace when we get to NV.

 

[Lakedog]

I am going through this now as well. The sale of my lake house closes this week. I have sold or given away everything in the house except for what will fit in my Honda or on the hitch mounted cargo carrier. I only kept about 1/3 of my clothes and a few personal items, and stored two files boxes in a friend's closet. I have no place lined up yet but plan to rent a furnished condo for a few months somewhere on the coast of Florida. Since I am traveling very light, I figure there is no rush finding the rental since hotels will work for a few days. I did decide to take the pup even though he takes up precious cargo space.

I have not found it particularly difficult to get rid of stuff even though I have had some of it for many years through several moves.

 

[Dawg52]

I am going through this now as well. The sale of my lake house closes this week. I have sold or given away everything in the house except for what will fit in my Honda or on the hitch mounted cargo carrier. I only kept about 1/3 of my clothes and a few personal items, and stored two files boxes in a friend's closet. I have no place lined up yet but plan to rent a furnished condo for a few months somewhere on the coast of Florida. Since I am traveling very light, I figure there is no rush finding the rental since hotels will work for a few days. I did decide to take the pup even though he takes up precious cargo space.

I have not found it particularly difficult to get rid of stuff even though I have had some of it for many years through several moves.

You have to take the pup, he's family.

You are downsizing big time. We had another poster(OAG) once who moved from city to city and rented furnished apartments. Looked like an interesting lifestyle as he moved around all over the country. He even had a blog about his adventures for a while. He was a little on the strange side though. Got banned from this site and his blog disappeared so don't know if he ever settled on a particular area.

Wasn't trying to compare you to OAG, just meant your plan seems like a good way to go in finding the area you want to settle. Good luck.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Be careful about where you choose to be. Most if not all of FLA is hot and very humid in Summer. We rented inland then quickly decided it HAD to be coastal FLA for the nice Breezes. The Villages is VERY hot and humid. We lived in SoCAL for almost 20 years before moving to NE FLA and it took a lot of time to a) Get used to the much slower pace of life, b) We were in "Perfect" weather withdrawal for a long time too.

We chose coastal small town FLA for a few more reasons other than those mentioned above:

1) Everyone is really friendly and crime is really low

2) Everybody always seems happy here and generally in no real rush, they are either on vacation (happy), retired (happy) or getting married (happy at least for the time they are here)

3) Traffic is manageable most days

4) Cost of Living is lower that SoCAL. (electric bills are half)

5) RE in our area is a little more than normal but in general it is very manageable

6) No income tax, low Sales Tax (6%), RE taxes are about 1.7% homestead takes $50k off Taxable Value (As opposed to say Houston's ~3%)

The downside is the heat and humidity, no seeums at dusk, old folk driving in the wrong direction and backwards all over the place .

The first 2 can be fixed by living within a couple of miles from the ocean and a screened in porch. The last unfortunately is an occupational hazard.

Enjoy.

 

[Lakedog]

You have to take the pup, he's family.

Wasn't trying to compare you to OAG, just meant your plan seems like a good way to go in finding the area you want to settle. Good luck.

Thanks, Dawg. Of course, the pup will be with me no matter what and not taking him was never even considered (should have used a smiley). He is almost eleven now but hopefully has a couple of good years left in him. I decided that renting for 1-3 months in various areas might help me decide where I want to settle. Having lots of "stuff" to haul around or store just wouldn't work well.

 

[Amethyst]

Khan, I don't have any words of wisdom to add, just good luck and happiness in your new home.

Amethyst

 

[W2R]

I've been improving the place (mostly from a distance). Right now a person is installing a satellite dish and dvr.

Wow! That's going to be a big change for you, right?

Moving south sounds like a great idea. Best of luck!

I agree with those who are saying that the less you take, the better. My advice is to only keep those few things that cannot be replaced and are important to you. Replace the rest slowly, as needed, after you get down there.

 

[JoeWras]

Anyone moving from So Cal to just about anywhere on the East Coast better be prepared for humidity. Of course, in FLA it is humid almost always. But humidity reigns on the east coast in general. I work with a lot of transplants from CA and this is always an adjustment for them.

As for moving furniture from a big place to smaller... When we moved my dad, I took the floor plans and transferred them to a Visio drawing. (Actually created it myself.) Visio has general furniture shapes. It was a TREMENDOUS help. We knew exactly what we could and could not move. In the future, if I move to a place with a hand-out floor plan, I'll do this again. Heck, even if I move to place without a floor plan, I may ask to create one anyway if the current owner will let me.