Downsizing - What to do with all my stuff?

[Amethyst]

I'm probably just pointing out the obvious, but there are other charities that will take the smaller items. We like Amvets and Purple Heart. They don't take furniture, but they will pick up clothing, small appliances, kitchen items, and anything else small that still works and can be sold to raise money.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrayHare Too many boomers are currently unloading too much stuff. The local Salvation Army has at various times balked at my donations of books, furniture, small appliances, and stereo equipment, all of which were in excellent condition.

[mpeirce]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrRoy You could hold an auction, with or without professional handling.

+1

There are companies that will do the heavy lifting for this and although they take their cut, you'd be amazed how much junk stuff they can sell.

[iac1003]

We just did this although we are not moving into our new place (going from 1600 sq ft plus woodshop shed to ~1000 square feet) until next month. So we will probably get rid of more after all is moved. We sold: about1500 books and donated over 600 more, a mid-Century modern couch, some kitchen equipment, all of DH's woodshop, some hobby stuff of mine from my jewelry-making days, my car (tomorrow). My mother's diamond is on consignment locally. We used our neighborhood listserve, some private sale messages, strategically placed emails, OfferUp, a Facebook online yard sale group, a friend who scouted out a designer for the couch, a jewelry maker I knew of who bought my equipment and supplies. The selling part was a lot of work. I did not want to use ebay or Craigslist.

In our neighborhood there's a good chance if you leave something on your lawn, someone will pick it up. Especially true with furniture. We unloaded our oversize tv stand, coffee table and other items that way. We were also lucky that our local bulk pickup week was the week we moved out.

Lots of trash bags in the trash or recycling bins especially papers, shredding, photos after scanning them.

A few things went to the hazardous waste center in town.

We donated to Goodwill so many items including clothing, shoes, knicknacks, electronics, costume jewelry, kitchen items, old computers, ladders, etc. We were over there 1-2 times a day.

We gave our red wine to friends since we don't drink red wine.

I gave an $800 table to another friend because I couldn't find a buyer.

Start early, much earlier than you think, like 2-3 years early. It was a culling and then re-culling of items. I went through my closet several times and each time found more clothing I did not need. We decided to keep only one bookcase worth of books which was hard but also liberating.

It can be done


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[skipro33]

I don't think the question is so much of how to downsize, it's how to choose what to downsize.

For us there were three criteria;
1. If I haven't used it in the past year
2. If it has any sentimental value
3. If it has any practical value

In the end, you are left with those things that matter and will fit in your space and that's what counts.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrayHare Too many boomers are currently unloading too much stuff. The local Salvation Army has at various times balked at my donations of books, furniture, small appliances, and stereo equipment, all of which were in excellent condition.

Wow! Our Salvation Army never takes the smaller stuff, and never has AFAIK. Also it did not take furniture after Katrina because so much of it was badly water-damaged and no more than trash. But they do take furniture now, when their truck is in one's neighborhood. They are very grateful for it, too.

Our GoodWill has a big bin just inside the front door for donations. We just dump things like small appliances, stereo equipment, clothes, or any other smaller things into the bin. They don't go over them and make decisions while you wait, or anything like that. They also took my aquarium and stand but I had to take that back to their loading dock because it didn't fit in the bin.

The library is picky about what day we bring in books. I think it is just one day a week, maybe Wednesdays. But they took all of our books, even old obsolete technical books, because they sell them to the public as a fund raiser.

[calmloki]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R ...GoodWill has a big bin .... they took all of our books, even old obsolete technical books, because they sell them to the public as a fund raiser.

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R ..... But they took all of our books, even old obsolete technical books, because they sell them to the public as a fund raiser.

Met a guy who had a warehouse with stacked gaylord containers filled with books. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulk_box)
He bought them from Goodwill for a small amount ($40? each) and would dump a gaylord, and paw through the pile - said it was normal to find in each container several books that would sell for 2-3 times what he had paid. The rest he paid someone to list on Amazon for a penny/book. Said most people would order more than one book and he made his money on the shipping Amazon charged.
Same guy said that used clothing was typically sold to be stuffed into boxing workout heavy bags. Economics of disposal/recycling are interesting.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by calmloki He bought them from Goodwill for a small amount ($40? each)

I never gave a book to Goodwill in my life. Looking at my post, I don't see where it says that but if it did, then it was in error. Possibly you misquoted me and based your post on that misquote.

I give my books to the public library.

[calmloki]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R I never gave a book to Goodwill in my life. Looking at my post, I don't see where it says that but if it did, then it was in error. Possibly you misquoted me and based your post on that misquote. I give my books to the public library.

Nah, sorry, you are right and I was just being lazy - read Goodwill and bin and my mind jumped to a curious character who pulled value from what others disposed of.

[FIREd]

If any of your stuff has value, you can try to sell it. I tried that route and found that I was spending a lot of time trying to sell items that, in the end, did not sell for very much money at all. So I decided to stop wasting time trying to sell our stuff. Ultimately, it either went to charity or the trash.