Downsizing - What to do with all my stuff?

[RunningBum]

I heard a radio piece about a popular new book or website or something by some woman about decluttering that is very popular. I think the message was that if an item brings you joy, keep it, otherwise get rid of it. http://www.amazon.com/The-Life-Changing-Magic-Tidying-Decluttering/dp/1607747308

I'm sure there's more to it, but that's what I got from half-listening to the piece. I'm assuming that deciding what to keep and what to pitch is at least as big of a challenge as the mechanics of getting rid of stuff. Many of us go with "it might be useful some day" but it sounds like you need to cut a lot deeper than that, as do I.

Edit: Missed that this was the same book Rodi mentioned earlier.

 

[Options]

It can be hard to let go of things that have memories associated with them. I recently read the book "The Life-Changing Art of Tidying Up".... Seems like a silly subject for a book - but it really changed how I look at things when deciding whether to toss them or not.

Amazon.com: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing (8601421528498): Marie Kondo: Books

FWIW - I am sooooo not into self help type books - but this one had some good ways to let go of objects, emotionally. And yes - that includes those T-shirts from the concert you went to 20 years ago, or the tools you bought thinking you'd have xyz as a hobby.

+1
Very much agree. I read a couple of books on simplicity after reading about them on Bob Lowry's blog. Did this while remodeling last year and it changed decluttering from a mechanical process to one where I was really able to look at what I had accumulated and why. This extended to people, places, and things. Big upside is the amount of "space"--psychological, physical and social--I now have in my life.

 

[Bamaman]

We downsized from 4200 square feet to 3300 square feet 13 years ago, but didn't have time to clean out and throw out "stuff" since we had two weeks to get out.

I inherited a bunch of "stuff" from my parents and a 99 year old aunt. It was an incredible effort to just move their "stuff" on top of my "stuff"--requiring space equal to 5 double car garages. Now it's time to do my kids a favor and dump the "stuff" while I'm in good enough physical condition to liquidate the stuff.

We will be moving into another house the end of this month. Now it's time to clean out and leave behind the "old stuff." We'll hold an inside garage sale after we move the good "stuff" and haul many truckloads to the city dump before it's over.

After all, it's just "stuff", and you cannot take it to Heaven. And our kids don't need anything.

 

[Amethyst]

Mr. A. has about a thousand pounds of old LPs going back to before I was born.

We don't have a record player and he balks at the cost of modern ones.

He won't throw or donate the items away, but has no idea what market there may be for them, and I have no time to research it.

If I survive him, I will end up throwing them away.

 

[Turn_the_Page]

It's tough. Been through it a few times. Losing a garage stall and losing a basement.

I also remember hauling MANY truck loads of stuff to the landfill out of my in-laws basement. Most of it sentimental stuff that no one wanted. The bad part was, we had to do it without the in-laws there or else all the reminiscing about every item would have taken forever.

We keep telling ourselves, "we have to do it", as we have no kids to pawn it off on.

We're facing another move in a month, but this time to a bit more space and a third garage stall. I'm ticked that my tools will move from the storage space to the house.

 

[aja8888]

Even after downsizing to a 1,970 square foot house two years ago, I still make it a point to fill the 80 gallon trash can every week.

I still have boxes of old receipts, business records from my closed corporation, hobby stuff in the attic and closets full of clothes we will never wear. So I still have lots of ammunition for the trash can!

 

[athena53]

Mr. A. has about a thousand pounds of old LPs going back to before I was born.

If I survive him, I will end up throwing them away.

I hope you wouldn't actually throw them out; someone would love them.

In 1997 I put a stack of vinyl LPs out for the trash-classic Rock and jazz, in good condition, that my Ex left behind when he moved out. A neighbor knocked on the door a little while later and shed if he could take them. Heck, yes.

 

[Souschef]

When we married, we each had 1088 sq ft homes and we were moving to a 1400 sq ft home.
She filled her patio 3 times with stuff for Salvation Army. I sold all the collectibles on eBay. I took stuff into work for the production people to have. I put up a notice on all the bulletin boards in my condo for free stuff. Then put a free stuff on Craig's List for the furniture.
Whatever was left went to Salvation Army.

 

[rodi]

Mr. A. has about a thousand pounds of old LPs going back to before I was born.

We don't have a record player and he balks at the cost of modern ones.

He won't throw or donate the items away, but has no idea what market there may be for them, and I have no time to research it.

If I survive him, I will end up throwing them away.

There is definitely a market for old vinyl. You should be able to get some serious $$.

I sold my old LPs about 5 years ago - my 300 albumns were worth about $300 to a wholesale guy who stalks garage sales. (I'd like to think it was my good taste in music that made them worth that much.) He started offering $20 for all of them, then kept upping it.

 

[W2R]

Even after downsizing to a 1,970 square foot house two years ago, I still make it a point to fill the 80 gallon trash can every week.

I should do this! I downsized from a 1600 sf home to a 1500 sf home last summer, but my new home has many times the closet/storage space that the old one had. With so many empty closets the motivation to throw out a lot of stuff is reduced; but this can't last forever.

 

[Amethyst]

Everyone tells me this, but then it starts to be, "welllll...what exact titles does he have? Oh and condition is very important, have to see pictures..." and there is no WAY I am doing a title inventory, much less photos of hundreds of platters.

Anyway, merely possessing them seems to "spark joy" in Mr. A.

There is definitely a market for old vinyl. You should be able to get some serious $$.

 

[brett]

We downsized from a 3600 sq ft home plus finished basement to an 8X8X16 container and a year later to a 1300 sq foot condo. It was a great experience and it was truly liberating. And after we unloaded the container we still gave things away to flood victims in our area.

We took seven months. We painted the entire house prior to selling. Every time we emptied a room for painting we made certain that we only took back items for 'staging'. Prior to even starting that process we did three 'sweeps' to downsize. In then end we became brutal...but not brutal enough.

We gave away so much to people who needed/wanted it. Bedroom sets, sofa sets, etc, fridge. We did not sell very much. It was either given to friends, relatives, or sent to the battered women's shelter. Books and school supplies went to the local school, library, or were donated to the local book sale that raises money for literacy.

We had not purchased much furniture over the past few years. Thinks like our dining room suite was not suited to the smaller, open concept places that we hoped to buy or rent. So in discarding items we had an eye to redecorating in a different environment. We kept a high end bedroom set, leather sofa, family heirloom chest, marble tables, oak table/chairs. Just about everything else went.

Our lifestyle has completely changed. We are down to one car. We travel 5 months of the year. If we buy a book and cannot pass it on to someone we immediately donate to the library. We previously had a wall of books. Don't need that any more and we use the library extensively.

We are no longer accumulating but we are still discarding things...some clothing, wall pictures (we have fewer walls), etc

Bottom line. We are so happy that we downsized and de-cluttered our lives.

 

[2017ish]

Mr. A. has about a thousand pounds of old LPs going back to before I was born.

We don't have a record player and he balks at the cost of modern ones.

He won't throw or donate the items away, but has no idea what market there may be for them, and I have no time to research it.

If I survive him, I will end up throwing them away.

Agree with others, there may be some real value there; vinyl has almost become a cult. Heck, bring them to Nashville and post an ad on craigslist--you'll have lines of people, likely with some well-known musicians at the head of it.

 

[Earl E Retyre]

We sold and/or gave away a lot of stuff when we downsized thru a combination of:
- 5miles app (you can easily do on your cell phone)
- posting on local community garage sale forum (I did not even know it existed)
- craigslist

Whenever someone came to pick something up, I would often give them additional items for free (or very cheap) just to get rid of the items or to help them out.

I made some money, helped a lot of people out, and quickly got rid of MANY things that we just did not need and would have been clutter had we kept it.

As a pointer, instead of using my personal email address, I created a free yahoo login account to use just for posting items until I got rid of everything.

 

[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.

 

[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.

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]

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


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

 

[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]

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]

...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.

..... 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]

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]

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.