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get rid of any big stuff that wont fit into new place NOW (sell now before move - even at any loss).
nothing WORSE than spending $1200 (hundred a month) to put $1200 worth of stuff in storage for a year (or more)
Yeah I'm having trouble deciding on that.. Like my massage chair I bought for 1k (used). It's heavy so it will cost a lot to move but then trying to sell it, I will take a big loss on it.
How often do you use it? If its something that's part of your daily routine and you find it useful, then I would probably take it. However, be aware moving/shipping companies charge by weight and its NOT cheap! You might be better off seeing what's available when you get there. It might not even fit in your new abode. Personally, I would sell it for what I could get, apply that money towards the moving costs, then see what I could buy in my new place.
Haha we think of ourselves as cutting down quite a bit for the move, but still bringing two large pieces of gym equipment ($6,500 in weight lifting machines), a $3,000 massage chair, and about $10,000 in my office furniture alone. Our table was $2,000 and made of recycled steel, so there are a lot of big things way too expensive and valued by us to replace them. It’s only about $7,500 to move what we have estimated 800 miles, so I don’t feel like it’s that bad.
With the exceptions of clothings, family heirlooms, collectables and a rather expensive china set and electronics everything else was donated during each of our moves. New place, new everything.
Granted we don't move every other year. Our moves have been 4 years, 4 years, 5 years, 13 years apart. Our final move will be done the same way as our previous moves.
That console TV...if you are seriously considering getting rid of it, get on that NOW. It's hard to get rid of TV's, the old kind. No one wants anything but a flat screen TV now, not even a pawn shop or thrift store will take the old tube TVs if that's what yours is. I personally loved the old console TVs in the wooden cabinets, but it can be a real challenge to find somebody to take it off your hands. Even for free.
However. I highly recommend, if you can afford it, upgrading to a flat screen (sadly, just like everybody else, there are reasons no one wants the old TVs) because they are light and you can move them so easily, whether you are relocating your household or just rearranging the living room. And the prices have come down a lot. If you don't need a ginormous humongous one, you can get a decent flat screen TV for under $300 easy. I've found best prices in my area to be at Walmart (or Sam's if you do that, dunno about Costco, I've never been a member.) I've found them new at Walmart cheaper than I've found them used at the pawn shop, which strikes me as weird but whatever.
They just aren't that expensive anymore. It is no longer a ridiculous indulgence, depending on how tight your budget is. And if you're trying to drop weight for a move, you really have to look hard at something heavy like that.
It's far more expensive to replace a good bed, so unless it's time to do that (if your bed is in bad shape for instance) you're better off taking that with you. If you have been thinking about upgrading a beat up old piece of cheap furniture, then consider ditching it rather than moving it. If you have a bunch of books you don't read much anymore, consider trying a used bookstore or seeing if your local library takes donations. Go through your clothes. If you haven't worn it in a few years, get rid of it.
Regarding the massage chair... OK, so you paid $1,000 and you don't want to lose money selling it. Do you use it? If you use it, then keep it. But there is this thing called "sunk costs." You won't be able to go back in time and have your $1,000 back. That is not an option. Your options today are, own a massage chair...or NOT own a massage chair and take whatever someone will pay to own your massage chair. Those are your options, the $1,000 is gone and no longer exists, ok? So let go of that. Now do you want to own a massage chair? Or do you want to take whatever someone will pay for it, and not have it to deal with? I would answer that question with "How often do I use this thing?" Plenty of people have had to deal with this exact train of thought when it comes to exercise equipment.
If you have the time and space, consider doing a yard sale before you go. You'd be surprised what people will happily give you money for. I had a friend who was having a life disaster and she was abandoning anything she couldn't sell, and she actually succeeded in selling opened and half-full bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and household cleaning products. Granted not for whatever she paid, but she got something for it!
EDIT: Oh and about the dishes. Do you like them or hate them or what? Or more significantly how does your wife feel about the dishes? If no one really likes the ones you've got, it could be a good excuse to get rid of the old ones and get new ones. Again...if you can afford that. I don't presume to know anything about your finances. I know that when I was married, I HATED the hodgepodge of unmatching dishes so much, that when I got divorced and went off on my own, I refused to take any of them, I went and bought all new matching dishes. Not high end fancy china or anything, just a set that is all the same. And I LOVE THEM.
Agree with most of this, but, I would disagree on most clothing - it's light, unbreakable, why not keep it? I mean if you have stuff you are reasonably sure you won't wear again, donate that, but clothing moves well.
Dishes and such. The heavy, fragile ones, the mismatched ones - unless you just really like them, makes sense to donate or sell, buy what you want at destination. I'm a guy, I would never buy new - thrift stores have matching sets of plates, etc. for pennies on the dollar of original price. But I'm a guy. If your wife wants to keep the dishes, pack them well and tote them.
Books - I have Russian language books bought while in-country, yeah, I'm keeping those. Technical books that I might look into once every few years but again I will keep. Most books I am inclined to keep, including texts from my BS Physics back in the late 70's.
Attributes that make me want to not keep - heavy, inexpensive, don't particularly like, easily replaced particularly at thrift store, fragile, not likely to need in new location (or in later foreseeable life). Attributes that make me want to keep - the opposite, really.
Agree with most of this, but, I would disagree on most clothing - it's light, unbreakable, why not keep it? I mean if you have stuff you are reasonably sure you won't wear again, donate that, but clothing moves well.
Dishes and such. The heavy, fragile ones, the mismatched ones - unless you just really like them, makes sense to donate or sell, buy what you want at destination. I'm a guy, I would never buy new - thrift stores have matching sets of plates, etc. for pennies on the dollar of original price. But I'm a guy. If your wife wants to keep the dishes, pack them well and tote them.
Books - I have Russian language books bought while in-country, yeah, I'm keeping those. Technical books that I might look into once every few years but again I will keep. Most books I am inclined to keep, including texts from my BS Physics back in the late 70's.
Attributes that make me want to not keep - heavy, inexpensive, don't particularly like, easily replaced particularly at thrift store, fragile, not likely to need in new location (or in later foreseeable life). Attributes that make me want to keep - the opposite, really.
I hear you but, most people have way too much clothing. I know that I did (and, frankly, still do). Piles and piles and piles of t-shirts alone. It is probably the #1 thing that most people can pare down. And it's not just the the space it takes up in moving, it's the mental space and then the closet space on the other side.
Agree with most of this, but, I would disagree on most clothing - it's light, unbreakable, why not keep it? I mean if you have stuff you are reasonably sure you won't wear again, donate that, but clothing moves well.
Dishes and such. The heavy, fragile ones, the mismatched ones - unless you just really like them, makes sense to donate or sell, buy what you want at destination. I'm a guy, I would never buy new - thrift stores have matching sets of plates, etc. for pennies on the dollar of original price. But I'm a guy. If your wife wants to keep the dishes, pack them well and tote them.
Books - I have Russian language books bought while in-country, yeah, I'm keeping those. Technical books that I might look into once every few years but again I will keep. Most books I am inclined to keep, including texts from my BS Physics back in the late 70's.
Attributes that make me want to not keep - heavy, inexpensive, don't particularly like, easily replaced particularly at thrift store, fragile, not likely to need in new location (or in later foreseeable life). Attributes that make me want to keep - the opposite, really.
I mostly agree with you but I would never buy used dishes personally - it’s literally like $20 to buy a set of plates at Target or whatever, all of that stuff is so cheap for any move out of state I’d toss it all and rebuy at the destination. The boxes that are used to pack dishes can run $15 by themselves for a box lol so it makes no sense to keep it. I don’t “get” the China thing, I’ll be honest. I just don’t get it. It’s not 17th century England! Nobody cares about China unless they’re 759 years old. Even my mom never cared about that and she was born in the 50s. “Oh let’s use the old, dated looking, cruddy looking China for this special occasion!” Let’s just not and say we did, how about that?
When it comes to dishes, glassware, everyday stuff---get rid of what you have and buy new when you get there. We recently moved across town, but I ditched all the old dishes, etc, and ordered new stuff from WalMart, Target, etc delivered directly to the new place. Beats packing and moving it!
Same for bedding, sheets, towels, etc. Unless its some uber-expensive, heritage antique bedspread, etc, ditch the old and order new stuff delivered directly to the new place. It will be cheaper to buy/ship the new than pack/ship the old stuff!
Here's another "rule-of-thumb" I've used for many a move---would I rescue it in a fire? Would I be heartbroken if an item was lost? Is it a memory-catcher from my past? Or is it just "stuff" I've been hauling around for no reason?
Seems no matter how diligently I sort, I still get that "what-did-I-bring-that-for" feeling when unpacking at the other end Oh, well, think how much worse it could be if I didn't sort at all!
Sorry, I have a different take on this whole move. Don’t go to CA, you’ll be sorry! I lived there for close to 60 years and it is unrecognizable as the place I grew up in. Especially with your young family.....just a thought!
Sorry, I have a different take on this whole move. Don’t go to CA, you’ll be sorry! I lived there for close to 60 years and it is unrecognizable as the place I grew up in. Especially with your young family.....just a thought!
HR
I had the same thought, I’m glad someone else said it. I left 7-8 years ago and would never return.
Another thing that came to mind I thought I’d mention because I said it in another thread, it may sound stupid but honestly I loved it and just did this myself... if you have some items that may have sentimental value, do you have to keep the item itself or could you take a bunch of pictures of it and store those pictures digitally? That’s what I did with a bunch of things where the item was just clogging up space and the item only reminded me of something from my childhood or with my family, but it remained in a box or cabinet somewhere anyway. I never saw it. Now I made a “Keepsake” folder and I put these photos in there, I backed up the folder to my RAID (redundant external hard drive unit) so now I have these memories but with none of the wasted space. It may sound stupid to some people, but I adopted this idea when I heard it and I love it!
Last edited by JonathanLB; 03-22-2019 at 11:36 PM..
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Oh, well, think how much worse it could be if I didn't sort at all!
