Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
When DH got sick, we sold the house and got rid of most possessions. We were snow birding and lived in furnished rentals North and South. I don't miss anything I got rid of, now that I am settled in a year round rental i am very selective about what I acquire. "It's pretty" is not a good enough reason to get something.
I don't understand paying money for a storage unit for things you have no plan for. The costs add up.
I’m with you, yet they keep building those storage places. And announcing nonpayment auctions.
I get short term things. I’ve known people who used them when remodeling, refinishing floors.
One woman had a huge rent increase on her business, decided to retire, did the bid sale and used a storage unit to store her remaining stock, and used eBay to sell it off. She used a storage unit for four months, at a much cheaper rent than her retail space.
I get short term things. I’ve known people who used them when remodeling, refinishing floors.
I can also understand using one long-term to store certain seasonal items (such as camping gear or a kayak or tons of Christmas stuff) that you actually use, if you live in a very small space. In that case it's probably cheaper to rent a small storage unit to stow the gear than to upgrade to a larger living space.
Using a storage unit to store stuff for years that isn't ever used is what I don't understand. But it's not my money, so ultimately it doesn't matter to me.
I no longer donate to ReStore. They have become very selective in what they will, and will not take. Salvation Army and Goodwill are not like that.
Exactly... I get that people sometimes try to donate things that in reality should go to a landfill. And these charities have every right to refuse unsellable/unusable junk. But when I brought that Haworth chair (they could easily have gotten $50-$60+ for in the store) get tossed into the dumpster, it made me realize they somehow have lost sight of their goals... to ensure that Habitat fulfills its mission with excellence. Nobody else in the family had room for it and I didn't want to dance with Craigslist because there is too much going on right now...
The only thing excellent about H for H and our local ReStore is an excellent ability to show what a bunch of elitist snobs they have become.
I love having yard sales! I hate to sell things for next to nothing, but I do love having the space freed up by getting rid of stuff, and we like to split the money and each does whatever they want with it. We have a standing rule though that what goes in the sale will be either be sold, or donated if no one buys it. Nothing can go back in the house! We usually end up with about $700 per sale.
We are in the midst of moving... I took a Haworth office chair in perfect condition to our local ReStore. Not a scratch, stain, it was clean... excellent used condition. The guy pulled it out of the back of my car and carried it over to the dumpster and tossed it in. I was shocked they did that and asked them why... because they didn't want any more desk chairs I was told.
I insisted the guy take it out of the dumpster and put it back in my car. He wasn't going to do it so I got the manager out there. I will never again donate to ReStore (Habitat for Humanity). Goodwill folks took it without any grief.
That's the danger... I recently learned that someone was siphoning off the "best stuff" from my former favorite charity and using it to stock her private booth at the local flea market mall. Ugh! It's important to me to know that it's going to someone who will love and/or use it or at least to benefit a good cause; not line some unscrupulous person's pockets.
Yea; the people that attend garage sales can be interesting. The last one we had, we had a bin of beautiful Petrified Wood from Arizona. Translucent red/black/white swirls. One 'gentleman' walked over to the bin and picked up a piece, and inquired "what is THIS?" I said "It's petrified wood". He looked at it a second, then said "This isn't wood...(dropped the piece back into the bin)...this is rock".
You did say "petrified," so he was technically correct. Insulting, though!
You did say "petrified," so he was technically correct. Insulting, though!
Actually, I was not insulted- just surprised. I had asked if he had ever seen petrified wood before; he said not only had he never seen it, he had never even heard the term before.
I don't understand the long-term use of paid storage either. Nor do I understand holding on to a deceased parent's empty home. The money spent really starts to add up. After dad died and we had to put mom into assisted living, we wasted no time in selling the house and contents at absolute auction.
After living in our last house for 20 years and selling it after 15 minutes on the market, we had to get rid of a bunch of stuff. The new owners needed to close in 3 weeks. Luckily, we had been planning this move for over 6 months and had slowly decluttered a huge amount of junk. I took most of the stuff stored in the basement to Goodwill. Not sure why we were storing all that! I kept the sentimental items and everything else got donated.
My husband sold over $2,000 worth of his construction tools and misc. garage stuff by using the LetGo app. That was amazing, that became his part time job after he retired!
When it got down to the wire of us filling up our Pod and not wanting to take the rest of the furniture, I put an ad on Craigslist a few days in a row and titled it: Moving - Free on the curb. Everything was taken within hours! Beds, dressers, chairs etc. Some guys even helped us move some things from house to curb. I'd definitely do that again. There were a few items that nobody wanted. I used a local company similar to GotJunk. For $90 they took an old HUGE TV that we didn't know what to do with. Our county electronics recycling program had been ended three months before we moved.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
