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2. Unless you have valuable antiques/furniture, toss it
4. Toss it and start fresh its the best feeling. It costs over 8k to move from your house, if you're moving cross country.
Stressing over junk you can replace when you move isnt worth it, imo.
I understand the idea of SOME downsizing, but when it comes to throwing out old, but functional stuff if it's actually something you use, I still don't see the logic of it.
Take my daily driver for example - a 94 Civic - it might cost more to have it shipped than what I can sell it for... but it gets me to where I need to go and does not give me much trouble, although I do have to work on it from time to time. It seems like tossing stuff is just trading off the stress and expense of moving stuff for the stress and expense of finding and buying replacement for your stuff and not having the things you need or want. I can do without motorcycle, boat, but I do like to have them, lol. Now, if I had a few of each, like Jay Leno - can see how selling and keeping just one would make sense
Some people like their stuff. nothing wrong with that. What do people care if you sell it or move it? People need to do wha they want and stop worrying about what other people do.
FWIW I have never had much luck with CL and newspaper ads are expensive. Throwing things away sickens me environmentally. Use it up, wear it out.
I think we are also looking at economics, and SES. I can easily move, I have no house, and few possessions. But, I also don't have any money either. But, if someone has plenty of extra funds, lots of valuable items, go ahead, move it all. Heck, I would...but...I can't.
Those things are easily rented, and when you look at the cost of owning one, storing it, maintaining those things, it is easier, and cheaper to rent. For example, I go skiing about 10 times a year, new ski equipment costs about $2000. And, needs to be replaced every couple of years. I can rent top of the line, ski equipment, for about $400 for ten days. And, every year, I can use the top of the line rentals, with the newest skiis. So, in five years, I have spent my $2000, but never had to manage storing the equipment, or upgrading it...because you would have to outlay the money for new stuff anyway.
Boat, same thing, I go boating, maybe twice a year, a boat can be rented easily. Snowmobile, ATV...
A bike, I don't own a bike, I would not use it, I go to the gym. If I needed one, I could borrow one or rent it.
As for stuff at home? Really? No one "needs" a 50" tv, a giant sofa, expensive dishes, oak furniture. Those things are "nice", but hardly necessary for daily living. I had a friend, who purchased a bed for $2500, just the mattress, and then, the bedroom furniture, for another $5000. $7500, just for the bedroom?! And...she had to move, she did have the funds to move that furniture. I would never have that money, so, I don't invest in things like that. I know, I just don't have the money, to hire movers, and a van. I have to move my own stuff. So, why bother with a huge outlay of cash for furniture? I suppose, also, I have a limited income, with not much disposable cash...So, even the thought, of buying that much furniture, is mind boggling to me. I do fine, with a cheap futon. I bought it at Wal Mart, works fine.
I like how you think.
I've had the same microwave for 18 years. Doesn't work as good as it used to, takes a little longer to heat up things but it's fine for me. I live alone. It was the first thing I bought when I was on my own for the first time. Maybe it has a little sentimental value for me. But you can bet if I go through with my cross country move sometime next year, I am not taking it.
I have a lot of "stuff" that I would either dump or try to sell if/when I move. Like a previous poster had said, I refuse to pay for a storage unit.
I'm really tired as I'm writing this so I hope this makes sense.
I am moving and getting rid of EVERYTHING..except clothing and a few special items I can't replace (such as artwork). In the past I've paid to keep my stuff and have it moved, and it just wasn't worth the expense. Once I paid to move a huge couch, only to find it wouldn't squeeze down the narrow hallway of the new place, so I ended up having to sell it anyway. I like nice things....but I'm starting to realize my track record is to be a gypsy and move every few years, so I think at this point I am done buying good stuff. I just practically gave away some good furniture to people on Craigslist, and I plan on finding my new stuff this way when I get to where I'm going. Cheaply. At first the idea freaks you out, getting rid of everything...but think about it, isn't it all part of starting a new life in a new place? Weren't you ready for a change in decor/style anyway?
Your stuff will own you, if you let it. Didn't George Carlin do a great comedy routine about that?! I am actually now enjoying streamlining my load into next to nothing, so I can be mobile. It's almost a zen spiritual experience. I am free!
Read this in the c-d Economic thread (Frugal Living) this morning...interesting and insightful; enjoy!
I think it depends on how far you are moving and what you have to move. A couple years ago, I moved several blocks away in the same town. I paid some movers 200 bucks to move everything. By way of furniture, I had a couch, a loveseat, a bookcase, and a kitchen cart. The rest were boxes of clothes and smaller belongings.
Five years before that, I moved across the country. I had a moving sale and got rid of a lot of stuff. I remember waking up the very next day and thinking, "Oh my! I don't have an identity anymore!" But the day after that, I woke up and thought, "I'm free!"
In my new across-the-country location, I met a woman who also made a similar move. She was married and had moved her entire household, and it cost about 5,000 dollars. All it cost me was the price of the Amtrak ticket (which may have been a couple hundred, can't remember). I was 500 dollars ahead after subtracting the train ticket from the moving sale proceeds.
My wife and I were just talking about this today. I was wondering if anyone has thought about calling in an estate auctioneer and let him or her handle all of this. When it is all said and done, you have an empty house. Load your pets in your SUV, necessary clothing and go. As many have said, possessions own us; not the other way around. And nobody can back a u-haul up to their coffin when they check out. My $0.02. I welcome comments.
Nowadays what you get from an estate sale is pennies on the dollar for your belongings.
But if you are moving to another empty house, you then need to buy everything all over again. So you sold your sofa and got maybe $15 for it, now you need to go buy a new one and they all cost over $700 or else go to thrift stores and buy someone else's couch for $75 that their kids and pets have used for decades.
It really bothers me buying stuff over again that I already owned----(which is a reality for me since I did move and took hardly anything with me). Not to mention all the time and effort.
I moved a long distance to another country, so I had to get rid of nearly everything. But if it is not as expensive a move as tha,t I would far rather pay a few thousand to move and have my possessions at the end of it.
Nowadays what you get from an estate sale is pennies on the dollar for your belongings.
But if you are moving to another empty house, you then need to buy everything all over again. So you sold your sofa and got maybe $15 for it, now you need to go buy a new one and they all cost over $700 or else go to thrift stores and buy someone else's couch for $75 that their kids and pets have used for decades.
It really bothers me buying stuff over again that I already owned----(which is a reality for me since I did move and took hardly anything with me). Not to mention all the time and effort.
I moved a long distance to another country, so I had to get rid of nearly everything. But if it is not as expensive a move as tha,t I would far rather pay a few thousand to move and have my possessions at the end of it.
That was not my experience where we lived in Springfield, Missouri. I had an auction one time where I doubted we would net more than $1,500 if we were lucky. When we arrived back home there was a check for $4,000 and the place swept clean. Another time we netted $1,800 for stuff we just wanted to get rid of.
I went to an auction one time where the auctioneer (now a U.S. rep) auctioned off a number of items and I believe it netted nearly a quarter million dollars before the house was sold.
The reason I asked this is because in the last two moves we have spent about $10,500 in moving costs. Moving it myself is out of the question. In order to move, if I take it myself, I want the movers to come in, box everything up and load it. The packing is what drives me nuts.
It is amazing how much "stuff" one accumulates. When we moved here, we literally had stuff hanging off the back of a 40 foot moving van. It took the movers about three hours just to unload it all and we had empty boxes and wrapping material that took a month to get hauled off.
I'm just ready to chuck it all and start over. I mean how much do we really need? Thinking of selling everything and just renting a furnished house or apartment wherever we go and pocketing the sales proceeds and just starting over. This stuff is like a millstone around our necks.
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