Cleaning out the house before MOVING - Some tips. (renting, new location, expense)

[Riley.]

Originally Posted by Teacher Terry

When I was in my house I could put stuff on the curb and it would be gone shortly. There’s many online sites to give stuff away and thrift stores will send a truck if you have a lot of stuff.

One time we put a hot tub 'body' (the round bottom part, no cover, no motor because they were toast) at the end of the driveway. Gone in an hour.
People will take anything! We thought they might have used it either as a pool for kids or as a trough for farm animals.

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by Riley.

Had friends selling a house. Took them darn near two years to 'clean it out,' but they put their stuff in storage (things they couldn't sell). Then, they didn't have enough room in their condo (which they had in addition to the house) to put all their junk. So when they moved into the condo, they still had to get rid of their junk. She wanted to sell everything for overinflated prices (30 yr old stuff). I think they wound up giving most of it away eventually but I'm not sure if to friends or just to Goodwill.

When I leave this house, the stuff I don't want will be given to Goodwill or that age-old Vermont tradition, put at the end of the driveway with a FREE sign on it. I don't want to deal with junk I should have gotten rid of long ago (my husband's junk is gonna be a real problem!)

Update your method. When we were done doing yard sales after cleaning out my late mother's house that weren't worth the time and effort, we just dragged it all to the curb and put the address and "free stuff" on Craigslist. They showed up like ants at a picnic. A sign at the curb doesn't hurt, of course.

The problem with Goodwill is that they want you to bring it to them. When you die at 91 with a house full of 63 years worth of stuff, your kids are already old, too. I would have been able to borrow a truck, but I was the only one without a major physical limitation, and it took me a week to recover just from the lifting and dragging I was already doing. Younger brothers with a bad spine and a bad heart. Younger sister was in the hospital with COVID for seven weeks. One older sister had a stroke a few years ago, and the oldest was a full-time caregiver for a husband with MS and could not help.

Meanwhile, the RE agent would show up at the house every few days saying, "you have to get rid of the rest of this clutter so we can put the house on the market." No kidding.

It was exhausting. Sometimes I thought I was just going to keel over with a heart attack myself, or maybe it was just wishful thinking.

[Ruth4Truth]

RE: those old LP's---there are dealers who will buy those and pay you cash. I found out about one in my town (there were 3, actually), who comes to the home to go through your collection there. No need to haul it to wherever he is. I found out about him through a used bookstore that was buying my books. Great guy; we had some enjoyable conversations as he went through the collection. He didn't take everything; he was picking and choosing, with an eye for what would be re-saleable. But he took quite a few records off my hands, and I got a nice bundle of cash out of it, without having to make any effort.

Some used bookstores or film archives will take DVD's too, fwiw. Yes, in these days of streaming and Netflix, they do pay cash for DVD's in good condition.

[FreshTomato]

Over the past year, I have been slowly getting rid of stuff anticipating moving. Twice a week we have garbage pickup, and I always fill up the can which means one extra kitchen size bag filled with decluttered stuff each pickup. I've also been donating small amounts from time to time. Although the house was never cluttered, closets and cabinets were organized but full with some stuff more than 25 years old.

Hopefully we'll put our house up for sale next month, and although I am still working on getting rid of stuff, I've managed to get rid of the majority of smaller stuff we won't be taking with us. There's nothing better than seeing half-empty closets. As for the bigger stuff, I want to take a few small pieces of furniture, will offer the big furniture that's in good shape to Habitat for Humanity, and will put the rest at the curb for bulk pickup.

My husband keeps every nail and screw he ever touched in the garage, and that is proving difficult. He has a hard time getting rid of all of his shop stuff and he can't physically go thru things himself anymore. I've gone over as much as I can of the garage throwing out broken things or giving away or throwing out things that I know we will never use again. Although I've made good progress, there's still a lot to do there. I'm trying to respect his stuff and will hold off getting rid of much more in the garage until we are closer to moving.

Getting rid of half of the dog toys has been the most difficult decluttering for me. Our dog who passed last July loved her toys, and I am keeping those she played with the most. Our other dog isn't big on toys, but right now, I am using her to justify keeping some toys. I washed and am donating all of those we aren't keeping but are still in great shape.

Paring down a home we've been in for 25 years is proving to be a huge but freeing challenge. The more I get rid of, the more I want to get rid of. By the time I'm finished, we'll have one 10' U-Haul truck full of stuff that is most important to us to take. That includes one medium size Chewy box filled with slobbered on dog toys.

[TamaraSavannah]

Well, YES......but then again.....

Yes to spring clean each year and when you know you are going to move, take the place apart then to move. Both were my problems, of never being able to get time to spring clean and then when bug out date was 11 weeks away, really didn't come to a workable realization till the last moment.

But then again....two things.

First, none of us are ever absolutely sure where we will end up and realize that for all the modern comforts and ease we know today, tomorrow we may be in someplace without them. So for the stuff of the old ways one may toss out, think twice.

Secondly, they say if you haven't used it in so long, you don't need it. In the last hour, I've unboxed a book I haven't seen in 4 years or more.....but I have referenced it at least twice in a year and perhaps more. So it isn't as easy as we might think.

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

RE: those old LP's---there are dealers who will buy those and pay you cash. I found out about one in my town (there were 3, actually), who comes to the home to go through your collection there. No need to haul it to wherever he is. I found out about him through a used bookstore that was buying my books. Great guy; we had some enjoyable conversations as he went through the collection. He didn't take everything; he was picking and choosing, with an eye for what would be re-saleable. But he took quite a few records off my hands, and I got a nice bundle of cash out of it, without having to make any effort.

Some used bookstores or film archives will take DVD's too, fwiw. Yes, in these days of streaming and Netflix, they do pay cash for DVD's in good condition.

The catch is, finding and getting them to the dealers. I finally took 2-4 boxes of LPs to the 2nd hand store and between those and the boxes of books, I got less than a Jackson.

Yes, shocking, perhaps it hurt a little bit, but the point was, I just wanted to get rid of them. They were taking up vital space in the house, I didn't want to make it an expedition to find the best price, it took enormous amounts of energy to get them into the car, and I just wanted to get rid of them......in a pass it along sort of way.

If the 2nd hand didn't take them, then goodwill was right around the corner.

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

I was guilty of collecting the Nat Geo mags for about 15-20 years then finally donated them to the Fairfax County Library. They were always special to me, and obviously to many others, with their high gloss pages and very factual data and stories.

I gave it up in the late 1990s after the publication seemed to have gone formulaic with a rotating set of articles on a regular basis. Every 3-4 months there'd be a story on ancient ruins in central or south America, an arctic story, an African story, etc. To me it was obvious and I got tired of the repetitiveness of the topics.

I no longer save any magazines and will be further downsizing in the near future. LP records anyone?

Me, I gave up on it because I couldn't keep up with it ESPECIALLY with my Mom pushing her and my grand aunt's copies off on me.

55 years of the magazine got left behind in Operation: WHIRLWIND. They were just too many, too heavy to move.

Originally Posted by Adamson520

Something I've been tackling lately (since I had to plow through a storage closet to get the xmas stuff out, and now I'm having to put it back in), are boxes that I've moved from place to place but never opened up - they just go straight to a storage closet! If I'm moving a box just for the sake of moving a box and I hadn't ever opened it until it was time to move again, I'm taking a very critical look at those items. This last year I've been on a downsizing kick, as I'm getting ready to put myself on a trajectory to a final retirement residence of the smallest size possible, so I'm making myself get less sentimental about stuff, especially if it never leaves a box.

Well, today, I put together a set of shelves, set it up in one closet, and have unboxed a few boxes, stacking things on them.

Stuff I can make an immediate decision on, like old magazines and mail, are on their way of being processed out. All the newly empty boxes, I am toying with the notion of putting them in the truck bed, open, waiting for their itemized recyclables to arrive in them.

As to recently exposed to the light after many years of darkness items, well at least they are out in the open, so I know they are there, and I can be moving toward what to eventually do with them........and there is one less box around.

[Tigger84Ag]

I am not a sentimental person so if I don’t use it I give it away. Having said that I like things neat and organize so we never really have clutter.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by Tigger84Ag

I am not a sentimental person so if I don’t use it I give it away. Having said that I like things neat and organize so we never really have clutter.

Good plan.

If I could advise young people I'd teach them to NOT be a collector of anything, except great memories.

People derive some comfort from "stuff" but the more that's kept the more that must be hauled around as people move from place to place.

I'm 74 now and spend some of my time dealing away the railroad items I've collected over the years and I still have a ways to go.

It boggles my mind when I see people collecting Beany Babies or Pokemon or any of dozens of categories of "stuff."

I'm still debating what to do with my cassette tapes, LPs and CDs. For most of the young people out there I'd say to not collect music; listen to it on line even if you have to pay for it, but don't have the stuff stacked up all over the house.

[Teacher Terry]

Locally some thrift stores will send a truck if you have a lot of stuff. The Multiple Sclerosis Society is one. Many people are hoarders and many have a inflated view of the worth of their possessions. My last husband became a hoarder just like his mom. I confined his mess to the garage, giant shed, partial dirt basement and his office. It was horrible to not be able to find a tool you needed because of it. Now living alone I know where everything is and my condo could be emptied in a day. I love everyone neat and in it’s place. It’s very calming.

[Mike from back east]

I'm not sure if "freecycle" is still around. I started this thread in 2006 and a ton of things have changed. I would expect most of the action on freecycle has moved to NextDoor or Facebook or other sites: chime in if you have current experience with these newer sites.

[Moonlady]

Free cycle is still around. https://www.freecycle.org/

I’ve had better luck using Buy Nothing and Craigslist “free” section but it really varies by area.