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Old 05-17-2021, 10:25 AM
 
2,441 posts, read 3,185,594 times
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Check on Facebook for a Buy Nothing group in your area. It's a great way to get rid of stuff into the hands of people who need / want them.
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Old 05-17-2021, 10:27 AM
 
Location: Northern California
128,078 posts, read 11,818,787 times
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Try & sell it, start now. Take photos & list it online for the furniture. If no bites, then get an estimate from a junk dealer to haul it away. It may cost less than you think.
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Old 05-17-2021, 10:46 AM
 
1,579 posts, read 931,077 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rational1 View Post
You mean YOU estimate the value at 10K. That doesn't mean that you can sell it for anything close to that number. For example, old brown furniture- pretty much independent of quality or original price- is almost impossible to sell these days.

Decide whether you want to make selling your stuff for small change a hobby for the next year. Or give away what you can to charities and send the rest to the dump.

(In a similar situation I kept some of my old brown furniture, and sent a lot to the dump.)
I don't estimate the value at $10K, I estimate it's worth less than $10K. I pointed out that amount since it's important if one goes with an estate company. They are less interested in household goods at that lower price and they will charge more commission because. Less than $10K is kind of the lowest value cut off point and they will want the highest commission. The commission drops if your household is worth more than $10K. I should have stressed the less part of the less than $10K.

I don't want selling stuff to be a hobby. I really have no time for it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by RationalExpectations View Post
I suggest you attempt to sell your stuff earlier rather than later. You may discover no one wants your stuff - even for free.
I can see that, I don't even want my stuff. haha. With a few exceptions, most of it is stuff my ex-husband picked out (he kind of picked out everything from furniture to dinnerware to cookware). I only kept it because he didn't want it and it saved me from having to spend money on new furniture when we split. None of it is my style or taste. But it served a purpose when I needed it.

Last edited by WalkingLiberty1919D; 05-17-2021 at 11:08 AM.. Reason: clarification
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Old 05-17-2021, 10:49 AM
 
Location: under the beautiful Carolina blue
22,621 posts, read 36,559,983 times
Reputation: 19829
An estate sale may take a large commission but you'll still walk away with more than if you call someone to haul it away. And I can tell you with COVID a lot of places are not doing pickups.

Estate salespeople have followers who go to their sales, and also get the garage sale crowd as well.
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Old 05-17-2021, 10:51 AM
 
1,579 posts, read 931,077 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by djmaxwell View Post
Check on Facebook for a Buy Nothing group in your area. It's a great way to get rid of stuff into the hands of people who need / want them.
Thanks for the ideas!

Quote:
Originally Posted by evening sun View Post
Try & sell it, start now. Take photos & list it online for the furniture. If no bites, then get an estimate from a junk dealer to haul it away. It may cost less than you think.
Yeah, I have some stuff set aside that I can sell now. I've had furniture hauled away before. Trust me, it's expensive where I live to have stuff hauled away. I think last time I had a desk, chair, and old CRT TV hauled away, it cost me about $400 for a "half of a truck". I think there was a special fee for the TV though. But if that desk, chair, and TV was half a truck, the rest of the house is going to be at least 3 trucks of junk maybe even 4.
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Old 05-17-2021, 11:08 AM
 
Location: Phoenix, AZ
6,320 posts, read 4,786,947 times
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Sell, donate, give to friends.
Whatever's left goes in the trash.
Consider hiring a construction dumpster instead of people with trucks.
Call around for prices. They deliver the dumpster and pick it up when full.
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Old 05-17-2021, 11:17 AM
 
21,697 posts, read 9,271,841 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WalkingLiberty1919D View Post
I am trying to figure out the best way to get rid of most of a houseful of stuff when I sell my house and move (I am downsizing in 11 months... greatly). This includes furniture (nothing too expensive but not the cheapest either) to include living room, dining room, and two bedroom sets, office furniture and storage shelves, oriental rugs, dishes and crystal, silverware, kitchen appliances, TVs, decorations, etc. My wild guess is there is less than $10,000 worth of goods in the house to get rid of.

Literally, I am moving from a 2000 sq ft townhouse and what I want to keep I can fit into the back of a 10' U-Haul.

My thought was estate sale, but I know very little about those. I also thought about yard sale this summer for a lot of smaller stuff and then, when it's time to move, just donating the larger furniture to charity and writing it off on taxes. I thought about donating the smaller stuff and just having a junk company haul the rest away, including the furniture when it's time (but I know that would be the most expensive option and the furniture, while not perfect, isn't junk either). Someone even suggested to me to sell the house "fully furnished" (I am not sure if anyone would really want that though).

Since there are a lot of Realtors here, I figure someone must have some experience with this (or know about the details of what might work). Or maybe someone else here has experience emptying out a house either to downsize or was involved when a relative died and the house needed to be emptied and sold.

In your opinion, what was the best option as far as saving money and ease of ridding oneself of so much stuff?

If I go the yard sale route, I need to start soon since it's now yard sale season.


Thanks!
You won't get a tax writeoff for a donation unless you exceed the $24,400 threshold for a married couple and $12.20 for a single person.

Estate companies will take a large percentage of your $$. You could have a moving sale where you let people come in the house. You would have to price it yourself though. You would probably get less traffic.
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Old 05-17-2021, 11:17 AM
AZ8
 
Location: Northern Arizona
111 posts, read 79,584 times
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Garage sales are a waste of time. People won’t even buy quality items for a $1. We had one and only made like $50! Not worth all the work it involved! Lol

When we sold my parents home, we had 60 years worth of stuff! There were no Goodwills, etc in our small town. We decided that a 40 yard dumpster was our best option. Siblings took what the wanted, family heirlooms and sentimental items were kept and the rest went to the dump! We were done in one weekend.
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Old 05-17-2021, 11:21 AM
 
Location: Raleigh
13,639 posts, read 12,279,035 times
Reputation: 20058
Quote:
Originally Posted by WalkingLiberty1919D View Post
I am trying to figure out the best way to get rid of most of a houseful of stuff when I sell my house and move (I am downsizing in 11 months... greatly). This includes furniture (nothing too expensive but not the cheapest either) to include living room, dining room, and two bedroom sets, office furniture and storage shelves, oriental rugs, dishes and crystal, silverware, kitchen appliances, TVs, decorations, etc. My wild guess is there is less than $10,000 worth of goods in the house to get rid of.

Literally, I am moving from a 2000 sq ft townhouse and what I want to keep I can fit into the back of a 10' U-Haul.

My thought was estate sale, but I know very little about those. I also thought about yard sale this summer for a lot of smaller stuff and then, when it's time to move, just donating the larger furniture to charity and writing it off on taxes. I thought about donating the smaller stuff and just having a junk company haul the rest away, including the furniture when it's time (but I know that would be the most expensive option and the furniture, while not perfect, isn't junk either). Someone even suggested to me to sell the house "fully furnished" (I am not sure if anyone would really want that though).

Since there are a lot of Realtors here, I figure someone must have some experience with this (or know about the details of what might work). Or maybe someone else here has experience emptying out a house either to downsize or was involved when a relative died and the house needed to be emptied and sold.

In your opinion, what was the best option as far as saving money and ease of ridding oneself of so much stuff?

If I go the yard sale route, I need to start soon since it's now yard sale season.


Thanks!
Estate sale.

I shop at them myself, We've utilized them on the seller side as well and been happy for family that passed on or was transitioning. They'll basically empty the house in a weekend, retaining only what you ask them to and leaving what little that doesn't sell boxed up and ready for donation.
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Old 05-17-2021, 11:24 AM
 
Location: Rochester, WA
14,339 posts, read 11,832,044 times
Reputation: 38547
Quote:
Originally Posted by WalkingLiberty1919D View Post
Thanks! So garage sale for the smaller items (that I can actually drag out of the house) and maybe just donate all the furniture (or find a consignment place that can haul the furniture away)?

All I know is hiring a junk company to haul away a kitchen set, dining room set, family room set, office furniture, storage cabinets, and two bedroom sets will cost a small fortune. It would probably take up a whole truck.

I think, if nothing else, the Salvation Army might take all that furniture away for free. It's decent stuff, just not high end. Except the couch with is Ethan Allen.
No, sell the furniture too. Just put a good price on it. Used leather furniture can be a couple hundred bucks but almost any fabric furniture should be cheap.

Lots of people need and buy furniture and dining room sets and storage cabinets at garage sales.

Salvation Army and the like are pretty picky about furniture because they don't have all kinds of room to store it. Just sell it.
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