folks, this may sound crazy to many, but, i think it may be a very common problem. my question - retired about a 1 1/2 years ago, problem - getting rid of all the material goods we have collected over the decades - from collections to the kid's stuff still being stored in the house (none of the kids married yet or have their own homes), just paralyzing. what did most of you do, have an estate sale, auctioneer, ebay? i have been ebaying, and given a ton away, but, haven't made a dent. i have to do something very soon, as i really need to relocate out of this small town we have lived in for 35 years. any ideas ?!thanks !
if you can stand to part with it, stack it outside and have it carted to salvation army, goodwill, or dump. letting go is a big problem, I know; it is stuff that reminds you of way back when and problem is sometimes others dont see the value. It is part of your life going away; I know I felt same way when I traded a fav car off and reflected on all the memories the car and I shared. Bruce Williams always said...never fall in love with something/someone that can not love you back.
My cellar is full of stuff I trucked across the country .....accumulation of fifty years of marriage and twenty different homes. The hardest stuff to get rid of are books I keep buying, but never have time to read. So, this year, I've slowly sifted through a box at a time and donated them to the Library book sale. We have a terrific "Habitat For Humanity" recycling shop that's gotten a pile of our stuff. Pack rats even keep interesting magazines with pictures of the "perfect kitchen" and unusual recipes that we never attempt. Boxes of these went to the recycling center. But there is still an old dining room table, a beloved couch, and numerous piles of my childrens' collections. You are right, it's hard to dispatch memories. Our church has a great group that finds out what underprivileged families need, and we donate what is still usable. Slowly the cellar is emptying out. (We really don't want our children to have to clean out our "stuff" after we're gone.)
Since my husband and I are planning on moving we started divesting ourselves of stuff last year. So far I've had 2 garage sales (pretty successful), community garage sale (marginal), goodwill, women's shelter, and craigslist. For the furniture craigslist is the best. Unwanted art work has been donated to an organization for their silent auction. Books go to the library for their sale. We've never been ones to "collect" things so it's been easier. Right now someone has responded to my ad on craigslist for a sleeper sofa.
Even tho I've donated things on a semi regular basis, I still have too much stuff. I know I need to purge yet again but have been somewhat lazy about getting started. We even have things in storage that really, half of it, at least should be gotten rid of. I find that if I wait a few months, those items that seemed important to keep earlier, don't seem as important anymore. But of course, you may not have that amount of time.
I know it's hard to get started, it's hard to part with certain things, but too much stuff weighs one down. I have a friend whose parents must've kept everything they ever had and boy is she catching hell trying to go through all their stuff now that they've both passed away. She's literally been at it for months! There are some good suggestions here already as to how you can go about selling or donating your items. Best of blessings with your endeavor and move.
The wife and I are both members of the pack rat clan and when we downsized this past spring we did most of the things mentioned above in this thread, but the most successful thing we did was to rent a 15' dumpster and when it was full we sent it to the dump and filled it again. We still threw a another few pick up beds full away after that. I found the yard sale a fruitless and frustrating activity. The professionals were not interested in my 'junk' and when they did find something of merit they wanted me to give it to them. I would rather give it to the junk man so I did. Fortunately our youngest is getting married so we helped her to furnish her new digs with a lot of furniture.
I gave a lot of books away to an organization which says it values books, but the semi-dumpsters it has set around show me that they do not value books as I do so I have been sending them to libraries which are too particular. The years of magazines collected because of their fascinating pictures and stories went to the recyclers.
Selling our home of 27 years was hard, buying a replacement we could afford was brutal, but ridding ourselves of all those memories was brutal.
I told my kids, come get all you stuff or it's going to the Salvation Army.... They didn't wnat it either, after storing it at my house for yrs....Got rid of it all.. Then started on my stuff and am still at it as I have been moving alot.
The Salvation Army and other such places are good for getting rid of stuff that others can use. Hazardous waste such as old paint cans can go to the appropriate county facility. Used books can be sold to bookstores or donated to the library for resale. We ended up getting a large dumpster from the waste management people and they parked it in our driveway. It was big enough to hold a couple of small cars and a boat. We filled it up twice. That helped quite a bit. The fee was reasonable. We boxed papers that required shredding and had a Shred It van come out and shred about 8 large boxes. It is just too much trouble to actually shred it all yourself using a home shredder. We gave a lot of stuff to my wifes family. We eventually managed to downsize by about 75 percent. Other than photos and necessary documents and such, if you havent used it during the past three years, get rid of it. That way, when you do make your big move, you are not transporting a lot of documents that, if lost, could be used for identity theft purposes. I condensed crucial documents down to a manageable size that I could easily control during the course of the move. I locked them securely inside my trunk and got a safe deposit box asap when I arrived here in Washington state. I had to fly back to get mother, who we took on a plane. I got one of those nylon zipper brief cases to carry important documents I wanted to keep with me. It never left my hands from the time I entered the airport until I got in my car in WA except to go through the scanner. All of those things had to be carefully planned, of course.
Have you ever thrown away something and then discovered that it was valuable?
My son, before he got married, was a serious collector of antiques. He'd go to swap meets, thrift shops, yard sales, and put all his finds in my garage. When I moved I decided to be ruthless, get rid of everything remotely ugly. There was an old painting leaning against the wall, which was dirty, and very unattractive. It seemed to disintegrate when I picked it up. So into the garbage it went. I have not heard the end of that debacle. That painting was worth lots of $$$. Sorry!!!
I had a blow out rummage sale and sold much of the stuff at giveaway prices. The rest went to Good Will, and the dump. Ahhh, the breathing room feels good!!
