happyglow

Another vote for shipping just small/sentimental stuff. I'm really glad I brought what I did, ie a few boxes of personal stuff and small practical things, no furniture. I now have a nice balance of items that I love with a few new things to ring the changes. Amazon and Ikea love me

Wilto

Same here our sign isnt even up yet!

Eeeek now its a mad rush to start deciding what to sell/keep/donate (it's like being on an epsiode of hoarders!!) Oh and the small matter of finding a job in the UK.

Mummy in the foothills

I know. It's like we've just seen the light and no longer need any of our hoard. Theres stuff getting sent off to the charity shop like crazy in my house. Anything small goes, anything worth less than about $50 goes, anything big is first dibs to friends, and thing big and expensive (very little in my house) gets put up for sale on the local face book sale page.
So far we sold
2 boats
2 cars
1 outboard engine
Bunkbeds
single bed
chest of drawers.
Friends have dibs on.
One car
chest of drawers and toy chest
Sideboard
Dresser and bedside tables
Not much left to sell after that.

I have managed to overheat the paper shredder today One box 2 of old papers and taxes, I've done about 5 boxes over the last three weeks, and two more to go. If it doesn't cool off and start working again, I'll have to go and buy one won't I?

TheEmperorIsNaked

I was lucky enough to have a friend with an industrial shredder. It still took over an hour to get the thing done!

The clearance thing: I think I was a clutterer rather than a hoarder; I knew full well I could let go of things without anguish, but it was the volume-and the speed at which it would need to be done. I faced that with complete anxiety.

I made sure the most important papers were safe (this is where the biggest amassing occurred for me. hanging on to papers, because sooner of later a supplier will come in with 'we didn't say this/that').
I knew that some 'mid important' papers may get caught up in this, but decided to go ahead.
A clearance team came in for two days-I had to take multiple decisions at warp speed, sometimes turning from one to the other as they held things up for keeping or taking.

It took the ensuing weeks to discover what had actually gone. I have only had one casualty where something I wanted to keep has gone.
As many would have discovered, it is a cathartic process, which leads to 'an incredible lightness of being'! It frees us up to go onto the next problem.....

Bluegrass Lass

Are you allowed a fire pit or similar in CA? I plan on burning all of our docs in a metal barrel my mother has.

mrs Bucket

We are in AZ and hubby uses a metal barrel in the back garden to burn anything that has our names, bank details etc It's only lit for a few minutes.

dunroving

If you aren't allowed a fire pit where you live, another option is to use one of these professional companies that will take confidential documents and shred them for you.

Re: Firepits, a neighbour burnt some paper recently on an open fire and the burnt bits floated up into the air and covered the whole neighbourhood (on a weekend/laundry day)! he wasn't popular with the neighbours, flipping numpty.

Wouldn't recommend burning large amounts of paper on an open fire unless you live out in the boonies. Closed fire (brazier type thing) would be fine though, I presume.

Mummy in the foothills

No burn barrels allowed at all any more. Winter burning of yard waste only allowed on burn days. Too high risk for fires.
I did burn a box full over a day in the woodstove, stunk out the house So we gave that up.
Shedding it is, the shredder cooled off and started working again later in the evening.

Penderray

We are returning to the UK on the 23rd Aug, just wondering if we can take our remaining beer & wine or do I need to have my friends around every night. Shipping a 40 foot container Vancouver to UK a whopping $19k