sile

I was just curious to know, just how much stuff and what kind of stuff others have gotten rid of when preparing to move. I have been doing this for quite awhile now. It's gotten easier...I must have donated enough to furnish a small house...but am still working on papers and clothes and some furniture.

Papers are kind of an interesting challenge...what to keep...I have so many boxes and files. Frankly, I think if I just dumped them I would never miss any of it.

I am thinking of scanning photos, but that could take forever.

Stories and suggestions anyone, particularly about papers and photos?

Mummy in the foothills

We've been ruthless, I have given many car loads of clothes and household items to the local charity shop. It isn't worth the time it takes to photograph and sell and wait about for people to come an see and kick tires then change their mind.
We've been clearing for a year, the house is pretty much down to things we need to live and things we are taking, so once the house sells all the furniture will go along with other household stuff.
I threw out lots of photos and made one box of ones to keep. scanning and keeping that way takes forever like you say.
I figure I can afford a box of pictures, I judge it by how much per cubic foot the shipping company is charging is it worth that amount to me.
Poor Dh has realized he has a ton more to get rid of in the garage, I've been at it a year, he started in March. But he's getting ruthless too.

sile

I agree about trying to sell some things. It's maddening, especially when people want to pay almost nothing. it's not worth the effort.

How about papers you've saved over the years? Have you gone thru everything one by one? That's something I find difficult. "What if I need this someday?"

sile

When are you leaving, btw?

Beccarose

I agree with this and for me personally I could never find it in myself to sell all the stuff we have on my own, but there are people out there who thrive on just this, my sister in law being one of them, so it has come to my attention that for some of the stuff we have it would be worth 'hiring' someone to come in and help sell. There are actually people who love this type of thing so much that they are willing to do it for other people's crap... er, I mean stuff. If I were to sell a piece of furniture and even make just 50% off the sale it's still better than getting nothing. Just my way of thinking and what we will be doing. If you don't know of anyone, give some realtors or property managers a call, they can almost always get you in touch with someone who would be willing to do this for you.

As for the OP's question, we are being entirely ruthless, almost everything we have will be going. I am keeping books that mean something to me, papers are a problem for me, I feel sentimental attachment to far too many papers and like you, I would not miss then if I never saw then again but bringing myself to get rid of them all is just too hard. I am keeping almost all pictures as that matters to me, but who knows as time goes on I may get rid of more. Lots of clothes, almost all kitchen goods, decorations, etc will be gotten rid of. Anything that does not mean something to me will be outed, but yeah, getting rid of those things that you feel you may need some day is hard, just have to chomp down and do it, it really does feel good to get rid of things though.

Snap Shot

Fairly ruthless. It gave me motivation to throw away genuine rubbish. It gave me the motivation to give away excess stuff. I had to get rid of things my mum had kept from my Gran's house and also the stuff that came from her house when she died. Phew !

So that was one, 'life laundry.' Should we move again I'm hoping to sell the car. Hopefully this should be straightforward, just have to brace myself for the time wasters.

I also want to sell the dishwasher, the lawnmower and the barbeque. Plus a two seater settee that I purchased here second hand, an old bed and a coffee table.

J.JsOH

We got rid of pretty much everything, all furniture and appliances, clothes and crockery. Any stuff that we took to US from UK and never used.
Whe we moved into our US house we had very little but 16 years later the attic and office and garage and basement were well full of stuff.
We got it all back down to two pallet loads which was the size of stuff we took over there (but not the same stuff)

Stuff we kept was tax records, a few clothes and linens, photos (couple of cardbord box full, and we look at them from time to time, glad we kept them), a box of books (but hardly looked at any of them in 3 yrs we been back), a few treaures with memories attached (glad we kept them), handy toolbox and some contents (has come in useful but could have bought them new here), wall pictures that are all now hung in our much smaller house (we got rid of many pictures), the cat.

Only thing I miss that we ditched and cannot replace was a little ornament that I liked to look at and now I miss it being around.

Starting again to set up house was a chore but it was good to have had a clear out and I would do same again. We continue in the same frame and avoid collecting / keeping stuff.

Cardienscarf

My daughter in law came over and we went through the house with coloured sticky dots and colour coded everything - items to sort, items to ship, items to donate, items to sell, items they wanted, items to go to friends. That really helped clear my head.

I sold some items to friends or friends of friends but mostly gave it away. I didn't have to sell much because my son and daughter in law needed quite a bit and my son didn't want certain items to go. There were some family 'treasures' that he wanted which I would otherwise have shipped.

I had a garage sale and sold a lot of things but for the small amount people are willing to pay, I wouldn't bother again as I hate garage sales. Anything that didn't sell in the garage sale went to Goodwill. I gave a lot to Goodwill before and after the garage sale. Then when I was packing my cases, I ended up giving away some more! The more time went on, the more ruthless I became!

I really didn't want to do Craigslist because of the time it would take to list items, be available for people to come and look, etc. Although I did sell my fridge that way.

I left a box of files (taxes going back 7 years) and photos with my son so I was lucky there. I did scan in a lot of documents and did a lot of shredding.

The most important things for me were the drawings and cards my sons made me when they were little. Those I put in my carry on because I didn't want to risk shipping them or putting them in checked baggage.

There are a few things I'm now sorry I let go of but I'm sure when my boxes arrive, I'll wonder why I brought some of the things I did. I found it very emotional at times - letting go of things that had been used my myself and my sons for many years. I raised my children in the States and it was an odd feeling driving away from all that.

jemima55

We had to downsize the furniture so a bed went, a wardrobe, Ikea bookshelves, some chairs. We sold a sectional to our tenants.
My husband was the last to pack up and radically downsized my clothes. For the best, really. Although he said the moving guys were not "careful" I still think they did a darned good job in getting so much on the van, flat packing everything they could. Interesting the other end when the Pickfords guys had to put it all back together, but they did!
The other thing was that not everything would fit back into our UK house, hence the sectional had to go.
The books were a wrench. Hard to downsize, but DH cut them by half.
It seemed like I was throwing stuff out for months, but it still wasnt enough!

Alizoo

We have far too much stuff. When we move to the US I'm going to get rid of the best stuff through these guys who sell it for you on eBay... www.stuffusell.co.uk/ There might be an equivalent where you live? Saves having to have a garage sale.

Editha

We've sold our house in Canada and are moving next week, into a small rented bungalow for our last year here, and at the same time we are buying a house in Devon. One advantage of buying in advance of our return to the UK is that I know exactly which furniture we'll have a use for.

We are giving away a lot of stuff to neighbours and thrift shops. My experience of selling online and using freecycle is you get a lot of time-wasters. I just can't be bothered. I've put some things out on the front lawn with a sign saying FREE. Whatever it is, it usually disappears within a couple of hours.

When we came to Canada we didn't have long to prepare, and with a big moving allowance from my husband's employer, it was easier to just chuck everything in the Container. This time round we are being much more ruthless because we are paying!

Scrapcat

I definitely need to lose a load of stuff and apart from perhaps one garage sale I think the rest will be going to the Sally Army as I just can't be bothered to sell it. I agree that anything we brought with us 8 years ago that hasn't been used or enjoyed (except photos) will NOT be going back with us....

WEBlue

Unlike others in this thread, I enjoy having yard/garage sales, and always have held several (at least) in the runup to moving country. Before moving to the USA a few years ago, I participated in the local bootsale on a few weekends and made myself a couple hundred quid. If you have the time (I had quit my job to downsize before the move), and a few decent items that someone may want, it's a pleasant way to spend the day.

I never did the online selling of larger items--my husand did that and didn't like it much either, but eventually it resulted in others hauling away furniture, car, etc. and paying us some money, so it was probably worth the hassle.

We've moved to and from several countries as my kids grew up, and they always enjoyed selling the items they had chosen to get rid of. Teaches them about the value of money and how to barter effectively.

However...one does need to plan waaay ahead to go this yard sale route. You need time to consider and reconsider as you sort the items, time to price and arrange, time to advertise, and then the patience & inner calm on the day to sit there and wait for the buyers to come & pick over what you want to sell. Some people hate the process, but I love it--seeing kids walk happily away with my grown children's discarded toys and gadgets, chatting or joking with the punters, people-watching.

Then once you've sold up everything you can, and hauled the left-overs off to the recycling centre, and moved country at last...you can reverse the process and take that hard-earned cash off to yard/boot sales in your new country to furnish your new house there!

Snap Shot

I believe this to be true !

I will probably go down the classified ads/supermarket notice board route to sell the things that won't be leaving the country with us should we leave.

I didn't mind Freecycle. I Freecycled in Christchurch, NZ because on our arrival there were things I didn't realise I didn't want. You get to meet allsorts via Freecycle but they come and go quickly, never to be seen again.

It worked in Britain prior to us leaving for NZ. I figured if people were getting it for nothing on collection what was there to argue/bargain for ?

- A plastic camping table was collected by a middle class mum and her teenage son
- excess Christmas decorations that were collected by a charity (I got some feel-good factor there)
- barbeque and lawnmower that was collected by a young Dad and we helped him put them into his car
- random china and glass collected by a single girl who must have had an, 'eclectic' taste !
- two three foot tall plaster pigs from my Dad's old butcher's shop. The guy that collected them was so pleased that he got them. He smiled and remarked, 'they call me pig'. Which I didn't understand as he was of slim to average build. So I guess there must have been another reason.

There was someone else who wanted these plaster pigs but I had two or three people interested. I lost track of who I said could have them. The 'other' person got a bit arsey with me when I said they had been collected. Oh well, no matter.

Genuine rubbish i.e. stumps of burned candles, creased doyleys etc etc was easy to bin. I didn't sell anything. I just couldn't be bothered. I also didn't think there was enough value in our excess possessions to try to sell them anyway.

kwazywabbit

I have been totally ruthless! Im flying back to the UK on the 26th September and heading back in August for 2 weeks. So when I come back i will be selling everything and donating the rest. Will only be coming back with 2 suitcases lol!