SmartiesUK

All your worldy possessions in the UK when you moved to Spain please? I am unsure what to do with it all. I think we want to rent furnished in Spain and sell the house in UK so what to do with the 20 years of accumulated stuff here.

Anyone used them house clearance people before?

spain

Sold everything barring personal stuff - private sale in local papers and also lots of bootsales

I think you have to weigh up what you really want to bring and the cost of getting here

keithwalters

eBay is your friend!

lcr04

I agree, I would do boot sales and ebay to clear all the things that you dont use.

If you have furntiure that you wanted to keep - maybe put it in storage for a while.

It is a great feeling when you have a good clear out of the house, you accumulate so many things you never knew you had - and never really needed.

Good luck

Fortaleza

Please don't do as one twerp around here did. He moved here and had his stuff come down on a big lorry and put into storage whilst he looked for a house. His stuff was in storage for the best part of a year. I went to help him shift it and was stunned by the stuff that he and his wife had brought over. There was a cheap plastic broom, a mop and bucket (normal Poundstretcher stuff) and lots of nonsense knick-knacks. Now I understand the sofa and chest of drawers etc (although I wouldn't have done it) but the stuff that you can get anywhere I couldn't believe. He said that they weren't sure if they could get those types of brooms and mops here!!!! But best of all was a microwave dating back to the very early 80s. We picked up between the two of us - shows how old it was as it weighed a ton - and some liquid trickled out. Inside was a cup of coffee that they hadn't taken out when they left England!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He now admits that maybe they should have sold their stuff and bought new here.

jdr

I was lucky and lived on the road to the carboot sale, also had a large front drive. We set up the stuff there and once there were 33 people looking including two coppers who also bought stuff. lol
Did this for 3 or 4 weeks.

Mitzyboy

Same here, we got rid of most stuff, and furnished a flat in the UK for my daughter with what was left.

Just bought personal stuff and a few bits of Rustic furniture. Didn't want to furnish a Spanish villa with English furniture

Our life amounted to one Luton Van full!

Lionda

We have 32 years worth of stuff - most of which we had stored in the loft for years and when we opened the boxes we couldn't believe what we have kept up there! The most surprising thing was a cardboard box full of old shoes which I had put ready to throw out in 1990 when we moved house, somehow it had got stored away!! We made quite a few journeys to the tip and lots to charity shops, they are always grateful for donations. Then we were told we wouldn't be moving for a few months yet still at least we have had a good clear out.

tommyg

We were very lucky, sold all the valuables we didn`t want on Ebay (including 7,000 records over 4 years), binned the rubbish stuff and any personal stuff we either brought with us or stored in the mother in laws loft. The rest of the contents of our flat was purchased by the buyer as he wanted to move tenants in straight away. So everything down to the cutlery bedding etc was sold.

Tom

jdr

Wow that was handy ;-)

tommyg

Yes it was. The apartment we have in Torrevieja came fully furnished so we really didn`t need any of the furniture at all. Some of the neighbours in the UK had a few bits but other than that, he really did buy the lot. Considering we lived on the 6th floor of a block the thought of having to shift all of it out was a nightmare.

Tom

mikelincs

Sold everything either on e bay or through a local auction house that held household sales as well as fine art ones, stuff went in either at their discretion, and as the auctions took place after we left the UK they paid the money into our bank account as well. Auction house even collected and stored things, but did charge for that. Also needed three skips to get rid of unsaleable stuff.

pjj

id put it on ebay you will be surprised how some stuff makes on there! them people who do house clearances just want give you pennys for it stick on ebay what you got to lose ! im going to keep all my personal items sell all my furnture apart from my leather settees they cost me a fortune im going to take them out in van with other items ! does any one think im better off selling my settee s and buying new ones out there , or are they more expensive out there ?

montgomail

In my experience, sofas are more expensive in Spain. If you have good leather sofas, it would be worth taking them with you although you will need to use "throws" during the very cold and very warm weather.

mikelincs

Yes we brought two leather recliner chairs with us, bought in UK with move specifically in mind as we had already boutght our house here, but that was the only furniture, apart from the bed, that we brought out.