Bob

hit the quote button at the bottom of the post to quote it...

And craigslist is good, as is ebay, and if it's random stuff that might now sell, freecycle is a good place to just get rid of stuff

chicagojlo

We sold almost all our stuff on a Dutch site similiar to CraigsList (lived in Amsterdam prior to here), it was pretty much painless except for the people that would agree the price with you then turn up to collect and try to haggle. And the endless emails of 'it's cheaper at xxx, I'll give you this for it'.
You do need to give yourself time to do it. What you think might sell may take ages but some stuff goes instantly and amazes you. I got EUR 100 within 2 hours for a Sony Minidisc recorder that was nearly 10 years old. But couldn't get more than a couple hundred for my nearly new EUR 1000 sofa that was listed for weeks.

The Horticulturalist

We are headed for the Deep South, we were there a month ago and the Wisteria,Dogwood and Azaleas were all in bloom so it looked really nice.
It will be a real challenge to have a great looking Garden in the height of summer, but I'll give it a bash! I'm having to give up my much loved allotment, so no more raspberries for me

MsElui

be aware as your a gardener - that the customs form you have to fill in on the plane specifically asks about if you have any seeds etc in your luggage. I read one girl on here ticked no as she forgot she had a small packet of seeds in her case. They caught her and she was reprimanded. The worst part is her records were marked with a customs violation and now every time she enters the country she has a load of hassle at secondary. she gets through but has a lot of time wasted and trouble. if you bring stuff - answer the questions truthfully.

The Horticulturalist

Oh dear, that's not good news I have a shoebox full of seed packets, I had hoped to bring them with me, but they'll need to go on the list aswell.

madeofkent

We have been told by our removals people to clean all our gardening implements thoroughly and put a note in the shipment as to how exactly we cleaned them, as the most frequent chuck off and burn is these due to hoof and mouth (as they correctly call it).

Also get a company which makes you write down every item with a new cost for insurance (i'm sure they probably all do this) as me and my hubby spent months agonising over stuff "should it stay or should it go now", but have found the mere act of writing it down and finding a price has made us think !ah F*** it and our rubbish and charity bin piles are mounting up.

Another thing I have thought of doing is having a "come and pick over our lives" party for the stuff we haven't or haven't got round to selling for family, friends and acquaintances in our last few days, and leaving a tub by the front door saying if you wish to make a donation to our lives in America please feel free to make a donation, and see what happens!

MsElui

might be able to sneak them in the freight container - just dont put in your suitcase when you go on the plane as thats when you have to fill in the customs form that im talking about.

chicagojlo

Our friends came round and helped themselves anyway, cheeky bu**ers. The last day was like a free for all. And none of them gave us a single cent. (OK one drove us to the airport - whoop de doo!)

Mandana

Tips I can think of ...

Do you have pets? If so, look into getting a company to transport them. We used Airpets. Best thing I ever did for our cat - he arrived safe and sound and in a good state.

Sell things at home rather than here. You'll get nowhere near the price you paid for them here.

Are you keeping your home or selling up? We're only here for an assignment so kept our UK home and let it out. Can give you some tips if you're doing the same.

Oh, and don't do what we did and say goodbye to everyone individually. I wanted a big one-off party, but OH wanted it all to be small and personal. Big mistake! It all took up far too much time and we ended up saying goodbye to some 2, even 3 times. Ridiculous. And there are only so many meals you can eat/times you can hug people farewell.

Mandana

Oh, and 'garden maintenance' doesn't mean the whole garden! It means lawn cut, edges trimmed and stuff blown away. We thought it meant gardens weeded and hedges trimmed so we left all our garden stuff at home

Our mistake - but proved to be an expensive one!

Slinky

Hi sorry for hijacking the thread!
We will be letting our house out when we move any tips much appreciated
I havent a clue where to begin!
Thanks

Tujeste

And if you are a gardener (or a hiker, camper etc) watch out for things like Poison Oak, poison ivy and sumac. I dont think you get the first one down south (its a west coast plant IIRC) but I think that the other two are present. I know to my own cost that poison oak can give you a very nasty rash if touched - I think poison ivy and sumac do the same thing