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Dave0559 · 07-06-2017, 11:36 AM

I sold a lot on craigslist. $30k worth in two months. It's all for free

Ready4RVing · 07-06-2017, 02:53 PM

Sold some on Craigslist, gave some to charity, but most of the furniture went to my kids. Gave each child a box with their childhood "mementos" to do with as they chose. We still have a big box of pictures and some Christmas ornaments in my sons garage.... [emoji57]

Dan McMartin · 07-07-2017, 05:11 PM

Took us three sales, each with enough stuff to fill a two car garage with some on the driveway. The last one includes refrigerators, a freezer, furniture, etc. At the end, we were practically giving stuff away. What we couldn't sell, we took to the landfill or gave to charity. Had thousands to deduct this last year.

One hint: If you have old chemicals, paint, gasoline, oil, etc. finding places that will accept all that was tough. Some cities do it but they won't take this or they won't take that. We sold it. You'd be surprised how fast a box full of old spray paint, chemicals, etc. sells.

Roadtrip Images · 07-08-2017, 05:14 PM

It's taken us two years to get rid of stuff. Started with two houses filled with stuff plus boats, tractors, tools, etc. Sold the houses, went through three massive garage sales, tons of Craig's List items, countless trips to charity and landfill runs. We've been full timing since March but we're still in one spot getting rid of stuff in storage units that didn't sell. It takes a lot of work to unwind from 35+ years of accumulating stuff. Things that most people view as assets we now view as liabilities. It's just in our way of finally taking off!

trx430ex · 07-12-2017, 10:18 PM

Glad to have company in this subject, in week 14 of 104 to get rid of everything. Takes some really hard time to sink in moment when I said to myself. It doesn't matter,, it all has to go. Trying to have some fun with it, try to list one thing a day on ebay, sold 3 pairs of new shorts to a wife in Georgia for her husband, no way these are going to sell!! Or the old ball 9 inch saw blade, sold. I do take solace in going to Lowes to return something while watching people buy so much stuff, that will just be given away.
Walking away with no dept, & no storage unit. Three big can of trash every week, 2 thing left out by curb to disappear. 126 things sold, about 15% in. Having a really hard time with the $2500 Warwick 5 string bass.

cwk · 07-13-2017, 05:40 AM

I did learn one thing about putting things by the street in our neighborhood. We are in a semi-rural area, but with a lot of traffic on our two lane road. There are a few sub-divisions (planned single-family home neighborhoods) and a lot of single-family houses that supply the traffic.

We have left things by the street and they were still there many hours later. Oh! I forgot to put a sign on them that said "FREE!"

Added the sign and very shortly thereafter (less than 30 minutes?) the item(s) were gone. The sign was just a simple piece of 8.5x11 white paper on which I printed "FREE" in very large letters. Then, in smaller type: "I need a new home. Please give me one. Thank you!" Taped it on with blue tape on the side facing oncoming traffic. I usually add a second sign facing traffic coming the other way as well. I have done this often enough that I have a Powerpoint slide file on my computer that I can print as needed.

computerguy · 07-13-2017, 08:24 AM

Well, as I am living this as we speak, thought I downsized enough. Closing on the house is tomorrow. I am 600 lbs over weight in the RV. So, back to the chopping black of all the things I wanted to bring with me. It's amazing how things add up quickly. Those extra bottles of liquor I had room for is 80 lbs. :(
Have a couple things I can still sell. The rest hits the dumpster as I sort through it daily. "But I have room for it!". Weigh your rig! and don't compromise on that!!!
Lucky I am staying at a CG locally while I finish up my last few weeks of work. Should give me enough time to purge the rest.
It's hard accumulating a life's worth of 'stuff' to then just try and let it go. I must say the less stuff I have the better I feel. It's the hump of just getting rid of it that takes considerable effort. No one ever said it would be easy.

Katedltn · 07-14-2017, 08:01 AM

Where did you go to weigh your camper?

cwk · 07-14-2017, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katedltn

Where did you go to weigh your camper?

When I bought my TT a few years ago I stopped at a CAT scale on the way back. You can find them at some truck stops. (See link below.)

I weighed the Jeep and trailer combination. The next day I disconnected the Jeep at home, then found another CAT scale and weighed the Jeep by itself. By doing a little bit of arithmetic with both sets of readings I could tell how much weight was on each of the axles: front of jeep, rear of Jeep, and trailer. I was able to learn the weight of the trailer as well as see how much tongue weight was on the trailer hitch.

https://catscale.com/

If I had done both weighings at the same station (within 24 hours IIRC) I would have only needed to pay for one. I believe the cost was about $12 each.

scwidvicious · 07-15-2017, 02:21 AM

im still dealing with this very issue.. the house is gone, and a lot of the junk is gone.. but i still have too much, its in my annex, making it look all junky.. I do have a couple of big ticket items that will be sold, commercial sewing machines and what not. but a lot of it is scattered upholstery stuff.. rolls of zipper, slides.. grommets and tons of stuff like that... some i could potentially use to fix my rig and other coaches who need help. lol but the room.. I dont have the room..

Redbelly · 07-15-2017, 03:11 AM

I'm just sharing this because I was absolutely sure it wouldn't work!
A little history: We've been planning this departure from the NW to FT for a little over a year. Lots of runs to Good Will to mostly get rid of cloths and unsellable items and preparing for the big push! ... we had our youngest graduating and didn't want to start selling big stuff too soon and make him feel like we were rushing him out the door. He is now on his way and we are free to sell everything! BUT we have an HOA... now I can see the good in HOA's but typically they seem to be governed mostly by "not so flexible individuals" for a lack of more pointed descriptions! We did contact a wonderful Estate Sale Company that said we had enough stuff but couldn't do it with out HOA approval for fear of being shut down. So we said we'd ask... we didn't and instead contacted an Auction Company that came by and, while nice, utterly depressed us with his estimates and cost! So we started the morning after posting things on all sorts of different sites... very slow and tedious and perhaps most annoying was the constant answering of questions about an item for $5!
So we DID finally place a call to the HOA in a "Hail Mary" attempt, explained the situation, and much to my disbelief, granted us a waver! (I did perhaps bend the truth a tiny bit on the reasons for the Estate Sale but...)
I seriously could not believe they did it SO definitely worth a try!
After the estate sale we are having a clean up company come the next day, take everything else for $800 and they sweep/ vacuum the entire place and we are out of there!
Still absolutely giddy to not have to do endless posting!
Best of luck! It is a very liberating process!

RMD3819 · 07-24-2017, 07:58 AM

We started to decrap years before selling the house and going FT. Here is what I learned:

1. Ask your kid(s) ONCE if they want something. Yes-give it to them immediately. No-GET RID OF IT. We have one adult daughter. She took very little but I held onto things because I wanted her to have them. I would ask again and the answer was ALWAYS no. Your kids do not want your stuff.

2. Old does not mean valuable. Look at eBay sold items for a general guide to things.

3. FB yard sale, CL, and some eBay are good for nominal income on some stuff.

4. Ask yourself once you are dead what will happen to it. If the answer is trash then throw it out now.

5. FB and especially CL are problematic even for free items. We had a big problem with no shows. CL tends to attract oddballs.

6. You have more stuff than you think.

7. Books, record albums, CDs, VHS tapes are worth near zero no matter how old. DVDs are not much better as the downloading and on demand services are taking over.

8. Handle and item only once. Donate, sell, store or trash then move on.

We have a family friend that did home repairs for us in exchange for the furniture. He took all of it. We now have a 6X9 storage with photos and other stuff to get us started after we are done with FT.

It is very liberating not to have so much stuff.