My husband and I are downsizing after 24 years in our current home, the home we raised our children in for most of their lives. Because we have an unfinished basement, we have accumulated more junk than I would like to admit. Besides our own belongings, we became the storage spot for our kids and siblings. We now have the task of decluttering, which we have started, as well as selling some of the larger items.
I have no problem donating the kids old toys, books and clothing, and I have done a good bit of that. What I haven’t figured out is what to do with furniture, kitchen appliances, housewares, old tvs and such. What we have is not good enough, nor do we have enough to warrant an estate sale, and I do not think we have the energy or time for a garage sale, especially since it will just be larger items. My niece suggested posting on a neighborhood FB page where people list items for sale; don’t love this idea is it would be hard to show the items as I would have to have people come into the home unless we stored everything in the garage. We do not want to deal with Craigslist as we do not want people coming to the house.
I’m not sure what options are left for you if they are larger pieces (large enough that you don’t/can’t ship on ebay and you don’t want anyone coming to or in your home.
One thought: consignment - if you have a resale home/furniture store in your area you can bring your items - if they find them worthy they will try to sell them and they give you a % of the sale - often around 50%, seldom more.
But that will require you to find a store accepting items, loading it in your car and bringing it to the shop (unless they do pick up).
There is no way that you’ll find a place that accepts old appliances or tvs on consignment. And unless the furniture is something special – unlikely if it is sitting in your basement – they are unlikely to accept that either. Honestly, even selling this stuff on Craigslist is a longshot, unless you list it as “free,” or close to free. I’m being brutually honest, but in my experience, that’s how it is. Unfortunately, even Goodwill doesn’t usually want old appliances or tvs. (Perhaps things are different in your part of the country.)
The furniture is decent, but nothing special. I have my daughter’s post college bedroom set and kitchen items as she not lives out of the country. This is a nice set, but is missing the 5 drawer chest as I gave it to my parents when they downsized. The other decent furniture is a kitchen table with 6 chairs, two loveseats and my husband’s executive desk and credenza which are too big for the next house.
I don’t think the consignment stores will want what I have as we tried that with some of my parents better things with no success.
The older box tvs most likely will unfortunately end up at recycling; that is where the last one went as no one wants those anymore. While my washer and dryer are only 7 years old, the washer is might not have much life left; I just need them out of the house. I have though about giving them to the movers if I have not gotten rid of them by then.
There are groups that will pick us items if they find them acceptable. I am happy to donate as long as I know the items will be used.
I would list them as free items on Craigslist. Don’t provide your address until you’ve vetted the people who respond. Not having to move the furniture yourself might make it worthwhile to not get any $$ in return.
There are groups like the Salvation Army, Big Brothers Big Sisters and the like which accept donations of furniture, etc. for use by formerly homeless people in furnishing their new apartments. They might not care that a dresser is missing from a set or that the dining room set is short one chair, Contact a couple of legitimate groups. They might send someone out to see or you could send them photos of what you have. They might be able to arrange pick-up or you could rent a U-Haul and include that cost in your charitable contribution deduction.
I am SO jealous. I can’t wait to downsize. I told my family that for my birthday and all other occasions, I want them to get rid of things and not bring any more things into the house.
We have had a few garage sales…and for at least two of them, I regretted the time and effort as I realized I would have made at least as much money by donating the items and claiming the deduction. You might be able to get Kiwanis, Rotary, Soroptimist, Salvation Army, ARC, etc to come and haul it away in a matter or minutes and give you a donation receipt. Also, get a picture for your records and to remind you of everything you gave away. Usually, the the thrift shop value the irs lets you assign to your items is a lot more than you could sell it for in a garage sale.
I would post notes or speak to administrators at local community centers, congregations etc - they may know recent immigrants or young families who may be interested. I would wait for 2-3 months, then throw the rest out. Our garbage trucks collect used furniture and appliances (you may need special arrangements for the latter)
The past six months I have started downsizing because I don’t want our children to go through what my siblings and I did for my parents. I’m making critical decisions about each item. A lot gets packed up and donated. Some items that were too cumbersome to pack I just put on the front lawn with a “free” sign and they were gone within hours. I called the Salvation Army for a few furniture pieces.
My parents held an auction for their items, and none of the items brought enough money to make all the work preparing for the sale worthwhile. That experience has helped me see the benefit of donating.
I would make use of the neighborhood FB page if it is a closed group only, meaning membership is open only to those from a designated grouping of streets, neighborhoods, or connecting towns. That makes for a smaller pool of people who would ever have a view of your items, and a more controlled group that you open your door to. Of course, this is dependent on how you feel about your neighbors, and the crime stats in your area.
Outside of that, I would do as has been suggested and look into a well known group that could come by and take the items you wish to have removed, as long as those items are in usable condition.
I would not use Craigslist for anything unless you were willing to meet away from your home. On the whole, I don’t think I would ever recommend Craigslist to anyone anymore.
Habitat or women’s shelters often need household things to set up a family. They appreciate full sets of dishes and pots and pans, etc. If you live near a college, there might be some students who could use the stuff
I second the neighborhood facebook page. You could post pictures and descriptions of the items and say you will showing them from 1-3 on Saturday, for example. Then have them in your garage or driveway. Then have a backup plan for getting rid of them from your garage.
There is something called Freecycle that seems to attract slightly nicer clientele than the free section of Craigslist. I downsized about a year ago. I sold on Craigslist, had a one day garage sale, donated to Goodwill, gave away on Freecycle, threw stuff out via regular garbage pickup, and at the very end called a junk hauler. I do think there are charities that will come pick up your stuff, but I didn’t do that (just didn’t think of it). I didn’t have trouble selling on Craigslist.
Our neighborhood has a “Buy Nothing” Facebook page where people post all sorts of items to give away. It looks like the project is international. https://buynothingproject.org/find-a-group/ Maybe there is one you could join?
My garage is half full now and waiting for spring weather to come along. I live on a busy street so I’ll try to sell everything before donating it. My local Buy Nothing page only has 3 members. Oh well. Good Luck!
We were in this position a few years ago. We ended up putting all the items in our garage and posted on Craigslist. We used plenty of pics and made it for one weekend only. Most of the items sold. What remained was donated to charity. Goodwill (in my area, anyway) would not take old TVs. Once you start the process you quickly get an idea of what people want and what is totally worthless. A lot of people want cheap furniture projects to paint. Entertainment centers convert to play kitchens or puppet theaters, etc.
After we downsized four years ago we realized a lot of our stuff didn’t fit into the new house. We sold a few things on Craigslist (for way less than I thought they were worth, but it is what it is!) and gave away a ton of stuff on Freecycle. I love Freecycle! If the stuff is in your garage, you don’t need to let people into your house. Regardless, it’s always wise to have someone else around while you’re showing the stuff.
On Freecycle we got rid of old TVs, an old bedroom set, the old stove, seven doors that were redundant after renovating, and an entire set of bedding (comforter, shams, bed skirt).