We’ve lived in our home for more than 30 years. We have a lot of stuff and have not kept pace with clearing things out of the house.
I absolutely dread the thought of going through everything, throwing stuff out, figuring out what to do with things we don’t use but are too valuable to just toss (anyone else have fine china from their wedding they haven’t used in decades…) and moving the rest.
How have others managed this? Was it as bad as you expected? How long did it take?
Consider hiring someone to help you if at all possible. There are people in our area who will come and figure out how to recycle/throw away/sell things for you. My in laws did this a few years ago and my mil had never thrown away a single thing her kids had produced. It took them a full year+ to get the house cleared out. So I guess leave yourself a long time or hire someone.
Watching my in-laws do this now – in their 80s! Ack. We’ll be moving from our home of 20 years in a couple years, and it will be hard!
But then again we moved into our current house when my D was 4 and my S was 1 so how can this be harder, right? Even though we have more stuff now. . .
When we downsize our kids will still be in college so the hardest part is figuring out what to hold on to in terms of household items/furniture that they may want for their first homes. My current thinking is not much – who knows when and where they will be – and will they really want our stuff, especially if they have to transport a long distance? I don’t want to pay a monthly storage fee for years with no idea if it’ll ever be used.
I figure used furniture is like fruit cake and just gets passed around. We will donate or cheaply sell ours when it’s time and they will buy used stuff from other empty nesters close to wherever they are. Or, heck, they’ll prolly just get cheap Ikea stuff, right?
We’ll hold on to meaningful art / decorative items for them and some kitchen items that are easy to transport.
Will be watching for others’ tips!
PS – I own THREE sets of crystal! Mine, my mother’s and my grandmother’s! I have one daughter and two nieces so each will be getting a set even if I have to track them down and personally deliver, lol!
Wasn’t in my last house as long as you but moved after 15 years and at the same time, moved my parents and our second home.
My advice - tackle the job in small stages if you don’t have a deadline to move. Let your kids go through the house and choose what they want. (Don’t be offended if they want little to nothing).
Clean out one day/week only so it’s not overwhelming. Start with one tiny closet. Have a keep, donate, and toss pile.
When you get to big storage areas, don’t look at it as a whole. Tell yourself you will do one manageable section.
If it still feels like too much, you can hire an estate agents to help. They charge a high percentage in terms of what they sell for you but it was super helpful for my parents house. They shipped to us kids what we wanted, moved what my dad wanted to keep, and sold/donated the rest.
For me, I loved being able to let go of so many things we really weren’t using and give them away.
What I found is that I tended to get more done than I expected because it felt good. Took me six months.
Try to get on the same page with your spouse. Mine is a pack rat too. He hates getting rid of stuff and we had to set some ground rules on what could realistically be moved.
I definitely had to keep more than I wanted but we also got rid of a ton too.
I volunteer at a charity thrift store that benefits local folks. Find one in your area and donate all of that China that you don’t use. Trust me when i say, that unless it’s Limoges and a complete set, you won’t be able to sell it at all. And even Limoges complete sets…you might get a couple hundred dollars for a complete set.
Our neighbors just moved out of a 4000 sq ft house. They filled two large dumpsters. They gave all the neighbors and their kids anything they wanted that they weren’t moving. Win win.
You could hire an estate sales person. We have friends who did that too. Did they make a ton of money? No. But they didn’t have to pay to have anything hauled away. The estate folks guaranteed the stuff would be totally gone by a certain date…and it was.
Get a POD. Put the things you WANT in the POD well packed. Then sell, give away or whatever the rest.
You can ask your kids if they want anything…they might.
Get a good shredder, or find out when Staples or wherever has their BIG shredding events.
@fendrock no…if you want to sell the house, you need to get rid of all that extra stuff so it shows well to prospective buyers. They want to see lots of good storage space and no clutter…including inside cabinets and closets, basement and attic. They don’t want to see piles of “stuff”.
Ask your kids NOW @AlmostThere2018 . Find out IF they want anything. We asked our kids. One wants our piano and that’s it. The other wants a few things, but not much.
We told them, we will move anything they want when the time comes…but they only want a few things total.
Ours is Orrefors…12 of each kind of glass. I’m not tracking anyone down. It’s going to be donated. I wouldn’t burden anyone else with this kind of thing unless they specifically asked for it. Look at the size of those wine glasses. They are the size of cordial glasses now. Are they Baccaret? If not…please ask these relatives first.
Simply put…that’s how you got three sets of crystal, right? Someone gave them to you…and clearly you didn’t need three sets!
Did it. Have at least six months before the sale to clean out. Do not fill a POD with junk. Take only things you love. Donate gift the rest. You will never receive $ for your junk in relation to the work involved. Donate and get receipts.
Result: Sold the house full price, for a cash offer in December ( last year) . So much happier without the yogurt, waffle maker etc. Less junk means old and new houses were/are easier to clean. Still have a POD worth of stuff to go through but I am working on it slowly and most has been disallowed from the new place . Old house was 5,500 sq. ft.
@thumper1 – haha! I was being a bit tongue in cheek. . . The crystal is pretty cool actually (think mid 20th century, Madmen) so part of me thinks they’d like their retro nature. Also, my mother died when all her grandkids were little so it’s one of the only things to remember her by. But I will certainly ask b4 burdening them.
While in college I don’t think that my kids have any idea what they will want down the line – other than art and some things from our family travels – but we’ll see.
I think about this a lot. I’m not attached to the physical stuff as much as the mementos. I have BOXES upon BOXES of kids’ stuff. Favorite clothing, t-shirts, artwork and papers from preschool- HS. I’d have such a hard time getting rid of that. Maybe I should start slimming down on that all . . … but it has such cherished memories!
I’ve heard you should take pictures of it all; that’s not a bad idea.
We saved and framed one piece of art from each kid. That’s it.
Trophies. We found that the little name plaques popped off very easily. We got each kid a picture frame and put the little plaques only in the frame. Ditched the trophies.
One kid has an awesome quilt made from T shirts from her favorite EC. The other has a nicely framed thing that holds the program covers from the same EC (they are gorgeous art). Kids want those things.
We will give them any art they want if they want it. We will keep what we want and donate the rest.
When we very first started thinking about selling our house, I set simple goal. Fill the garbage can to the top every single week.
Sounds simple enough, right? Typically we fill it with actual trash about 1/4 of the way. Anyway, for about 4 months straight we filled it up. Crazy how much stuff we had that we never used. If something hadn’t been touched for a few years, out it went.
Same deal with my closet - I was wearing maybe 10% of the clothes in there. Everything else got either tossed or donated, but it took several passes over the course of several months to emotionally “break up” with some of my old favorites.
Anyway, start small. Fill up that garbage can every week and go from there.
@bgbg4us That’s what I had the hardest time with - my D’s stuff.
I ended up making 3 big binders of schools stuff/artwork/awards. One for elementary, one for middle school, one for HS. I have two, two sided folders in the binder for each year of school - one for art, one for academic samples (the 1st grade writing is so precious!), one for report cards/standardized tests, and one for awards. I also have a small plastic shoebox of the pre-K art. It was fun for me to go through and pick out the best examples for the binder. I also have one small plastic bin for the favorite and hand made clothes (by my grandmother).
My H also took a few of the early art pieces and framed them for his office.
