My parents downsized from a 7 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom and it took them a whole year. They gifted most furniture to young people who were just starting, gave the better clothes to charity, donated over 2000 books to the local library.
Growing in house with a lot of “stuff”, I keep mine very zen.
Use Goodwill for the better stuff, they are a decent company helping disabled people get work. You may also advertise on Craigs list or have a garage sale.
DH and I downsized seven years ago and went through all this. We still have boxes of stuff in the basement that haven’t been unpacked – mainly pictures in frames. I liked the idea upstream about just saving the photos and getting rid of the frames.
It’s a process. You can’t do it all in just a few weeks. As someone said, like you eat an elephant. It’s so satisfying to do, though – take that junk drawer in the kitchen and get rid of the loose rubberbands and expired coupons!!
I read the most brilliant solution to this. You move everything out that you are absolutely certain you want to keep. Then, you have a massive party in your house, inviting everyone you know, and ask them to take whatever they want. Anything is fair game if it’s in the house. Everyone should be walking out with boxes.
@Massmomm, I would not go to a party like that. I have too much of my junk to even want someone else’s. My S and his wife have so much stuff and my D lives in a studio. Neither want anything.
@BunsenBurner respectfully, 10 days to sell your house might be Seattle slow but is not rest of the country slow. 
@Massmomm - I linked to an article about just that, up thread. Inspiring!
Lol @deb922 ! That was when houses here sold in -2 days (meaning before hitting MLS). 
We are back to normal pace though.
Yup! And they’ll take a lot of your stuff if offered for free as well.
I really have a hard time putting usable things in a dumpster that’s just going to a landfill or incinerator. There is truth in “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”.
If you are able to allow yourself some time, you CAN make money (I made several thousand just cleaning out my garage - old bikes, toys and things - nothing super valuable) and I also made families happy by giving stuff away via craiglist, facebook yard sale pages, freecycle, etc.
Starting early also allows time for going through your stuff more than once, culling out stuff each time and coming to terms with parting with stuff. Some personalities need that extra time to declutter.
Well, even the refugees wouldn’t take my 1970s sofa set.
But I’m slowly digging through boxes and boxes of stuff so we avoid having to re-enact what we had to do with my inlaws place (thank goodness it was small!). Getting resistance from all quarters … really, 30 year old professional, you want to keep that enormous cheap pink plastic dollhouse!!!
This thread made me think of the ridiculous number of bed bath and beyond coupons I have. I only shop there maybe twice a year, and i am not a coupon clipper, but i must have 50 of them.
My parents had a garage sale when my grandparents died. They said it was heartbreaking when mostly strangers picked through items, and would try to bargain prices.
When we downsized my parent’s home, I took pictures of rooms and their contents, and emailed photos to family. Then I sent to friends, many with children who recently graduated college, starting to furnish first apartments. They all emailed their wish lists, and I divided into boxes for their later pick-up. There were duplicate requests, but I tried to be as equitable as possible. We then sold a few remaining items on Craig’s list, and donated the rest. It took time, but was a relatively easy process.
Donating all is the easiest, but it is also a joy for me to know some of my parent’s treasures are being used by friends and their families. I even see some of the items when I visit.
I thought it might be fun someday to invite friends to an auction party, using play money. Basically everything is still free, but everyone has an equal chance at items they value most. Not sure if this would cause hard feelings, or be fun.
You still have to clear it out, though, right? You might as well just get it done. Trust me, when it’s all gone through, sorted, trashed, and donated, it is such a liberating feeling.
My impression of giving old furniture to young adults is that they for the most part couldn’t be less interested. It’s not like back in the day when kids were fighting over the family antiques. That’s not the look most young people want.
My parents are meeting with a representative from a company that will help them figure out what they can take to their independent living facility (the apartment is bigger than our first house!). After that, sis and I will decide what we’d like to have. Then an estate sale firm will sort through everything, hold a sale, and then discard all remaining items. Sis and I won’t have to do a thing, whew.
We did it last year and are so glad we did! My message of hope is …I have never ran into anyone who sold a house, downsized, got rid of the stuff etc. who regrets it. I think the smartest move we made was to hire an auction company. After we gave some items to friends, family and neighbors, the auction company came into our home took everything and 30 days later we got a check.
Good luck!
For those of you who don’t want to put throngs in dumpsters that are still usable, but don’t have time to sort through everything, I suggest using a company like a JDog Hauling.
They came out and removed everything I didn’t want. Some of it was actual trash in bags, some was furniture, boxes of kitchen items, clothes etc.
I’m sure they sell some and then donate things that are usable. The relatively small cost was worth it to me to get rid of the junk and broken items.
If you have things that can be used or sold, please don’t put them in those bins. They are not lock tight…water gets in (ew…mildew) and so do…vermin. Much of what’s there is sold as poundage and the charities do get some money per pound. BUT if the charity is one that has an actual place, any good items really should be taken directly there…not placed in those bins.
I moved out of our house after 30 years… and yes, we had 30 years worth of crud. I’ll be honest: it was a bear. We had to be out of the house by 4 PM, at 3:45 we were still pushing stuff out of the basement which seemed to be growing boxes. And this was after weeks of cleaning out.
My advice: get started asap. Like, tomorrow. Make a game plan that seems to make sense for you. I started with the easiest room, which was the guest room. It got quickly pruned, and that gave me the encouragement to tackle the scary basement. I gave myself a week – knowing full well a week’s worth of purging would be just the beginning. Then I’d tackle the next room… back for a week in the basement… another room, etc. I did this every day for a set-aside period of time.
Some choices were easy: I got rid of most of our excess bedding in one fell swoop. Each bed got its own one set of sheets, and no more. I mean, we no longer have bed wetters and there’s a washer and dryer. I got rid of most of our towels. I got rid of the every day dishes and eat off the good stuff. If it wasn’t a good quality, useful piece of furniture - it went OUT. (We were downsizing.)
Here’s another piece of advice: this couple had a downsizing PARTY… they invited the neighborhood and said, “take whatever you want, just have champagne first.”
https://www.inquirer.com/real-estate/home/downsizing-decluttering-aging-housing-condo-20191130.html
Next time I’m moving, I may do the same.
Some decisions were made easier because we paid for the move ourselves and the all-in rate was $.44 per pound. So an item weighing 100 lbs was going to cost $44 to move! Lots of heavy stuff went on Craigs List, was donated to charity, or got taken to the dump.
12 years later we have so much junk will have to do it all over again some day.
Lol, I count 4 people on this thread who posted the same article about the downsizing party! ?
I was going to post a reprint innour local paper, but as you said, others beat me to it! ?
I seriously thought the couple lived in Seattle. There is Capitol Hill 'hood in DC, too?!
There are several second hand/consignment stores near me. Each has scores of expensive china and crystal which typically sell for about $200 (if at all). Depending on the time of year, stores aren’t looking for more because they have too much already. Same is true for dining room furniture. Isn’t the demand for it. At least around here. May be different in other parts of the country.
To me if I got use out of something, enjoyment, etc. of it, I don’t really have an issue if someone else doesn’t have an interest in using it. We had a couple of garage sales and didn’t make enough to make it worth the time. Its a way of getting people to take your trash to the curb for you. Watching people fight/haggle over things priced under $5 was comical. If friends/relatives have a use for any of it fine but would have to be a total soft sell. Would much rather toss things with some use left than guilt friends/family members into taking/using my old stuff. If charties want them that is fine too.
I married a pitcher. Her mom is a queen pitcher. My wife is just a princess pitcher. Our house looks like is staged to sell always (other than for the month of December when she indulges in my interest for Christmas decorations – physically/emotionally pains her for that month but she knows Jan 1 it all gets packed away). She periodically tosses stuff out. Basically a lifetime of cleaning house.