Here is our situation - dh and I did a major downsize and are now living happily ever after in a 935 sq ft condo in Florida. Ds graduated in June and just started his job in California. We do currently have an off-site storage unit that is 5x5. In it we have luggage, coats (likely too many for our needs) on a hanging rack, some memorabilia (not much), and Christmas ornaments - no tree. We also have ds’s “stuff.” To be fair, he culled quite a bit when we came down to visit us last spring break. He has an accordion, a guitar, tons of piano sheet music, and some memorabilia (not much). I can’t remember what else. It isn’t a a huge amount - obviously, since a 5 x 5 space isn’t very large. We also have a small (3 x 4 but not climate-controlled) storage unit at our condo. We keep our beach toys in there. It isn’t particularly well arranged, so we could do better. The big stickler is the Christmas stuff. I was ready to chuck all of it, but when we did the downsize, the ornaments were the only thing ds wanted us to keep. We might or might not be able to go without the off-site storage unit if we got all of ds’s stuff to him. I’m not sure. I know we cannot do this while we still have possession of his stuff. There is not much extra storage within our condo. Our bed has built in drawers in the bottom, so there isn’t really much room under it. The second bedroom has a sleeper sofa, so no under bed there.
Anywho - I have rambled on too much about our own particular circumstances. IF you are still reading…how did you get stuff that belonged to your kids if your kids lived far away from you? It’s not like we have a truck’s worth full. We are paying $100 per month for our off-site storage - they just raised our rate. It’s not like he has a moving truck’s worth full. We aren’t currently inclined to drive all the way to California. But, if I could get all his stuff to him for less than $600 AND get rid of our off-site storage unit (as I said, not sure if that is workable - especially with Christmas).
Is your son coming home for Thanksgiving or Christmas? If so, I’d ask him to deal with it. He can either pack it up and send it to himself or sell/Goodwill it.
ETA: He’ll probably decide he needs a lot fewer of his old things if he has to lug them to the post office and pay for shipping and/or cart them back to CA in an extra suitcase.
My default kiddo shipping method is “bags fly free” on Southwest Airlines. I see that current round trip fares between Florida and California, depending on dates and cities, start around $300. If it were our family, DW and I would pack all his stuff into four boxes and make a delivery run/vacation.
More specifically, we’d use our Southwest credit card points and fly free.
Now that son is done with school and has a job it is time for him to store his own stuff. You should empty the storage unit to complete the downsizing. We use closets in our much larger Florida house (whoever decided no one needs places for stuff without any basement???) with just one shelf for son’s stuff from childhood. He/you can foot the bill for shipping stuff to his place. You no longer have the family home and have as little space as he does. No reason to pay extra to store stuff.
We’ve been doing the Southwest plan on each trip when kids come home or I go to them. Nut we have one item, a large framed nature photograph that D1 wants. I have it in Seattle, and she lives in DC. It is too big to carryon, and beyond the size for checking without a big fee. I’m making her decide what to do at Xmas this year.
We did this from New York to Los Angeles, and found Greyhound the most economical. It was just about $40 per box, including the optional door to door service. It took less than a week to make the trip, though that doesn’t seem important in your instance.
We got lucky one year. S2 lives in Madison, WI. S1 at the time lived in Cincinnati. S1 hosted Christmas, and we drove (10 or so hours) to Cinci. S2 drove from Madison to Cinci (8 or so hours). We loaded up our car with S2’s junk; then in Cinci we literally backed our car’s trunk up to S2’s car’s trunk and did the transfer. Easy peasy.
Not surprisingly, several years later S2 still hasn’t unpacked all the boxes we transferred.
I would do a road trip with the stuff he really wants. When he is at your place next, have him go through the stuff, and get rid of everything he doesn’t want. Then make a plan to rent a van and drive it to him. Fly home. Make it a nice vacation. Take your time.
Our kid doesn’t have room in his apartment for ANYTHING from our house…and has given us permission to get rid of anything left. Your kid my just do the same when he realizes that it’s take it…or lose it.
My kids on the opposite coast have shipped things on their own, a little more each year. My storage space is the same size as yours and costs $45. I live in a studio myself. I like to let them do these things at their own pace so I am not pushing them away, and they seem to take it on naturally over time. I did nudge my son by sending him a box of photos and memorabilia.
We just moved and downsized by less than half the living space. We were
going to be faced with the OP’s dilemma until S1 moved from California back east. We were able to make a trip to see him and bring his stuff. It immediately went into his storage space without opening a single box. We brought S1’s stuff with us since he lives nearby. I doubt he’ll open his boxes, except maybe his CD collection.
Gosh, you people are so nice and thoughtful. I made S go through his stuff during his freshman year of college as I was turning his room into a proper guest room and he went down into bedroom in the basement when he was home on breaks. When he comes to visit now he stays in the guest room. He went straight from his college graduation to city where he got a job with his car filled with all his stuff, so we also never had to deal with our home and his stuff as a transitional way station for him.
When we cleaned out his room we threw almost everything away, except his oar from 50 mile canoe trip his last year at camp and his trombone (because I thought someday he might decide to play again.) Never going to happen so I’m thinking of posting it for sale on my neighborhood’s Next Door site.
I also have two big Tupperware bins with mementos from his childhood, but that was more for us than him - not that we’ve even opened it since we put the stuff in there.
My MIL rented a Ryder truck when they sold their house…and she (unannounced) arrived with all of DHs stuff from her house. I can’t tell you how excited we were…not. She pulled the truck in…and unloaded the boxes.
That was in 1982. Some of them have still not been opened…
@intparent You might see if removing the photo from the frame and mailing it rolled in a cylinder, then reframing it at the destination, would be less expensive than shipping the large framed photo.
Wow! You guys are tough! To be fair, we told ds we would keep his things for him as we envisioned needing storage space for ourselves anyway. Which, we currently still do. As I wrote before, I’m not sure we can make it without an off-site storage unit. If we can, then I suppose we will deal with getting ds his stuff then. His apartment (which he shares with a roommate) is the exact same size as our condo. Since we promised ds we would hold onto his stuff, I am not going to renege on that, and I’m not going to make him pay to ship it or make him pay to help store it - especially if we still need space ourselves. If we could get everything into a smaller unit that ONLY held his stuff, then I might make him decide if he wanted to pay to store it or ship it. I just wondered if there was some cheap way to ship! I will definitely look into some of the suggestions. Thank you!
The cost of our unit goes up every 9 months. We can shop around and perhaps find something cheaper, but the idea is that it is “temporary,” and I think many storage places are like that here.
Nut we have one item, a large framed nature photograph that D1 wants. I have it in Seattle, and she lives in DC. It is too big to carryon, and beyond the size for checking without a big fee. I’m making her decide what to do at Xmas this year.