What to do with all of our "stuff"?

SNOKING

Well-known member
OK, we are about to accept an offer on our home. We just recently bought a BH3575el and have snowbirded starting in 2008 for 3-5 months depending on the year in Gold Canyon AZ and love the park.

We own a lot in a membership park at Lake Connor RV Park in Washington (sunbird) for the summer months.

DW wants to buy a park model in Canyon Vistas in Gold Canyon, Az for snowbird home! It comes pretty much furnished and is reasonably priced.

I would rather use the new Bighorn in Arizona!

We would take the trailer South with us in the winter and can store it out back at a sister resort at a reasonable cost.

So, what do we do with all of our stuff? Cost of storage for a few years will get expensive.

What have others done and advice do you have regarding storage vs elimination of years on stuff?

Our heads are spinning trying to figure this all out.

DW thinks the park model will serve as a home of sorts and it backs up to the desert with beautiful sunsets.

Thanks Chris
 

Sniper

Well-known member
We are preparing to full time, and tentatively planned starting next Spring. I don't know if this is the right or wrong way to go about it, but what we are doing is grouping our stuff. First are things we KNOW we are taking with us. Second are things that we are keeping such as my Fathers & Grand Fathers tools, and Chopper that I built, and hutch that belonged to the Commanders Grand Mother and such that will never get out of the family, these things will have to go into storage until such a time they can be passed on. Third are things we will be giving to family members that they can use. Fourth, as has been mentioned, will be items we have in our Spring "yard sale". Last of all if there is anything left we will donate, give away, or trash. Don't know how it's all going to turn out, but that's what we're going to do.:)

Best of luck, and we hope all works out well for you.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
When we sold the house in Austin in 2014, we decided to keep about 10% of our stuff. We knew we'd never have a formal living room or dining room again, so we sold most of those via a consignment store. The other living room pieces we donated. We gave away or sold quite a bit of miscellaneous furniture. A few pieces went into storage with plans to use them at the next house. We had a lot of people moving into our subdivision and the NextDoor app helped us get rid of lots of stuff without having a conventional yard sale - which was restricted in our neighborhood.

We made about 50 trips to local charities with all kinds of stuff that didn't sell but was good enough for someone else to use. We also got a 5' high rolloff dumpster and packed it full. In retrospect, we should have gone with the 8' model. Even after that, I probably took 70-80 large trash bags to the dumpsters at our RV storage site and at our church.

The stuff we kept went into plastic storage boxes from Walmart, labeled on 3 sides. We stacked around 80 of them 8-10' high in a 10x20 storage unit to get the most benefit from the floor space. Cardboard boxes wouldn't have safely stacked that high which would have required additional space at additional expense.

As much as we got rid of, it still took a 26' moving van to fit the contents of our 10x20 storage unit and get everything to the new house.
 

SNOKING

Well-known member
Darlene has been taking bags after bags of stuff to the Goodwill store for the last few week. The community is have a community wide garage sale on the 25th of June, so if timing works and we know the home is going to close, we will put a lot of stuff in the sale.

Thanks Chris
 

TxCowboy

Well-known member
We just went through the downsizing two months ago. In our case, some friends' daughter will finish her degree program in December of this year. We quite literally gave her a stack of Post It Notes and a marker and sent her "shopping" through our house. You want it? Put your name on a note and stick it on there!

We thought she was being a bit bashful when she finished her first trip through so we brought her back a couple of days later and sent her through again. :)

The personal clothing items, including a large closet full of my business suits and other business attire, all went to local charities that train people for employment. Larger items were either given to friends, friends of friends, or local charities for resale. All of my garage items went to personal friends.

It really didn't take as long as we thought it would to divest ourselves of years of possessions. The personal items are in a 10x10 climate controlled storage room near our business office (travel trailer) until we find a better way to deal with them.

Once you make your mind up to downsize, it really isn't that hard to make it happen. Making the decision is the tough part.

HTH
 
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Noofear

Well-known member
I just finished downsizing and moved into my Bighorn from a 4 bedroom house in to the 41 foot 3 inch trailer. My daughters claimed what they wanted, I gave a bunch of tools to my grandsons and the rest was sold or donated. Out of the entire house I only kept about 20 little personal things and mementos. Pictures and scrapbooks are all being digitalised. One of my daughters has agreed to keep my tax records. No storage unit or related costs.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
 

kowAlski631

Well-known member
We had our sons, their better 99%s, and the grandkids over one weekend. We also had the other family members in the area over the next. We'd tagged items we were keeping for our retirement home. Then we told everyone to walk through the house and tag what they wanted. The grandchildren were also encouraged to tag things (one older grandson wanted the chair where I read to each of them each night). Another wanted a piece of glass that I'd bought on a day out with him.

We were so surprised by some of the choices, but there was no bickering or hard feelings. What was left over after everyone made choices went to charities. Our business suits, briefcases, and anything else that was related to getting or retaining a job went to an organization dedicated to outfit people for job interviews and new jobs.

It was amazing - when the day came that we went to our storage shed with movers a year later to take to our retirement house, we ended up calling our sons and telling them to bring their friends over to help themselves to what we realized that we didn't need.
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
Although we're not moving out of our house, we routinely donate clothing, unneeded furniture, appliances and whatever else to the Salvation Army. I prefer them over the Goodwill due to the exorbitant salary paid to the Goodwill director vs. peanuts they pay their workers. On April 15, it makes the IRS bite a little less painful, too.
 

rxbristol

Well-known member
After we took what we wanted, personally sold some higher priced items, I then hired an estate agent to sell everything. After the sale, I dealt with any left over items, and he cleaned up everything else, even the trash.
 

SNOKING

Well-known member
Well it looks like our buyer is going to buy most of the "stuff". We are going to keep our dining room table, two recliners, one couch, and the master bedroom set! Chris
 
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