When I was downsizing I would do it in at least 4 hour chunks and when retired all day. George, treat it like a job and you will be done in no time. I have given tons of stuff away to people that need it.
When I was downsizing I would do it in at least 4 hour chunks and when retired all day. George, treat it like a job and you will be done in no time. I have given tons of stuff away to people that need it.
I came to the same conclusion and made the same decision when I first started choosing things to dispose of in late 2019. I knew from a previous garage sale that trying to sell stuff wasn't worth the time and effort, so my main intention was just to keep stuff out of the land fill and hopefully put it in the hands of someone who could use it.Originally Posted by razz
I put a list of what I had in the Free Stuff section of our local Next Door group and quickly received requests for most items, but then virtually everyone canceled when they realized it would take them 10-15 minutes each way to drive to my house and I wasn't near anywhere else that they need to go. After that I just put everything on my driveway with a big "Free, Gratis" sign for a sunny Friday and Saturday. Only about 1/3 of it was taken in spite of the fact that several hundred cars come down my street everyday en route to a nearby school. All of that was in 2019, pre-pandemic.
So at that point I decided to just donate what I could as I went along and stack the rest up in a back room so I can sell it to a consignment dealer, as you did, when I'm totally finished culling and packing.
Yeah, auction attendance is way down here. But dumping stuff - this is what I can't bring myself to do. I try very hard to have less footprint, and I HATE sending things to the dump. We have trash pickup now, but we seldom generate more than a kitchen-sized trash bag per week for three adults (and two cats lol). We do have quite a bit of recycling, mostly boxes. We compost a lot, and much paper gets shredded and used as mulch, or composted directly into our field. So for ME, sending usable stuff to the dump would be sacrilige, almost. We're still selling stuff of my parents, and the three of us kids are also paring down somewhat. We have decided to go the antique mall route, and we're selling enough to fund yearly vacations, so it's worth it to me - but it takes up space and is very hard to keep organized! We aren't close to any large cities, so there's no local Craig's list or any similar. I don't do facebook, and won't join just to give away things (and I don't even know if there IS a local facebook page), partly because we don't want people coming to our home. I've evaluated my mental stress from stuff, and have accepted that it's more in line with my values than throwing it away. So I will continue looking for ways to keep the stuff flowing out in a more organized fashion, and keeping the "inventory" better organized as well. I do see a reduction in stuff, and hope that in a year or so we can get down to just a showcase or small booth.A friend had an auction for his late mother's home and contents. He and his wife spent literally weeks clearing, sorting and displaying everything. By the time all the expenses of the actual auction were paid, he had earned a total of just $2000. He now advises people going through similar situations to consider simply take what is personally wanted by self and family and open the door to let those in the community help themselves, sending the remaining to the dump.
I wouldn’t throw good stuff away either which is why I donate to thrift stores or put outside for free.
Oof has anyone noticed how hard it is to donate stuff to the thrift shop lately? I had to go 3 times to find a time they were actually accepting stuff, most of the time they already had too much stuff. They say it's covid and having to let stuff sit or 24 hours. And yes there is more than the usual stuff outside for free (not me, I donated), noone is all that interested in it, it seems.
Trees don't grow on money
Salvation Army here operates the same as usual.
As an aside to this discussion, I have a policy of severely policing my purchases to prevent landfill items, as I call them. I refuse to buy solar powered lights for my yard, decorations for the different seasons that won't last for years, etc. Dollarama junk is landfill items. There is so much stuff bought today that ends up in landfill in short order because it is poorly made, a trend for that year, bulky and difficult to store...
I like things that are long lasting and easy to store year to year.
Prevention is the best choice if possible.
As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”
exactly, donating is not always easy. It’s better to just not bring it into your house to begin with.
Well I do not like dumping things into the landfill, I have to be realistic about what is actually useful in donating AND in placing out in our alley. Fortunately, anything metal is picked up by the metal scrappers, of which DH is one. But he doesn’t pick up appliances. They do.
This was goodwill, I guess I'm glad they are trying to be safe, even though "fomites" are not much of a source of transmission. But sigh, just another thing made difficult by covid, as if everything wasn't.
I refuse to buy decorations new period,they are all thrifted, ha one from the apt dumpster. I think some stuff is just our needs change or we don't fully know our needs or are trying something out. I had storage containers for flour and the like but then just ended up storing grains in the freezer, so well don't need those (but my freezer is too crowdedbut I have to be realistic about what I am using or not, I don't know). I've gone though several trash cans trying to find one I like, one was too big, then I started putting all my trash in paper bags, I finally found one with a lid that is near the perfect size for the paper bags I get at the grocery. If 2 years from now I've gone back to plastic trash bags LOL. Paper has got to be greener. I had glass food containers with plastic lids, I moved off plastic, not out of any health paranoia really, but I got sick and tired of washing stuff like that - being plastic it sometimes never really comes clean etc., so it's pretty much all glass or stainless steel now. And so on.
Trees don't grow on money
LOL. Go forth and do
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