Becoming location independent can be a huge lifestyle change, especially for somebody over 35, when you’ve accumulated a lifetime worth of sentimental, useful and extra-cool possessions. If you’re moving around fairly often, you don’t need that stuff weighing you down. Following is a guide to downsizing.
Of course, everybody’s circumstances are different. Our situation made timing more important than a cash return. The more time and flexibility you have, the easier it will be to make some money that you can use to fund your travels. In our case, I obtained a job that allowed me to work from anywhere, so we immediately put in our 30-day notice to vacate our apartment and went about figuring out how to get rid of stuff in that 30 days. NOTE: We had moved from a 2 bedroom apartment to a 1 bedroom apartment the previous year in anticipation of eventually relocation, which got us in the downsizing frame of mind.
Photographs
One item that has become unnecessary is the photo-album or in our case, shoeboxes full of photos. To get rid of this clutter, we digitized our photo collection using ScanCafe.com. You could probably do this using a scanner/copier, but ScanCafe did a great job and actually does Photo repair to fix damaged photos. Then we gave our photos to family and uploaded our digital copies to drive.google.com.
Secondary Car
We posted my wife’s car on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. We didn’t get any response from Facebook, but this is the first time we’ve used it and algorithms favor regular users. We received about two dozen responses to the Craigslist post. We ignored any from outside of our area code, because most of those were a waste of time. We overvalued the car – $1600 for a 2005 Chevy Aveo estimated between $1000-$1400, figuring we could negotiate down, but nobody offers initial value on Craigslist. With a car of this value, we also decided NOT to clean up some minor cosmetic issues: chipped windshield, broken window roller-upper, bad paint job. We sold it for $1300 and wouldn’t have gotten much more if we had put money into it.
Miscellaneous Collectables
You can see a lot of your smaller collectables on eBay. Our strategy was to estimate shipping cost and place on auction for .01 + shipping to let people bid each other up. One tip we were given at the post office is to take pictures, package your item, weigh/measure to get an accurate shipping cost and add 10% for your time. This ensures you get your money back at the very least. Also, don’t forget that eBay will charge ~ 10% of your sales price for their fees, depending on total monthly sales.
Alcohol
This one was tricky for us. I had a collection of Marilyn Merlot wines. It’s illegal to sell alcohol unless you have a liquor license. Doing an online search, I found somebody on eBay (golf44bob) who sells wine for you on consignment. He was largely unresponsive, but recommended that we donate the wine and take the write off. He had a bunch of consignment sales on eBay stagnant waiting for a taker and we didn’t have the time to wait for a taker. I found the Arthritis Foundation’s Bone Bash online and having worked with them last year, I remembered they had a silent auction. So I donated these bottles to them and took a write off. I’ve never taken a write-off and it adds some complexity to our taxes next year, but at least we received something for them.
Furniture
The last thing you’ll probably want to be rid of is furniture. If you live in a house, you can typically leave furniture on the curb-side for collection, but in an apartment, that wasn’t an option for us. We found furniture recycling facilities, but they charge $280+ for a couch and a bed and that’d be throwing away stuff that people legitimately need. Another option was uHaul to the dump, but the rules (flatbed truck loaded no higher than the bed) was prohibitive. We advertised on Craigslist, free to any takers. Our move out was on Sunday and we requested takers for Friday or Saturday, must take mattress. It really came down to the last day. Be aware that a lot of people want to be first to take your stuff, but then have no method to pick it up and back out, so you’re stuck scrambling to get rid of it. We were fortunate to find somebody who really NEEDED the bed and was able to pick it up when we were near to panic.
Goodwill
You’ll probably have a lot of stuff that didn’t sell on eBay and that you don’t really want to throw in the garbage. Often this stuff will go to Goodwill. But to me, donating for free to Goodwill to take their cut and charge people for the stuff is less appealing than offering it to people for free and saving a couple trips to Goodwill. So, we put a Free Stuff Grab on Craigslist and had a decent turn out. We got to meet the people who needed dishes and lamps and furniture due to unfortunate circumstances, some who had lost their jobs or who just appreciated the stuff we had and were grateful to have it. It took us from three trips to Goodwill down to one.
And after all of this, we were down to one Prius full of our world belongings. Family art, Christmas Gifts, a suit (hopefully not, but possibly we may come back to the US looking for a job), and a very limited number of keepsakes. And we’re the heck outta TN… on the Road to Everywhere.
*None of the sites or companies mentioned in this article are paid advertisers. We used them, they were effective, I’m just relaying our experiences.
Tips:
- Time is money: The less immediacy you have to get rid of something, the more opportunity you’ll have to wait for the right buyer at the right price.
- But… be realistic on your valuation. Your stuff is only worth what people will pay. Your sentimentality isn’t worth anything to somebody else.
- Be creative. The best option is often not the most obvious one. Search online for people who have been successful at what you’re trying to accomplish and steal their best ideas.
- Again, it’s always good to put your intentions “out
there” in conversation and social media and see what people contribute.