Long distance move and getting rid of it all...

[Stephenie]

We're almost certainty moving from WA to TX soon. We may get offered moving compensation, but it depends on which potential employer hires dh (hopefully) but if we don't, we would sell what does not fit in a 4x8 uhaul trailer or on top of our Saturn Vue.

Anyone done this? It seems liberating to me in a lot of ways, but I need to figure out what is reasonable to keep. As in how few outfits can we really have? Is one box of books and one box of toys enough for my almost 3 yo and almost 1 yo? What do you consider the bare minimum to keep a kitchen running?

Also, for those of you who've sold your stuff off, what's the best way to do this? I'd like to make the most money, obviously, but I'd also like to sell it as quickly and easily as possible.

Any advice would be great! Thanks

[EarthyMamaofDaisy]

I haven't moved cross country but I have had good luck selling things on Craigslist and my books have done well on half.com Good luck!

[chevy974]

we moved from Ohio to Louisiana and I sold alot of stuff and took truck fulls of stuff to salvation army. I sold alot on craigslist and to my friends and garage sales. It did feel great getting rid of stuff but a long distance move is hard and deciding what to get rid of what we really wanted and needed. What can you replace when you get there is the question i asked my self alot.
Many blessign to you in your move

Amy

[zoebird]

we are moving to NZ! so, yes.

we decided that we would move only what was important to us, and then we decided we would store those items until we could comfortably afford to move them. it's 30 boxes, one bike and one chair.

on the plane, we are taking two trunks, 4 suitcases, two carry-ons, and two backpacks (day pack size for snacks, books, personal items, diaper stuff, computers, etc).

so, we will be traveling with only those items. the two trunks hold DS's toys and instruments, as well as some blankets and related. the suitcases carry all of our clothes and shoes and a few special kitchen items.

it feels so great to get down to so little. to the questions!

how few outfits can we really have?

our whole family pretty much goes like so:

four pants, 5-6 shirts, 2-3 sweaters, 1-2 dressy outfits, outter ware (coats/gear for three seasons), underwear for all week. pretty straight forward. I also ahve "work" clothes since i teach yoga. probably way more than i need, because my mom gave me a ton and it's all new and so i was like, ok.

Is one box of books and one box of toys enough for my almost 3 yo and almost 1 yo?

I'd say so. I have two trunks for Hawk (16 mo). instruments and books in one, toys in books in the other, blankets and clothes and such in both. reason being--the trunks are bigger than the amount of instruments/toys, but some of the instruments are odd sizes so we needed a big space. LOL so, i would say that the trunks are over-large for our needs. if i'd used a box, all probably would have fit in one box plus drum and ukulele separate due to how they are shaped.

What do you consider the bare minimum to keep a kitchen running?


well, we like six place settings so we have six plates, salads, bowls, silverware sets, glasses, mugs.

for cooking/baking we use two skillets, one medium pot, one stock pot/dutch oven, one cookie sheet, one bread pan, and one muffin tin (6 muffin holes).

for prepping and finishing, i have a large chopping knife, bread knife, paring knife, filet knife (for fish), and kitchen scissors. We have a grating box, a mortar and pestle, a mandoline, and a food mill. we also have a set of wooden cooking utensils--2 spoons, a ladle, a couple that look/act like spatulas, and tongs.

we will be replacing our cutting boards, but we had two--one for meat and one for veg.

we have a french press for coffee and a tea pot that includes a holder/press for loose leaf tea. and we have a hand grinder for the coffee.

Also, for those of you who've sold your stuff off, what's the best way to do this?

for quick and easy, we contacted people who had expressed interest, and then took the remainder to an auction house. once the stuff is auctioned, they will send us a check. It may not be the most money, but it is quick and easy.

we did ok. most of our furniture (which wasn't much) we got about $1k all said and done.


GOod luck!

[Stephenie]

Thank you everyone!

[Punchy Kaby]

Do you know how big of a place you will be living in? I would say that it would be worth it to cut out all your 'extra' clutter but furniture that you will rebuying (like beds, kitchen table, shelves, couch) are worth keeping, think of the things you need in your new home. It is worth it to pack them if you only have to spend a couple hundred more on a truck. I woul much rather have a couch with my own dirt than buy a couch off craiglist with someone elses dirt. Especially true for mattresses.

[Stephenie]

We'd keep the mattresses. My couch is already one with someone else's dirt on it from craigslist haha. The truck costs a lot more, plus then there's the gas for two vehicles and the trip would feel a lot longer if I had to deal with the kids by myself while driving for three days. Oy.
None of our stuff was purchased new, used stuff is the norm in our home, so used stuff won't be an issue.

[quantumleap]

I know this goes completely against the general theme on this forum, but, I would think really, really hard about KEEPING most of your stuff. We just did the huge cross-country move, from Canada's arctic to the East Coast. It costs a large fortune to ship stuff out of the North, so we basically sold or gave away everything we could. And we are kicking ourselves for it. Seriously. Even compared with the price of shipping (2$/pound, plus random fees and taxes and "surcharges"), we've gone into the hole replacing things. Usually, we would keep our eyes on freecycle and craigslist to buy things, but, when you need a kitchen table or a chair, or an iron, or towels, you *need* them right away. Well, you can get away without a kitchen table, but after awhile, it gets to be a bit much to not have anywhere to sit. Work clothes need ironing. Bodies need drying after a shower. You need a shower curtain in order to shower, etc, etc. Unless you have someone in the city you are moving to, who could lend you a few essentials, I would really keep them, even if it means paying a bit to bring them with you.
There are alternative moving methods. You can pack a few boxes and send them on the bus, for a relatively small fee, if a bus company goes to your future town, for example. I guess all I'm trying to say is, explore your options. Don't comit to getting rid of stuff you will need to replace unless it really, really is the cheapest/best way to do things.

[blairhoney]

I'm doing the same thing as the OP - moving cross country. For a variety of reasons, I've decided that I'm shipping everything parcel post and just taking a few essentials with me on the plane. I'm very excited to be starting fresh with just clothes and bedding, pots and pans, and books. I won't be taking any of my furniture, and I sold my car.

Here's my question - does anyone have advice on how to ship documents and file folders? I have a small filing cabinet chock full of important papers, and I'm concerned about cardboard boxes not being sturdy enough to carry them through (not to mention all my books). Does anyone have any tips on what kind of box to choose, where I can find it, etc?

[catscharm74]

Blairhoney- first, make extra copies of your most important papers- birth certificiate, marriage, ID card, etc...ALWAYS carry the originals with you...just in case.

We Craiglisted and had a HUGE yardsale. Start the CRAIGLIST things now..it might take time..then, have yard sale a week before you move...and include any CRAIGLIST stuff that didn't sell. Price good but price fair. I always priced a bit above what I really wanted...if I wanted $5 then I asked $6...so I could come down and still feel satisfied.

It takes a little planning, but set up a nice yard sale. I found ease of access when people are looking, grouping like things together for bigger sales and being out in an open space to entice people in.

We have moved 8 times across country or half way. We always keep:

Mattresses
Dresser
Rocking Chair
Table w/chairs
Love seat
2 end tables
Console table w/tv
toy box
Small desk w/chair
about 10 bins for the rest of the household stuff.

I always purge as I pack. Also, downsizing and living a simple, minimal life has meant this next move is going to be really easy. Probably will take us 2-3 hours total to load the moving truck. It used to take us 3 days.

You have to decide what works for your family. We don't have many books or chotsky's- it's just not our thing. We live in Texas, so heavier, winter clothes are minimal. I went to all white curtains. I paid for the extra long, heavier ones

As you purge, mark you items with a price tag and neatly store them either in an emptied room or garage area. It will make setting up a yard sale easier.

[Plaid Leopard]

You can also look into shipping on pallets via ground freight (or by ship if moving overseas). You can fit a lot of boxes on one pallet, which then goes in a truck or train, and it is a lot cheaper than mailing or paying movers.

Whenever we have packed for cross or out of country moves, we have used towels, dish towels, sheets, and clothing as "filler" and padding in boxes.

Plates/cups/silverware etc are easy enough to come by, but pots and pans, baking sheets, roasting pans, mixing bowls and good knives etc can be pricy so I would hang on to those. Ditto for appliances like blenders, mixers, waffle irons.

Books and toys are easily found at thrift shops and garage sales and used book stores, ao only keep the absolute favorites.

[Lisanne]

We just moved from Germany to New Mexico and used the opportunity to get rid of so much stuff. The decision was made for us with the appliances all being the wrong voltage so those stayed. We brought most of our furniture because it is all good stuff that we bought with wedding money. I got rid of lots of pots and pans and dishes and just kept the essentials. It made unpacking so easy! As far as clothing went I just donated everything we hadn't worn in the last year and most of the items my one year old had outgrown. I lost so much weight during the move that nothing fits anymore, but I'm sure as we settle in and I start baking again it will all get put back on.

[Delicateflower]

I've done it, but I don't think it's a great idea to get rid of all your furniture. It takes years to rebuild it. We still haven't replaced some of the furniture we need even ten years later (I buy used and refinish, so the perfect piece doesn't come along as often as it does if I walked into a store and bought it).

Getting rid of all the other stuff, yes, it's great and very freeing. I've never replaced most of the old pots and pans that my parents gave us when we moved out, we have just the good set we brought with us.

Ironically, like someone else mentioned, you still end up bringing lots of tiny things because they fit down the sides of boxes and inside pots and as packing around other things.

Have you looked into PODS or similar? It's pretty cheap.

[Shellie]

We didn't purge before our interstate move and we have regretted that BIG TIME but we did purge before we moved into our new house a year ago. We sold almost all our furniture and about 75% of our other belongings. We did it via Craigslist and I think we got some great money. In my experience, most used things will typically will sell for around 33-50% of what they would cost new, if they are in great condition and you can give it some time (I spent about two months working on selling...we actually staged a "showroom" in the garage so we didn't have to let strangers in the house often).

For example, our $2200 Pottery Barn shelving system sold for $800. It was pretty banged up but after touching it up with a stain pen, the couple buying it totally thought it was worth $800. We sold our 7-piece bedroom set, which was 7 years old and not perfect by any means, for $900 without the mattress...we'd paid $3000 with the mattress. Our home gym was the worst...actually was listed for a year. We'd paid $2200, it was going for $2700 at the time we sold it and we struggled and eventually got $600 for it (and we'd listed it EVERYWHERE would could think of) and it was like-new (we'd used it literally 10x...such a waste!). My $250 area rug that was GROSS and trashed...we were using it to dress up our staging area in the garage...a women begged to buy it and offered me $75!

We sold toys, playsets, power tools, misc. household items, collectibles we'd been hanging onto, books, DVDs, CDs, our grill, old computer equipment, etc. We didn't go too harshly on toys, but could have--after we moved in I left most of the toys in the garage for nearly and year just recently was able to sell/give away quite a few things.

On clothing, I found an Ebay listing asst. and she sold all my kids' outgrown clothing I'd been hoarding plus some things dh and I were purging and we got another $400 there (it was a 40/60 split). Normally I Freecycle clothing but I had so much I thought it might be worth selling it but I didn't have time to photograph/list it myself. I tried garage-selling it first but after selling almost new brand name items for a couple dollars each, I looked into the selling asst. deal.

As far as furnishings go we only kept our dining table+chairs, my buffet/hutch (which was a gift from my mom so I'll never part with it), one armoire that we use in the family room and my boys' bunk bed set. We bought new stuff for the new house at Ikea and still had quite a bit of money left-over from all the things we sold.

[Dingletwitz]

I did the cross-country move and purged everything--about 40 boxes (including my office crapola that had to be schlepped to the new office) were shipped at about an average of 20 dollars each. We were flying to the new place so I weighed the cost of shipping what would have been on checked bags, etc. I sold the old jeep for 1500 and got a comparable almost exactly same model for 1800 at the new place (as i wasn't sure the car would make a long distance haul, and with a dd and a big dog, well, I didn't have a prescription for anything on hand). Over the course of a year, I got rid of all our furniture, appliances, etc. I kept some things from the kitchen that would cost more to replace than to ship (my rule for everything).

The problem for us was that even a pod would cost a lot more that what we ended up spending in the new place. We also downsized considerably and to be honest, most of the furniture wouldn't have fit well in the new tiny space. I have not replaced most of it, but also have no intention to do so. I bought two dressers, a mattress/box spring set, kitchen table and chairs. nothing else. So, all in all we are ahead, but it was a miserable time selling all that crap in yard sales and on craigslist. Surprising to me some of the things that went fast and some that took forever.

[Delicateflower]

Dingletwiz, a POD or ABF U-pack equivalent (6x7x8 feet) is under $1000 cross country (it's volume, not weight). It was definitely worth it for us to ship pretty much everything. The only things we bought new at the other end were because we were moving into a bigger house and needed more baby proofing supplies.

two dressers, a mattress/box spring set, kitchen table and chairs.

That would all fit into a single unit, along with a lot of smaller boxes packed in around the big stuff (you can ship dressers full of clothes, for example). Our dressers were $4-500 each and solid wood, and our kitchen chairs were free to us, but cost $50-100 each new.