Question for full timers

[paul102a3]

For those of you that sold your house to full time, how did you dispose/sell of all your “stuff”?

We have decided to sell the house and full time but getting rid of 35 years worth of stuff is rather daunting.

Besides the normal household items, I have a lot of tools, both wood and metal and things like scissors lift, welders, tractor and implements, etc.

Historically, I have sold a lot of items on the E place and C place but the volume of stuff makes that impractical.

I am guessing an auction house or estate sale company but any other ideas would be appreciated.

Paul

[chessie4905]

If you want it easy, an auction can do it. Our local auctioneer does this all the time. After my mother passed, my father did this to all the household belongings, furniture etc. He was 80 at the time and too much to do it any other way.With auctions, expect that your Mona Lisa bring less than you think they are worth. When you buy at an auction, it seems  many things go for far more than they are worth. Also, auctions that accept credit cards seem to get more money for many items. Also the phase of moon or the way the wind blows seems to have an effect on prices.

[PP]

We held our own estate sale the first time many years ago when we were younger and more capable. (early 90's)The last time in 2002 we sold our farm in Mo at auction. That was much more fun than the estate sale and things brought more monies than we were expecting. We kept the farm truck and bought a 5th whl that time. 10 yrs ago we sold the fiver and truck and moved up to the bus.
Will and wife

[Dreadnought]

My stuff and all my vehicles are in storage in a barn

[brmax]

Many times estate sales have tagged items, in this decision I would rather select estate auction.
I honestly think this value for owner is related to the items. Or I might say a majority of the type items so bringing in and attracting that crowd.
I should say many rural Ag type interest can bring a rip roaring crowd at 0 to 30 degree temps with rain, and then again in some in town sales you couldnt get the doughnut shop to open if temps or rain in some inclimate weather as mentioned. With that a good weather pattern may be a time to consider, also the work season is a real stickler imo. 
My recomendation is shop around for your local, best advertised, auctioneer company that has great posters and a nice internet presence, but dont think for a second every one interested  will look at the internet, thats a big mistake.

Good day there
Floyd

[Geoff]

How many times have I heard of people who sold everything they had to full time, only to get tired of it, and have no resources to get back into a house.

[Lifes2short4nofun]

We decided to full time for a couple years before our kids had to go to school.  Our big items like tractor, cars, trailers and equipment I sold through Ebay and Craigslist and it went fairly fast and easy and I got dang good money for them.  We donated most all our personal stuff off, We found it a lot easier, less time consuming and not to depressing to donating then seeing it bring pennies on the dollar.  We were so excited on what we wanted to do and financially stable that it afforded us the ability to do it.  

It was the most amazing time of our life.  I have always had a time consuming career and it brought our family together that to this day is still evident.   We found traveling from place to place and staying for about a month was the best.  Staying in one place and just living in an RV would be hell for us.  We also learned mindsets that we still live with to this day.   Mostly that we really don't need that much stuff to be happy and enjoy life.  We meet the people that we still consider our best friends while we were traveling.  One couple spends holidays with us and visits us every few months.       

[windtrader]

Paul, we are straddling the house/RV divide too. Debating selling our home and downsizing to a home base in Sacramento, where we both grew up and have family. Like you, after decades of accumulating stuff, what do you do? Like Geoff says, I've heard too many sad stories of people selling everything off and jumping into RV FT. Then for many valid reasons plans change and need a steady home again. They get trapped if they made that fatal decision going to an RV lot with a checkbook. Sadly, buying that shiny new S&S RV is so underwater, drowning would be a blessing. Getting out of it and having to rekit a house and cars again is really hard for some.

[Dave5Cs]

When we sold our house we had a three way method. 1 estate sale, that got rid of  a lot of things and they cleaned up all the stuff left over unless we had a place for it.
2 we gave any tools we had and that was a lot of them too two groups that are teaching young people to be creative. What ever was left we had 3 days of free giveaway yard sales. The rest if worth anything we gave away to friends or needy people we thought could use it.
3 we took the rest to the dump.

One thing you will realize if you are ready to go that your stuff is just that "stuff". The house is nice but it keeps you from really discovering what life is about. IMHO
We used to have a lot of artwork given to us by artist we know and family who are artist. It was nice and people loved most of it to look at but we realized we were just the curator of it at the time and when we went out of the house we gave it to anyone who had admired any of it.
It is really elevating doing all of this and leaves the rest of you to give more, help others, see the world and meet new people.

Remember it is not always about the destination, It's about the Journey.
You can't take it with you. Just sayin

[TomC]

Store all your stuff. Get a 40ft container and have a professional mover pack it for you-they can get a lot more in a small area.

[PP]

Store all your stuff. Get a 40ft container and have a professional mover pack it for you-they can get a lot more in a small area.

But Tom, if you're on the road for a couple of years or more what you spend in storage fees could replace all the old stuff with new if you go back to a stationary house. Have you seen the junk some people pay to store (storage wars)?  Just saying. In the end it's just 'stuff'    People are important, not possessions. 

[Branderson]

We have been toying with the idea but admit that it's still down the road if we even go full time.  I think the best thing for us is to store everything and see if we enjoy it as much as we think we will.  I don't even know if I would sell the house at first.  It would be nice to be able to afford not selling it but that wouldn't work long term. 

I'm still worried that there isn't enough room for us and pets and we end up getting major cabin fever. 

[luvrbus]

Try the life style 1 st for a year it is not for everyone,we tried it for a year and decided it wasn't for us

[sledhead]

I could go with out the house ( rent it for a time ) but would have a hard time if I had to give up my garage with all the toys and tools that give me something to do

dave

[windtrader]

One other idea we're considering is rent the house, maybe even furnished. That defers the what do you do with lots of "stuff" and the I hate FT in a bus. Being in the Bay Area cuts both ways. Hella expensive to live here and hella lot of crazy rental rates. LOL

My wife and I rather cash out of the Bay Area as the BIG one is coming sooner rather than later and we live a couple miles off the Hayward fault and not that much further than the San Andreas. Then are are plenty of smaller ones just east of us. After seeing how long it takes to recover from the big Oakland fire (3000+ homes burned) and the Loma Prieta earthquake, we'll be dead and dust by the time the place recovers. Coverage for earthquakes is a joke so most are rolling the dice on how much damage might occur to our own properties. Time to go.