Taking Inventory
Now is a good time to take stock of all your belongings, from what is in the hall closet to what has been stashed in the corner of the basement the past ten years. Decide what will go with you and what to either give away or sell.
“Stuff” can be pitched out in any number of ways these days. It will take a fair amount of organization on your part, however, to determine just what goes where. Make lists if that will help, or set aside certain parts of the house or apartment to hold items designated for sale or charity. Following are some of your choices for getting rid of things.
You can give unwanted items to Goodwill Industries, the Salvation Army, veterans' groups, or any number of other charities. Many will pick up at your door, saving you drop-off time. They will also provide you with a receipt for tax purposes. It is important to contact those organizations in plenty of time; do not wait until moving week. They may schedule furniture pickups only on certain days of the week, or they may not want what you have to offer.
Sell unwanted items through classified advertisements in your local paper, online through craigslist (which is free), or through notices tacked up at supermarkets, social centers, the library, and so forth. Again, place the ad with enough time to sell the items before moving day.
Whatever you call it, you can hold one of these, too. They certainly prove the maxim that one man's trash is another's treasure. The success of any sale depends in large measure on where you live, when you hold the sale, and how well it is publicized. If you can band together with others on your block or in your building, the sale becomes much more attractive to wouldbe buyers. Naturally, you should choose a season when the weather is good and hold the sale on a weekend. Many moving companies publish booklets on conducting sales; the booklets provide information about arranging stock, pricing, publicizing the event, security precautions, and so forth.
You could also hire an individual or company to run a tag sale for you. This takes the work out of your hands entirely and can be useful if you do not have the time to become involved, if you are unsure of the value of your things, or if you feel so attached to some items that you break down at the thought of seeing them carted down the driveway by someone else. Tagsale operators prefer owners to be away from the house on the day of the sale, to avoid just that emotion. Not every community or region has an individual who conducts tag sales; but if such a person exists in your community, her fame is usually spread by word of mouth.
A tag-sale operator will inventory your furnishings, price them (calling in an appraiser if necessary), arrange them in the most attractive setting, publicize the sale, and run the operation on sale day, bringing in assistants if necessary. The fee can range from a flat daily fee to a percentage — usually 25 percent — of the sale's income.
You can call in an auctioneer and have the work taken out of your hands. The auctioneer can be particularly helpful if you have objects that need appraising or if you have expensive collections. The fee can be a flat rate or a percentage of the day's sales. You might want an auctioneer if you have valuable art, china, or collectibles and want his services just for that collection.
More and more people are using websites like
Then there is self-storage. You have probably seen these one-story complexes along major highways; such facilities have grown in number over the last couple of decades. They appear to have replaced, in number and popularity, the old, multistoried warehouse.
It works like this: You lease space on a month-to-month basis in buildings like those one-story complexes or, in a city, multistory buildings. Rental space is broken into a few dozen or a few hundred storage cubicles. You can expect to find a wide range of charges across the country. Broadly speaking, you can rent a 5′ × 5′ cubicle or a 10′ × 10′ storage space. Some units are quite sizable, 24′ × 26′, for example. Check to see what kind of insurance the facilities offer, and look to see if your items are covered in your existing homeowner's or renter's policy.
So if you are moving from a large to a small space and cannot bear to part with items that won't fit into the new place, consider self-storage. Besides furnishings, you can stash out-of-season clothing and sports equipment, holiday decorations, luggage, and porch and patio furniture. Newer units are climate controlled, so there is no need to worry about dampness or mold.
Finally, you can store items you will not need in a warehouse, if there is one in your area. In some locales, you can still find great big barns in cities or along major highways that are used for storage. They are used, for example, by people storing estate furnishings or by those going abroad for a period of time that need to store a whole household's worth of furnishings.
Some of the things you'll need to do before you move include contacting your local utility companies to disconnect services and arrange services in your new home; transferring checking and savings accounts, if necessary; and providing change-of-address notices to your local post office, magazines you subscribe to, credit card companies, children's schools, doctors and dentists, and family and friends.
