Don't strap yourself down by applying sentimental "dollar value" to too many items. We gave everything to our son that he wanted...had several yard sales and then donated to the local FD anything that was left.
I only took several small sentimental items out of our home that we could use in the 5er, made sure our son took the "heirloom" grandfather's clock...everything else was just stuff, which only had value to us...dollarwise most of it is pretty worthless. You will find this out dealing with an estate....when we liquidated by Dad's things...everything in his home was valued at $1,200 TOTAL by an appraiser...and I mean EVERYTHING!
So, my advice, yard sale it all, take what is offered and move forward..Good Luck!
2013 Heartland Landmark Key Largo with Mor Ryde IS and disc brakes
2011 Chevy Silverado 3500 DRW Crew Cab Duramax Diesel
Im 69 and dont ever get in my way when I get ready to go.
I suggest you have an auction. Get rid of that "stuff". Give the relatives what they want and give, sell, burn, dump the rest. When you are gone, what are you gonna worry about?
Judgerr wrote: Thanks for all the replys. I guess I really wasn't meaning to ask if we should go, as we have already decided we are! It is hard to not have second thoughts I guess.
We are hoping to get away for a few months after the first of the year. Going to South Texas to visit full timing friends. Have to get Moms house sold etc. Before we can think about ours.
I guess I mainly want to know, how did you all get rid of everything? Don't want to just give it away! I guess an auction is the best way.
Like I said did you feel you got a fair price? Ripped off?
I look around and it's like "where did all this stuff come from"?
Anyhow Thanks again!
Get rid of the stuff, fair price or not you won't have to worry about it. Put it all on auction. If there is something really valuable you are unsure of put a reserve on it. My experience with auctions is you will give some of it away & other junk will bring 3 times what it is worth & it all evens out & it is all gone in one day.
We didn't sell everything, but about the best we got on all the stuff we sold was about ten cents on the original purchase dollar.
We didn't originally intend to be full timers. We did intend to find a warmer place to live than NH so we decided to put the house up for sale. We put all of our stuff in storage and set out on what we thought would be a 3 month trip to visit friends, relatives, and look for a place to live. The house sold in about two months.
After about a year we had not yet started to look for a place and decided we were having so much fun that we would just live on the road. That was 8 1/2 years ago.
I am 71, my wife is 67 and we hope we can continue this life style for several more years.
We are starting to look for some land that we can put a modular on and plan on building a large shop we can use for our hobbies. Looking at zero-scaping though - no lawn or yard work for me.
One we thing we think is important is to have some sort of exit strategy. In our case we put all of the money we got from the house sale away to use when we have to settle down.
Clay (WA5NMR), Lee (Wife), Katie (cat).
Full Timing in a 2004 Winnebago Sightseer 35N, Workhorse chassis, Honda Accord toad
You can talk to a company that specializes in estate sales, or just do it your self. Either way you won't get much for your stuff, at least that was our result. We had one big estate sale and advertised a bunch of stuff multiple times on Craig's List. We rented two storage units and put enough of our favorite furniture and deco in storage. Yes we know it costs us, but we don't know how long we will be able to be FT. To get rid of the rest of the things that didn't sell we donated them to charity. We filled a 28' truck with TV's, furniture, refrigerators, clothes, deco and more. You must realize that it's just stuff and you can part with it, even after 30 years.
Don't wait 2 years to go on the road, do it as soon as you can. We agreed to go for a year to try it out. We still have not gotten into a groove and are still deciding what we want to do, when and how we do it and we have been at it for 9 months. This is a whole different life style and it will take you some time to settle in and make it work for you.
Judgerr wrote: Thanks for all the replys. I guess I really wasn't meaning to ask if we should go, as we have already decided we are! It is hard to not have second thoughts I guess.
We are hoping to get away for a few months after the first of the year. Going to South Texas to visit full timing friends. Have to get Moms house sold etc. Before we can think about ours.
I guess I mainly want to know, how did you all get rid of everything? Don't want to just give it away! I guess an auction is the best way.
Like I said did you feel you got a fair price? Ripped off?
I look around and it's like "where did all this stuff come from"?
Anyhow Thanks again!
Quit thinking about the value you think something has - it is only worth what some one will pay, which will be a lot, lot less than what you want. We gave our daughter our furniture, she sold most (her inheritance ) of it, kept a few things. Art work we go visit at relatives, clothes went to Goodwill, books to the library. We still l took more with us than we needed, like everyone else we are still giving away each year things that we haven't worn during the year. I took one room at a time, cleaned it out and then closed the door and NOTHING goes in there. Then move on to the next room. Doing it one room at a time is much better than trying to look at the whole house - it isn't so overwhelming when you do it in small pieces.
Barb
Barb & Dave O'Keeffe - full-timing since 2006 Traveling catpanion Shadow (age 15) Figment II (2002 Alpine 36 MDDS) Mischief (2004 Subaru Forester Toad) FMCA - F337834, SKP #90761 Our Blog
I second the idea of an estate sale. The estate sale company will come in, price everything, and conduct the sale. They get a percentage of the take, but it is well worth it to let someone else do all that work.
It really is a good thing to get rid of stuff now and unclutter your lives. Then your children won't have to go through this after you are gone.
Thanks everyone! Lots of really good advice! I am taking it, with a little luck we might be able to get on the road in about a year.
So much to do. Guess I better get busy.
Thanks again!!
2000 F-350 V-10 SRW Super Cab, 4x4 Short Bed. Prodigy Brake Control, BilSteins, and Scan Gauge II! 2003 Jayco Designer 31RLS (33ft)
I'm not a judge, it's just a nickname! "SEMPER FI"Vietnam 1968!Don't act stupid- We have congress for that!
Sell it, sell it, sell it. No, you won't get the fair price for it, unless you painstakingly sell each item on Craigslist or eBay. Don't store it, it will just be an albatross until you, (wait for it, you guessed it), sell it. A lot of things are tough to get rid of, some are really simple. But you're SERIOUSLY downsizing and you quite frankly don't need most of it.
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) of it, kept a few things. Art work we go visit at relatives, clothes went to Goodwill, books to the library. We still l took more with us than we needed, like everyone else we are still giving away each year things that we haven't worn during the year. I took one room at a time, cleaned it out and then closed the door and NOTHING goes in there. Then move on to the next room. Doing it one room at a time is much better than trying to look at the whole house - it isn't so overwhelming when you do it in small pieces. 
