We have sold our house, now the real challenge begins.

hollydolly said:
I don't know how they're held in the US , but Estate sales here are sales carried out in your home on your behalf by a dedicated company.. who proceed to sell most of your belongings..furniture etc...within your home to buyers...

Differ completely of course to yard sales, and boot sales... where you genrally sell trivial items you no longer want to hoard
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Works pretty much as you said @hollydolly. It was made clear that I was remaining in the house so it was not a complete sale. That it was the things isolated in different parts of the house, garage and yard.
 

We moved a year and a half ago, across town to a smaller home in a more rural area. We wanted to downsize which we accomplished by purchasing a home with half the square footage, but of course that meant half our belongings would no longer fit.

After offering them to our kids first, I sold many pieces of furniture on Marketplace, some of which were custom builds by my talented husband. I had to drive by a local goodwill store on my way to work, so each day I had a trunk filled with donations.

Preparing for a move is a labor intensive activity, so actively working towards your move on a daily basis helps spread the work out over a longer time period so it’s less stressful and tiring.

Measure every piece of furniture you want to keep, so that you have a realistic idea of what will fit in your new home. I carried a tape measure with me to every house we looked at so I had a decent idea about whether or not our pieces would fit in each room.

If you’re packing boxes yourself, don’t skimp on bubble wrap and packing paper. There’s nothing worse than treasured pieces getting broken in transit. Also…..and this is a tried and true method used by my family and clients over the years….obtain twice as many boxes than you think you’ll need. And when they run out, get twice as many again. And so on. Every person I know who has moved routinely under-estimates the amount of boxes needed. EVERY SINGLE TIME!

When packing our personal items…clothing and bathroom stuff…I packed a duffel for each of us as though we were going on a short trip and that got put in our car day of the move. That way we had immediate personal essentials for the next few days while immediate moving and unpacking were happening.

I packed all our clothing from dressers and shelves in very large blue tote bags so that they were immediately recognizable and findable. (The exception being seasonal items that were not currently in use…they could wait a while to be unpacked if necessary) Same with shoes. Our hanging clothes were laid across back seats and in the trunk in both our cars so they could be easily hung back up in the new place.

I packed our coffee machine, coffee accoutrements and mugs in a large crate day of the move, and that also got transported in a vehicle, because no matter what I had to have my coffee easily available first morning in new home.

I have many more tips…I organize for a living….but this is already long. If you have specific questions I’ll be glad to answer them.

Good luck!!
 
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The popularity of estate sales / garage sales / yard sales / whatever you want to call them, probably depends on where you live. They draw in a lot of people in my community. Sometimes cars are parked all up and down the block.
 
Five years ago, we sold our house and because we were divorcing. I bought a small condo. My ex did nothing to help and wouldn’t even pack himself. I worked 10 hour days seven days a week for six weeks.

I had two garage sales, sold many things online on Facebook marketplace and next-door and put out many items in the front yard with a free sign. Luckily, the road in front of our house was busy enough that if I put something with a free sign it was usually gone within a few hours.

We did have two trailer loads for the dump and my stepson and ex did get rid of that stuff. I was completely exhausted by the end and I was only 66 years old and I think you are quite a bit older than that so you may need assistance in downsizing.

I don’t miss a thing I got rid of and I’m so happy to be in my small condo. I can certainly age in place here as it’s one level living and we have an elevator in the building. Luckily because my ex was somewhat of a hoarder through the over 20 years we were together I would get rid of a lot of his junk that he kept in the garage or shed when he would go out of town.

I can’t imagine what I would’ve had to get rid of if I hadn’t been doing that. Of course, he was always bringing more junk in as I was getting rid of stuff. He never noticed anything I got rid of was gone.
 
We did this a few years ago. We sold our home and moved into an apartment.
Getting rid of a lot of stuff was traumatic. I have a small storage unit with a bunch of my wife;s stuff. I will get rid of the stuff little by little.
 
Reading through all the experiences makes for interesting thoughts and ideas, but Ronni and Teacher Terry's input sent the stress barometer sky high. We will manage though, it might mean higher than budgeted costs but I would rather that than higher blood pressure.
 
What is the date the new owners take possession? You’ll want at least 2 weeks ahead for your new place.
Do the moving companies there ever pack everything into a huge steel containers and hold it off site. If you can’t get possession immediately, this take the pressure off.

Have you considered buying in a condo/flat building? Elevators, maintenance, etc. If anything ever happened to either one of you, there’d be fewer issues to deal with.
 
We sold our house of seventeen years this year and moved to a Senior Independent Living community closer to kids. Downsizing was a significant challenge as it was really hard to give up items that had personal memories. I hated giving up my garage and tools. But you have to do what you have to do.

The harder aspect for us is the realization of what the move means as we are getting older and entering another phase of life.

We are adjusting (it's a process) and we think it was the right decision for us.
 

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