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We all have stuff we don’t need.
When we decided to travel again, we knew that this time we wouldn’t return to the UK. After our last round the world trip we returned home appalled at the amount of stuff we owned. Not only that, but we hadn’t missed any of it.
Smart enough not to make the same mistake twice, it was obvious that this time it would all have to go. Turns out that this is a mammoth task. It’s a mammoth task with tusks – a woolly mammoth task, if you will. That guy in the picture? Nothing on us.
We’d accumulated so much junk over our twentymumble years that it was a time consuming and often emotionally difficult task to get rid of it all. But it has also been liberating and financially rewarding. We feel a lot freer – we haven’t missed anything (*cough*espresso machine*cough*) – and we earned a surprising amount of money towards our travel fund.
So, whether you are heading off to travel or just want to reduce your clutter, here are our top tips for offloading your junk.
TOP TIPS TO SELL YOUR STUFF
1) Start early – We started selling six months before we were due to leave and are glad we did. You own a lot more than you think you do, and it takes a lot longer to get rid of it than you think it will. Leaving it until the last few months is a bad idea because you’ll be busy with travel plans, so start as early as possible.
2) Take an inventory – The first step is to go around each room of your house and write down all of the items you could sell. Don’t forget to look inside your drawers and cupboards for things that you never use. You may want to create two lists – Sell Now for items you rarely use (if you haven’t used it in a year it should definitely go), and Sell Later for things you use on a regular basis. Once you’ve sold everything on your first list, go around again and add more items – you can always find more to sell.
3) Try selling everything – You never know what will have value to others so don’t discount anything- it’s surprising what can be sold. Electronics are always valuable, even when they’re broken as people buy them for parts or to repair. Anything limited edition (check your CDs) or signed sells well, but even low value items are worth selling as it all adds up.
4) Don’t get attached – It is emotionally difficult to sell all of your possessions, but try not to dwell on it, and remember why you are doing this. As time passes it gets easier to sell things that you didn’t think you could part with, and watching your savings account grow is a great encouragement. You have to accept that things will probably sell for much less than you think they are worth. It doesn’t matter – the important thing is getting rid of it all.
5) Research – Once you have your list of things to sell, do some research online on the best ways of selling that particular item and see how much you are likely to get. In Part 2 of this series we’ll share our favourite selling methods.
6) Set targets – Set yourself a weekly target (say 10 items) of things to sell to help keep you focused. Increase the target as you get nearer to your leaving date and when you get quicker at listing items. Caleb at 100 Days of Less set himself the target of getting rid of all his stuff in 100 days and documenting it on his website.
7) Give to charity – Anything you find you can’t sell, or by the end when you become weary of selling many low value items, you can donate to your local charity shop or list on freecycle.
8 ) Clear out sentimental items – We took eight bin bags to the recycling full of photos, sketches, journals, school notes, letters, cards and other mementos. That’s a lot! Did we really need all of that for memories? We did keep photo albums with the best photos, travel journals and a few letters and drawings. You need to decide what’s really important to you. We aren’t as hardcore as Colin from Exile Lifestyle who threw a shred party before he left on his travels and got rid of absolutely everything.
With the right planning and enough time, it doesn’t have to be difficult – just remember not to buy more stuff to replace all the things you’re selling!
Still not convinced? For more on the benefits of selling all of your belongings read our post The Benefits of Selling Everything You Own or watch George Carlin talking about stuff.
In Part 2 of How To Sell All Of Your Stuff we share our favourite selling methods- setting up a ‘stuff blog ‘ and Ebay, while Part 3 looks at Amazon marketplace, car boot sales, where to sell old CDs and mobile phones, and other methods, as well as detailing how much we earned.
can you help me ?
who do I call about selling things in my home
Two days ago I decided to purge my belongings. After struggling with just how to determine each item’s sales possibility, it came down to just a few yes or no questions.
(Not considered is the inventory destined for specific people and organizations: family, friends, local library, teachers, coaches etc.)
Ask the following questions for each item:
– Is the selling price more than it would cost to ship?
Yes = Ebay/Etsy/Amazon.
No = yard sale/ Craig’s List/ Freecycle.
– Is it worth the effort and/or cost to ship (size, weight, or fragile packaging involved)?
Yes = Ebay/Etsy/Amazon.
No = yard sale/ Craig’s List/ Freecycle.(as typically buyers do the moving, lifting and transportation)
– Is it worth a few bucks?
Yes = Attempt yard sale first, then donate/trash if it doesn’t sell.
No = donate/trash
The above question process determined 95% of all the items.It took the anxiety and hesitation out of deciding to tackle the project head on.
Any remaining items just need to be set aside and given special focus to its value to me.
I hope this helps some others as they struggle with the process/decisions.
Good luck to everyone trying. Wish me luck, too ; )
Sometimes, selling stuff is not always so cut and dried. I have friends that say, “If you don’t use it, sell it.”. I always have to remind them that life is not that simple. For example, I have both a mountain bicycle and a road bicycle. I use both. Can I get by with one? Probably, but I’d be missing out on the aspects of the other. When you get down to it, do I even need a bike at all?
Also, I have an old Porsche convertible. People tell me to sell it, but it’s worth very little and I still enjoy it. Do I need it? No, I can just drive my work truck around. Do I want to? No.
In a way, I wish I were 100% not a materialist and could get by with the barest of essentials, but that is not me.
Thanks for the insight, tho.
I’m moving from New Jersey to Oregon in October, and I’m only bringing what I can get into my little Honda Fit (including the cat). My friends are having a going-away party where I suspect they will give me gifts, even though I’ve asked them not to- none of us has a lot of spending cash. So I’d like to give them some of my good stuff- a crock pot, margarita glasses, an Edward Hopper print, etc. I’m looking forward to reading Part 2 for some ideas of how to sell the rest of my stuff. Luckily, I don’t have all that much!
Kim, take a look at amazon FBA. You get an amazon seller account (easy, any one can get one). You sign up to sell FBA, which is fulfilled by Amazon. (Again, easy). Then you list your stuff using the bar codes on amazons website. You fill boxes with stuff and ship then in using ups which is very cheap cuz you get amazon’s ups discount. And amazon charges the shipping fees to your seller account. So if you don’t waste time and ship the boxes in, some of your stuff should sell in time to pay the fees. Just keep shipping stuff in until it is all gone and donate the stuff that isn’t worth sending in. Craigslist the items that are too large for amazon. Once your stuff is in Amazon’s warehouse the money will trickle in as it sells and Amazon ships it out to their customers.
Do you know of any companies that will come into your home and just offer your a certain amount of money for your “STUFF”. I have been unemployed for over 6 months and running out of time even to pay monthly bills. I want to sell enough so I can get to Calif. from Washington. Any suggestions?
I’m afraid I don’t although if money is an issue you’d probably get more for it by selling it yourself on Craigslist and/or a garage sale. Good luck!
jest want to walk away nice home mendocino co 4bedroom 5out building big barn with wood shop chain saws mowers all kinds of tools everthing goes its my hole life 50 years of stuff not junk
I have a lot that I either need to sell or put in storage and just thinking about is stressful.
I understand selling stuff that you no use or you have fell out of love with. But how do you determine if you should sell the lamp that you still love and was $300 but probably would only get you a fraction of the price?
What is the best method of selling and getting a fair price?
We had to get rid of everything so we didn’t really have a choice. It was difficult to accept that things that had cost us a lot weren’t worth much to others but it got easier the more we did it. If you have a look through the series you can see all the different methods we used for selling things. Selling to friends via a website worked best for us.
I was inspired by y’all to set up my blog. I linked to you and wanted to let you know that I did. Just letting people know that you inspired me.
Thanks very much Katy and good luck with it!
PS
Are there companies out there who will buy my home and all my possessions together so I just walk away?
Charlie
Hi,
Do you know of any companies who will come to your house and make an offer and buy on ALL your stuff and haul it away? I may be moving to Italy and want to go with the clothes on my back!
Thanks,
Charlie
I’m afraid I don’t know of any.
The best way to get rid of sentimental items without also getting rid of their sentimental value is to make a digital scrapbook. I took pictures of my son’s baby stuff and saved them in Dropbox before giving the actual stuff to the mom of an actual new baby. Unexpected benefit: when we look at the pictures we feel so happy to think that these precious things are becoming someone else’s sentimental objects too.
Great idea, we took photos of lots of things too. Now we are travelling Simon takes photos of his drawings so he doesn’t have to carry loads of paper around.
Hubs and I are seriously considering selling it all- (or almost) and buy a catering truck to travel and work-
Our children are grown and we love to travel and each other more than anything.
What are your thoughts, tips to get started etc?
Have read the ENTIRE blog- love it!!!
Where are you presently? (March 2013)
Sounds like a great idea Melissa. We are actually launching a new site soon about getting started as a digital nomad. You can sign up for the email newsletter here which takes you through step by step: http://digitalnomad.co/. Mainly I’d say figure out what you need to do (save money, pay off debt, sell off possessions etc), calculate how long it will take and set a departure date to keep you motivated. Good luck!
PS. We are currently in Mexico City.
Great subject! I haven’t ran into a set of posts like this yet.
Helpful to me as well.. Like you guys, my first 4 trips had me traveling to 11 countries and I had yet to sell everything. I sold off about 70% of it two months ago when I relocated from Columbus to Minneapolis, but it’s time for me to get into the nitty gritty and ditch it all in a couple of months. I will be back for your helpful pointers ;)
Good luck with it Brandon. It’s a sometimes difficult but liberating process.
The hard part is selling stuff like art, antiques and jewelry. It’s actually very difficult. (Love your blog)
“the stuff you own, owns you” (quote from the film “fight club”)
i sold everything 15 years ago and have been travelling around drawing ever since.
ive lived in thailand for the last 6 years
Love that film and it’s so true. Thailand is a great place to live-enjoy!
Great post – i think the 6 months notice for selling is always important. You never know how long it will be before someone buys up your old items. Also it means that you wont necessarily have to accept below the asking price, you can simply wait a little longer for the right buyer!
Duncan
Hi Erin and Simon –
I found your website awhile back and have enjoyed reading your preparation posts. We are also in the process of putting our current lives on hold and planning on embarking on an around-the-world travel adventure in the next few months. Did you wind up selling or renting your house? We’re debating the pros and cons of both sides. I’d appreciate hearing what you decided to do and whether some months after that decision if you would do anything differently. Thanks.
Karen.
We initially decided to rent it because the market wasn’t very good, but we had problems with the house and the tenants left early. It was a real pain to sort out from abroad so we put it on the sales market instead. We really wanted to get rid of it and be free of the hassle but over a year later it still hadn’t sold so we have just rented it out again. I would sell if you can.
FANTASTIC ideas here!
Hey Erin and Simon,
I’m just preparing to sell off just about everything I have so that I can bike around the US for a year. It’s kind of exciting and scary at the same time. Glad to see that other people are doing this. Thanks for the great post, information and motivation.
Take care,
John
Hi John,
Glad to hear you are doing the same thing. It can be scary but you won’t regret it. Have an amazing trip!
I am selling everything I own including my townhouse to buy an RV to travel for a year!
I have already emotionally disconnected from a lot of my personal things,some days are easier than others but I’m excited to begin this new adventure!
Nice to hear that you all feel at peace with your decision to do what you are doing!
Thanks for the positive input!
Happy life!!!
Dede
Such a great post! I have just moved to Spain and didn’t want to make the same mistake again either. I sold half my stuff and gave the rest to friends and charity. Feels fantastic!
.-= Andria´s last blog ..New Large Size Earrings… =-.
Thanks Andria! Well done on getting rid of everything -it really does feel great.
@ Brian – wow I don´t envy you that! Our last few weeks were crazy enough without selling things too. Good luck!
@ Adam – it definitely does get easier and ends up feeling great- not only because of the money, but now life feels simpler.
Oh man, getting rid of stuff was hard at first, but once you start getting cash, it begins to feel pretty good.
I could have used your Tip #1 six months ago. It’s been a crazy whirlwind three weeks for me instead. Definitely not the way to go.
I was hopeless at getting rid of my stuff to begin with, finding an excuse for everything. As time progressed it was becoming obvious I need to get rid of the big things like table setting, lounge suite etc or I was faced with giving it away for nothing.
I also had the luxury of being able to store items at home with the family for when I return. As I know I’m going to need the basics to begin life after travel I saw no point selling off items for nothing when they could be stored to save buying them again later.
Great tips! Haha reminds me of when i was going to help mum selling some old stuff from the attic. She prepared for weeks, but a few days before the fleemarket she came up with tons of lame excuses not to sell anything. She was so relieved when the day came and it was raining, and ofcourse we didn’t have a shelter to stand under. Yes, everything is still in the attic…
I came up with some pretty good excuses myself – luckily Erin was more ruthless than me although she did have to resort to all the tricks to get me to relinquish my iron grip on some of my stuff.
Tactics like bribery, extortion and throwing stuff out when I wasn’t looking were all employed, but to be honest I’m glad it’s all gone now.
Great post! I left on a bit of a whim after wanting to go for years, so I only had around 2 months to get rid of my stuff and it was challenging to say the least!
I did scan some sentimental items like photos, a few letters, event tickets etc. Having a digital copy stored privately online made it a lot easier for me to let go of the physical copies. I may not ‘need’ them, but it’s an emotional security blanket I may want if / when I get pangs of homesickness.
.-= Catia´s last blog ..Pre Trip Planning Tips for Backpacking Around The World =-.
Great idea Catia – scanning things in a good compromise.
One of the benefits of selling early is that when people try to low ball you on Kijiji or Craigslist you can just walk away. I had people offering half of the asking price but I held out long enough and got the asking price.
That’s true – you get a lot more desperate to get rid of stuff at any price towards the end!
that’s right, we didn’t realize how much junk stuff we accumulated over the years until was time to pack and had only a month to sell it all, which was a big challenge. the gumtree was for us a great resource but next time we will definitely take more times.
I’m impressed you got it all sorted in the last month- I don’t think I could have coped with the stress!
Hey Simon and Erin,
excellent post, we’ve been selling bits and bobs for what feels like forever!
Thom is naturally more sentimental than me, I think from 2000-2006 (uni and post-uni) I had a new home every 9 months, on average. I developed a system of ‘if I haven’t used it since I last unpacked it, I don’t need it’
If it’s not bolted down I’m trying to sell it off!
Simon found it harder to part with stuff than me, so I had to take control. He didn’t miss things once they were gone though, it’s just that first step. Good luck with your selling!