I moved into a house where the previous owners were an elderly couple who had lived there for 30 years. They were moving across the country to live with their daughter temporarily while they looked for a small condo/house to move into.
They told me that they really wanted to get to their daughter’s house as soon as possible and asked if they could just leave the things in the house that they did not want for a break on the price. I happily agreed.
They apparently just packed just their clothes and left the house “as is.” I mean, it looked like they had gone to work for the day rather than moved away forever. They put yellow post it notes on everything to let us know what was valuable or collectable. They left a box of instruction manuals of all the stuff they left behind.
With the exception of all of their lawn and garden equipment, I ended up giving it all away.
Selling up and moving out with no definite destination:
Method 1)
contact local furniture/collectibles dealer, spend hours having him run down your stuff, get about 10% of what you know he will get for it. Very depressing.
get lockup (council garage) put computers, suits and cherished items in there, costs about £350 per year, a lot cheaper than a storage company. Actually, one needs to get the lockup years before as they are on a waiting list.
contact house clearance guy who turns up with about seven dwarves, they fill a few vans and trash stuff you reckon is pretty good.
fill car with basic items such as clothing, cut down paperwork etc. Note, you have to guard these as the dwarves grab everything in sight.
Depart.
Method 2.
fill up car with basic items and naff off.
Having tried Method 1), it is a no brainer that Method 2) is the rational, although anti-social, method of taking off without a firm destination. I fully understand why I’ve seen friends use Method 2)
Goods have no value when you conduct a ‘fire sale’ and clearing stuff out is extremely depressing.
When my father died suddenly, his house was filled with what could be described as either knick-knacks or crap. As much as some might have sentimental value, what do you do with, say, 100 ceramic roosters? Or 2 half-finished guitars? A pile of paintings in various stages from 1% to 50% done? Bales of personal letters and papers? Especially when most relatives live more than 3 hours drive away. We took only a few items, and the rest, very sadly, sat there and ended up mostly in a landfill after sitting in the house for a year.
I’m certain there were invaluable personal things in there, but I was not allowed the time to dig for them, and it might have taken days or weeks to find them. Plus, how much can you really take?