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Sell the House? Keep the House? And What
About Our Stuff?
1/3/00
Janet Parks
Have you ever thought about going though all your
possessions and making three piles? There's one little pile that goes with
you on the boat (very little pile). Then there is the pile of
"stuff" to put in storage. And finally, the "sell
pile". That is what I am currently attempting to do. We decided to
sell the house, so any items we keep either need to fit on the boat or be
stored until we come back.
Sell our dream house? Yep! At this time, we have no
definite plans of moving back to being "dirt dwellers";
therefore, we have decided to sell our house. It was a difficult decision,
but we decided it was best to sell it. If we kept it, we would need to
rent it and we didn’t want to see our dream house destroyed by an
irresponsible renter. We own the building plans for the house, so we can
always build the house again if we decide to move back onto land in the
future. For now, it is time to decide what to bring with us, what to store
(and where to store it) and what to sell.
How do you decide what to keep and what to sell??
Here is what I am currently doing. (The important word here is
"I", since Blaine would be selling all items that aren’t going
on the boat!) The boat pile is easy…what will we actually use on the
boat? We won’t be dressing to go into work, so I can discard my high
heels! Yea! Since we need only casual clothes for the boat, most of the
wardrobe goes. Other items are fairly easy to decide whether they will go
on the boat with us or not. Of course, looking at our storage space, I may
need to pair down this pile at the end, but it’s an easy pile to create
right now. That leaves the rest of the items to sort,store, or sell. TV-sell, paperback
books-boat, Paintings painted by my Dad-keep/store, microwave-sell, needlepoint-boat,
CD
rack-sell,dogs-boat,lamp-sell,Harbour Lights lighthouse
collectibles-keep/store,etc.
How do I decide what to store and what to sell? Not
as easy a decision as the boat pile. Some items have a strong sentimental
value. Note that I said strong sentimental value. So these items are
keepers -hope I can find a place to store them! A lot of our furniture
was handed down from my parents, so those items will be handed down to my
nieces. Other items are used specifically for this house and may not work
in another house. These go to the sell pile. For the rest of the items, I
look at them and decide,"Are these easily attainable later? Would it be
worth a storage fee (if necessary) to keep this item? Do I really want
this item when I am 95? Is it that important to me?" If so, it’s a
keeper. If not,to the sell pile it goes.
Now, for the items we want to keep, but won’t fit
on the boat. What do we do with them? We’ve told our relatives that if
they are interested in using these items until we buy a land-based home,
they can use them until we return, then we want the item back. This works
well for wall hangings/pictures and furniture. Other items we will be
trying to store. We hope to have this pile small enough to be able to
store with relatives. Now for the sell pile. We will have small garage
sales along the way (as we have for the past couple of years) and then one
large house sale at the end. We considered an estate auction, but did not
think we would have enough "stuff" to sell to make it
worthwhile, so it will just be one big "house sale" at the end.
I have six more months of saying "boat,
keep, sell" about all the items in our house. Not always an easy
decision, but will be well worth the hassle when I am sitting in the
cockpit drinking a rum punch and watching the sunset after a tough day of
exploring the new anchorage/town of the day!
So, can I interest you in a TV, microwave, or lamp? |
