Last year, with the guidance of the many great members of this forum, I placed my significant other in a good facility in the New Orleans area. I am now totally alone in a house that is too large for me with a lifetime of "stuff". I have no family nor friends that can help me downsize. Has anyone else gone through this? I am thinking that an estate sale business may be what I need but there may be other options. I ultimately would like to end up in a progressive-type elderly care facility.
Begin to "declutter" just as you would if you were going to sell your home soon.
I would not put anything in storage because you will not have the time nor the inclination to go through those items once again.
As usual 3 groups...Donate, Sell, garbage/recycle.
One year I hung everything in the closet "backwards" and when I wore something I hung it the usual way. At the end of the year I pulled out anything still hung backwards. I did get rid of some items, others I put in a different closet to be tackled another time.
Most Estate sale companies will charge a fee and a % of what is made. Disadvantage to that is it can be a hefty price you pay the advantage is you don't have to deal with it. I did a garage sale ONCE...never again.
Most communities have a FB group "Buy Nothing_______" and you can post items and people will come get them. You can also sell item on FB if you want to deal with the messages, people asking dumb questions and offering less than what you are selling for.
Most important...don't rush yourself.
You have had a dramatic change in your life and you are still processing that do not stress about this,.
How much time should I give immediate family and grandkids to pick up items they want?
I am almost done donating clothes and items (for BOTH of us) that we didn't touch AND clothes not used more than a year ago. The very personal items are next.
Adult stepdaughter and her 2 kids (one is adult, living out and drives) to take a break from
their grief and help with downsizing.
Sorry Grandma for veering outside your post 🙏🏻
“ Downsizing services for seniors in _____.”
Insert name of your city on line above.
This should yield results of companies in your area to help .
Facebook Marketplace is very popular in my area.
There's also some smart phone garage sale apps that have pretty active followers.
I recommend doing some research on Nextdoor.com, eBay, FaceBook Marketplace and craigslist.org to see if similar items you wish to sell actually are in demand. I looked at collectible dolls (my Aunt had 100+) in very good condition (vintage, antique). In her area of FL there were 0 on craigslist. I widened my search area, still 0. I found out that the younger generations don't want clutter and don't care about dolls or can't afford them. Even Salvation Army and Goodwill thrift stores (and others) -- in FL -- would not take them. Where I live Goodwill was still willing to take just about anything except electronics.
In the end I could barely give the dolls away for free. They were not "child appropriate" due to their being made before there were standards so that cut out an entire market of customers. I literally had to put many at the curb and hope people would take them before the garbage collection happened.
In south FL (Heaven's Waiting Room) the thrift stores would only take in-demand items that were in pretty much perfect condition and no pet hairs on them, no stains or signs of even the slightst wear and tear, etc. They had a "bouncer" at the drive-up saying yes and no to everything I pulled out.
Slartibartfast mentioned WWI and II collectibles which are a good example of things that may have value. Also, sports memorabilia. Old books mostly do not have value (there are 5 criteria that give them desirability).
Furniture is hard to sell especially dated looking (except maybe mid-century aka 50s, 60s). Also people are leary of bedbugs.
Fine china sets are also questionable, even ones in perfect condition with 8, 10, 12, or more placesetting and serving pieces. It depends on if they're really frilly or pink (is what I found).
You will need to figure out how much you'd need to sell in an estate sale to make it worth your while. You need to know what happens to the items that do not sell: do they take them away? Or are you still stuck with them?
Find thrift stores that have free pick-up and figure out what items they want and don't want. I hope your downsizing experience is a good one.
I can’t be bothered trying to figure it out and going through the hassle of selling any of it. It’s old stuff and doesn’t owe me a thing. Rather pay someone to make it not my problem.
If you have any sort of specialty items (my dad was a collector of WWI items) then do take the time to find a company that is knowledgeable on that specialty but otherwise you can set up interviews and the company representative will come to your house, have a look around, and give you their estimate/pitch. When the time comes I will be going this route with my mother's home.