Cleaning House

The first order of business for us after we decided to relocate was to find out what to do with all our stuff. We had no idea what we were going to do and more importantly, how expensive it would be. Keep in mind we just paid for our Disney Fairytale Wedding less than a year ago.

I poured over all of the posts on TheRelocatedTourist and read about how they sold everything and moved with the bear necessities, the simple bear necessities... We decided this would be a good thing for us to do since the furniture we have is old anyway. It's all my furniture and I think it would be nice for Jason and I to buy new stuff that's more to both our liking now. I may have loved my white wicker bedroom set when I was 11 but now it's an eyesore!

So what do we donate and what do we sell? I sold my car on Craigslist last year and it was totally sketchy. I really didn't want to go that route again. I'm not a salesperson and I don't like to negotiate (unless it's my salary hehe). So I started looking into donating to charity. This was a better route for us because we itemize our taxes and could deduct our donations. Ah I learned so much from Scrooge McDuck! Keep in mind, donating takes a lot of time because you need to catalog everything. I packed up 10 boxes today and cataloged over 100 items! That's why I'm doing this in stages. I started in December 2011, 4 months before our move. At this point, we have cleaned out the major stuff but there's still a lot more to do.

I did some research on the value of items and found that the best items to donate are clothing and housewares. Electronics are very much depreciated so I'm selling our electronics on EBay. I found a list of item value and compared the tax donation value with the market value to decide what to sell and what to donate.

My sister suggested that we donate to Purple Heart. I went to their website and read what they do and do not accept. They don't take any furniture but they take almost everything else. I made an appointment for a pickup right away. I received an email confirmation, put everything outside on my porch, and they came to pick it up right on time. I didn't even have to talk to anyone. They even left a tax form. So far we have scheduled 3 Purple Heart pickups, 2 of which were in 2011 and I already included them in our taxes. I kept a list of everything I donated, plugged it into TurboTax, and it automagically calculated the deduction.

We are donating our furniture to the American Vets (AMVETS). Their process is a bit different from Purple Heart. They call to confirm pickup instead of email. Get with the times people! You cannot donate anything broken. All of our furniture is really old and scratched or chipped but luckily nothing is broken. I have scheduled 1 pickup with them so far and they also left a tax form. Easy peasy!

We are not able to sell or donate everything. We are keeping our TV, mattresses, and many boxes of items we cannot part with. Stay tuned for my next article on movers, truck rentals, and moving pods!

Everyone has different relocation needs and this is what works for us with our busy schedules. I hope you find this information helpful :)