It’s time. It’s overdue, and I’m up to my eyeballs in STUFF I no longer need or want . . . I’ve cleaned out my storage room, home office, closets, and garage, and have hauled all of the superfluous items over to 100 Echo Avenue to sell on SATURDAY!
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The personal stories of one Realtor’s battles and triumphs in the highly-competitive Bay Area Real Estate Market, seeking to illuminate and humanize the very real ups-and-downs of homeownership.
After owning this income property for more than a decade and renting it out fully furnished to short-term renters, I have an entire household of goods and items that need to find new homes. I’ll be selling beds, couches, a dining room table and chairs, rugs, small appliances, linens, dishes, lighting, Serena & Lily wallpaper, etc., etc., etc. What’s left will go to the White Elephant Sale or some other worthy cause. I’m ready to let it all go (cheap)!
While helping me clean out and organize, Jill also pulled out old paint cans, bags of grout, and wallpaper paste which were used during the remodel of our current home 10 years ago, but have little value now. Cliff and I took these items to the hazardous waste sight on 7th Street in Oakland where we simply handed over my driver’s license, and a crew promptly removed a couple dozen cans from the back of my truck. (Thank you.)
Does this sound familiar?
We often have Sellers who are in the same boat but don’t know where to begin. They’re selling a second home or downsizing to much smaller digs and have decades of accumulation that have no place in their new homes. In these cases, an estate sale is often the way to go, but if you can’t stand the idea of strangers picking through your things (and they will), donations may be more palatable to you. (Please note that groups like the Salvation Army and the Goodwill have gotten much stricter about what they will and will not take. For example: no pillows, no lighting, no mattresses, etc.)
But there are also websites like FreeCycle and Buy Nothing New that are all about passing along your gently-used items to others for free (“free” being the operative word here). Join your neighborhood group and then put your advertised items on the curb for pick-up. As it’s more likely than not that your used furniture is worth pennies on the dollar (sorry to be the bearer of bad news), you’ll find that donations are tax-deductible, while estate/garage sales are more likely, a taxable event. (Not that I’ll be telling Uncle Sam. Let’s keep this between friends.)
And let’s not forget about Nextdoor or Craig’s List (Do be careful of trolls on these sites. If the interested party can’t come in person and bring cash, they’re not for real.)
A periodic cleansing is a good thing.
Having visited far too many homes with massive amounts of stored items, we find that “storage” cuts both way. Yes, it’s lovely to have excess space, but in our experience, empty spaces don’t stay empty for long. As such, people tend to keep things they think their children will want one day (they won’t). Hold onto a few items you feel nostalgic about and donate the rest. I promise you that the crib you’ve set aside for your grandchildren will be out of date once your grown kids begin having children of their own (but someone else could undoubtedly use it now).
Here’s my rule of thumb, if I haven’t worn it or used it in the last year, OR if it doesn’t bring me joy whenever I look at it, I probably don’t need it. And when I’ve brought home something new, I tend to get rid of an equal number of items as well. In fact, I always keep a donation bag in my closet and when it’s full, I drop it at the Dress Best for Less box at Mulberry’s Market. Once you get the hang of it, it’s easy and also incredibly satisfying to divest ourselves of excess baggage. (And yes, there will be luggage at the garage sale).
So purge away. You’re going to feel so much better for it, and I swear, you’re not going to miss what you never use.
P.S. If you have an organization you’d like to add to this list, please send it my way.
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Julie Gardner & Sarah Abel | Compass Realty
Not just Realtors, but consultants in all things house and home, we’re here to educate, explore, examine and refer . . . In short, you may count on us to take care of your home as if it were our own and anyone who knows us, knows we take pretty darn good care of our homes.
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