Let It Go - Peter Walsh Page 0,57
may mean little to your grown children. It’s time to call your kids and ask them to decide what to do with these things. Give them a deadline to claim what they want, and help them define whether these items are treasures or not.
If your kids don’t want these things, and they’re still in good condition, could you sell or donate them? If they have no value to anyone else, accept the fact that it’s time to throw them away. (As usual, consider taking photos of the things that are most memory-laden. If you’d like, they could make a fun photo book for your kids to look at when they visit.)
Things Someone Has Asked You to Hold
Has anyone left possessions with you to “look after” or “hold on to” for a brief time that turned into years? These items can be a little more difficult to clear from your home, especially if the owner is uncooperative.
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Before the Call, Practice Your Script
If your children, friends, ex-neighbors, or distant relatives have been using your basement or garage as storage for too long, here are some lines that you may want to practice before calling them, or modify for an e-mail to send.
“Hi John, your [fill in the blank] has been in the basement for years. We can’t store it any longer. If it’s still important to you, here are your options:
You can come get it in the next 2 weeks.
I can put it into storage, but I’ll need your credit card number to ensure that the monthly fee is properly billed to you.
I can have the items shipped to you, but again, I’ll need your credit card number to cover the shipping charges.
I can donate what’s in the basement.
I can go ahead and throw the items away.”
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In this situation, give a very clear deadline for this ex-neighbor, old roommate, former spouse, or college buddy to come collect this stuff. Be assertive in explaining that you’re about to move out and leave these items homeless.
If the owner can’t come get them, your options may include shipping them (with reimbursement to you for the cost), putting them in storage locally under the owner’s name and with their credit card footing the bill, or donating them to charity if they’re not gone by the deadline.
You’re not running a storage unit. If the owner of the items doesn’t care enough to have them back in his home, there’s no reason why you should be saddled with them.
STEP 6: GIVE TO FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND NEIGHBORS
You’ll be evaluating whether you want to share your:
Trinkets
Forgotten items
I-Might-Need-It Items that you didn’t find worthy of keeping
Now it’s time to start figuring out what to do with your stuff that you don’t want: Memory Items that didn’t qualify as treasures and I-Might-Need-It Items that didn’t qualify as worthy to you.
What do you want to accomplish with these things that still have some value? If you want to turn it all into as much money as possible, skip to the next step, which is selling it. But you might consider using this opportunity to give gifts to people you know who would appreciate them.
Consider offering useful items to your aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews, friends, neighbors, and fellow CrossFit participants and worship congregants. Maybe a young person you know who’s heading off to college would like some cookware. Maybe an older person who doesn’t like newer technology would like your DVD movie collection.
If you’re about to move out of the area, distributing some of your possessions will help ensure that your friends and loved ones have reminders of your presence and the stories you shared.
STEP 7: OFFER WORTHWHILE ITEMS FOR SALE
You’ll be evaluating how to sell your remaining:
Trinkets
Forgotten items
I-Might-Need-It Items that you didn’t find worthy of keeping
You have several options if you want to sell your items of value that remain. Choices include a garage sale, an estate sale, or selling the items online.
Before we discuss these options in depth, I’d like to help you develop some realistic expectations about the money you might make. If you are unloading art and antiques, then you may enjoy a windfall when you sell your possessions.
But you may also find that your valuables aren’t so, well, valuable, warns Julie Hall. She’s an estate sale professional and the director of the American Society of Estate Liquidators.
In Chapter 1, I discussed how few people want those huge wooden TV entertainment centers that were once common in living rooms, and many millennials don’t even