When you decide to downsize, you need solutions and options for all the belongings you will not keep. A good senior move management company should have these options ready for you and help you decide which ones are best for your situation.
Garage Sale
This is an option you could do on your own. You would just need time to price everything, advertise the sale, and be at the sale to oversee and accept payments. You should just know the money earned will likely be small and the effort may be too exhausting for an older adults. Also, some communities have rules that can affect your garage sale, or whether you can have one at all.
Selling Online
This is low cost, high reach, and very time consuming. You need to take good pictures, write good descriptions, price everything, and post it on a website that has a broad reach. Then you need to be available to answer lots of questions, negotiate, and agree on a pickup time for a stranger to come to your house. Online shoppers are looking for big bargains, so the income is often disappointing, especially for the time and effort required. If this is an option you want to explore, it’s best to do your research before diving in.
Estate Sales
If you have good-enough belongings and enough of them, an estate sale company will be interested in offering you their service. The estate sale company will determine a price for everything, advertise the sale, and have staff onsite to manage the sale out of your home. Estate sale companies can be very creative in identifying things you can sell. They will charge you a percent of the sale and may have minimum charge.
Consignment
If you have quality furniture, a consignment shop may be interested in selling furniture for you. But they are not interested in any and all furniture. They will charge a percentage of the sale price, and lower the price the longer the item takes to sell. At some point, you either retrieve your item or they dispose of it. It’s very important that the consignment shop has ethical standards and that you follow up on your items.
Donate to Charity
The easiest and most rewarding option can often be to donate your items to charity. You will be helping others in need while getting a convenient solution for things you can’t keep anymore.
One important piece of advice: downsizing and selling your items should be done by separate companies. You do not want the downsizer to have a conflict of interest when helping you decide what to keep.
If you are downsizing in the Jacksonville, St. Augustine, or North East Florida area, Ideal Move can help you through the downsizing process and then explain and arrange all the options for you. Please visit our website at www.myidealmove.com or call us at 904-826-7055.
