Hoarding - Springing Ahead

dktreesea

I've just done two bag loads of stuff that I label "non-recoverable", as in way too tatty to be capable of being recycled. Things like clothes the moths have been at, a cracked cup (why have a chipped cup when you can hoard them with cracks instead?)

I'd like to feel pleased about this, but for every item I came across that fit today's "get rid of" category, there were 4 or 5 other items that I would have loved to just "abracadabra" (creating space out of no-space. Better than magic!) out of the place, but didn't because they are in good condition, cost too much when I got them, and, even though I now don't use them now, I don't feel I can just give them up without compensation. We have quite a lot of debt due to our business slowing down in the recession, and I feel I ought to at least make an effort to sell stuff, rather than just give it away, just so I can feed The Debt. Our debt is like a pet lion - just lays around doing nothing very much but has a voracious appetite.

If it were bags of clothes, I would just bag them up and send them to cash for clothes, keeping out only the named brands I could be 90% sure I would get better prices for at the car boot (I'm not so into Ebay). But there is stuff like a Wedgwood dinner service, a couple of working vacuum cleaners, collectible ceramics, some of which would do better in other parts of the country than at the local car boot, tools which are too good to throw away but need derusting. (They really need something like evapo-rust or naval jelly, rather than my usual method of soaking them in vinegar). And that's just in one small corner of the house, as in not even two cubic feet. In a house where what there is to part with counts in the cubic metres rather than feet.

So, all apart from the effort to get the things sales ready, then I am confronted with which sale to put them into. With the ceramics, for instance, say they would go at the car boot for £1 a piece. At an auction they might go for the equivalent of £2 a piece, at the local antiques fair £4 a piece, and in a cabinet at an antique centre the equivalent of £8 a piece. And, even if all those prices, when matched to the venue, are bargain prices, not to mention all the work getting them there, they might not sell. At all. And move back in with me. because they are The Things, and they live here, and they like it here. And hey, surely I don't really want to part with them....

Is it little wonder that some people, faced with the thought of the effort required to sell the item, not to mention the possibility of the things returning home with them, give it away instead?

So what do you all do with the things you can't afford to give away?

whitewing

Send them to auction with a reserve price? Our local one doesn't charge if it fails to meet the reserve and you get it back so you've lost nothing. And you can leave stuff at the auction house until it gets sold. (Keep photos and match what you've left with what's been sold).

pigpen

dktreesea wrote: »

So what do you all do with the things you can't afford to give away?

I give them away.

My life is full, my house is full and to keep stuff on the off chance I might get round to selling it is feeding my hoarder habits.. I have to set it free immediately or it stays forever.

I need the space in my home far more than I need the 20p I would get selling it and I don't have the time or energy to invest in making the effort to sell it. My time is far better spent elsewhere.

See.. in my head I have it right.. time-wise and health-wise and energy-wise I have nothing more to give!

dktreesea

whitewing wrote: »

Send them to auction with a reserve price? Our local one doesn't charge if it fails to meet the reserve and you get it back so you've lost nothing. And you can leave stuff at the auction house until it gets sold. (Keep photos and match what you've left with what's been sold).

It's a pity there isn't one auction house big enough to take the whole lot at once. Most of our local auctions (i.we. within a 50 mile radius) have a £1 lotting fee. There is a risk though. It costs petrol to get the stuff there and back. Not to mention picking it up if it doesn't make the reserve. Plus they can be pretty choosy what they take and often don't want more than 3 or 4 items at a time. I need one which will take 100 lots at a time :-)

dktreesea

pigpen wrote: »

I give them away.

My life is full, my house is full and to keep stuff on the off chance I might get round to selling it is feeding my hoarder habits.. I have to set it free immediately or it stays forever.

I need the space in my home far more than I need the 20p I would get selling it and I don't have the time or energy to invest in making the effort to sell it. My time is far better spent elsewhere.

See.. in my head I have it right.. time-wise and health-wise and energy-wise I have nothing more to give!

Maybe everyone says this about their hoard, but I don't have the kind of things one would sell for 20p. It's stuff like fur coats and stoles (well...., I thought Scotland would be freezing. How was I to know Britain's idea of cold would make an Eskimo sweat?), Troika, Moorcroft, brass and copperware, brand new house furnishings, like tiles and bathroom taps, spinning wheels, rocking chairs (why have one when two's company?!) rolls of material, - all of them "bargains" in their own right. I forgot to buy the castle they need to be properly housed!

suzitiger

Hi fellow clutterbugs
I didn't realise I had been away for so long! :eek:
Do not despair because plenty of de-cluttering has been happening, lots of clothes and old bedsheets have been on freecycle and now gone, varoius other bits and bobs like loads of pens/pencils I didn't need, notebooks/notecards, plastic coathangers, candles etc. Also lots of charity stuff has left too, including a bag for mind recently that was collected from the doorstep, thats how I like it!
I do find it easier with freecycle as I could never throw away perfectly good useable things that are a bit too wacky to go to charity, it really helps. We also have excellent scrap metal men that do the rounds on bin day so I left a load of wires out wondering if the would take them and they did, wooop! I'm so happy cuz wires are another weak point, good job the price of copper is ever climbing :rotfl:
How is everyone else doing? Is the sun helping motivate peeps or not? It motivated me to do a bit of weeding so I guess that's more de-hoarding too

suzitiger

PS forgot to say I have been reading via email digest and felt very heartened by roundtuit's posts, they strike a chord with me, I think we have similar habits :-) I look forward to chatting to you more on here, and belated welcome from me!

SueMaggie

dktreesea wrote: »

But there is stuff like a Wedgwood dinner service, a couple of working vacuum cleaners, collectible ceramics, some of which would do better in other parts of the country than at the local car boot, tools which are too good to throw away but need derusting.

Re your Wedgewood dinner service, thought I'd de-lurk for a moment, and let you know that Chinasearch buy this kind of thing. I haven't used their service, but you could contact them via their website http://chinasearch.co.uk/sell-to-us/ and see what they'll give you for it.

Of course it means you'd have to parcel it all up and send it off, but depending on how much they offer, it may be worth it.

Re-lurking now...

dktreesea

SueMaggie wrote: »

Re your Wedgewood dinner service, thought I'd de-lurk for a moment, and let you know that Chinasearch buy this kind of thing. I haven't used their service, but you could contact them via their website http://chinasearch.co.uk/sell-to-us/ and see what they'll give you for it.

Of course it means you'd have to parcel it all up and send it off, but depending on how much they offer, it may be worth it.

Re-lurking now...

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Thankyou very much! I have just sent them the details and am waiting to hear back from them. I feel space..... space....

pigpen

dktreesea wrote: »

Maybe everyone says this about their hoard, but I don't have the kind of things one would sell for 20p. It's stuff like fur coats and stoles (well...., I thought Scotland would be freezing. How was I to know Britain's idea of cold would make an Eskimo sweat?), Troika, Moorcroft, brass and copperware, brand new house furnishings, like tiles and bathroom taps, spinning wheels, rocking chairs (why have one when two's company?!) rolls of material, - all of them "bargains" in their own right. I forgot to buy the castle they need to be properly housed!

Carboot = 20p

The money you get for the effort you put in is not worth it.

Fur coats don't sell, they haven't for years and years, people decided the methods for farming the fur was unethical and stopped wanting it. Rocking chairs.. there is a reason you see so many in the charity shop.. no one wants them! Taps.. old ones have different fittings so useless in modern homes.. weigh them in! ditto brass and copper. Tiles.. it depends on the age and size I've found.. imperial ones are bin food.. unless they are the specialist ones.

Fabric.. it is on freecycle here every 5 minutes.. people want what they want and unless it has a name or a specific pattern it isn't needed.. though bizarrely I have found it sells better and for more as FQ's than as a 'lot' I donated most of my stash to the local college just to be rid as it would not sell.

See.. my stash USED to look like yours!

My sister has my rocking chair.
My Edwardian cast iron roll top bath is going to be picked up by the next tat man down our street because while I think it is beautiful and about as practical as a bucket with no bottom it will not sell.. not even with the original claw and ball feet
My treadle sewing machine is going back to the CS from whence it came
The 140 y/o glass cabinet which was valued at £120 20 years ago is going to the CS too as soon as I can get it there.

It is only 'of value' to someone who wants it.. and no one does