How to Sell Everything You Own and Move - MyMovingReviews (2024)

When the time comes for you to move away, one of the most important things you should do is decide what to do with all your possessions.

Keep in mind that inventorying your home, sorting out your stuff, and deciding the fate of each and every item you own can be a painstakingly slow process. What’s more, figuring out which items you’ll be moving with you and which items you’ll be leaving behind may prove to be much harder than you thought initially.

The bad news is that things will get even more complicated once you’ve made up your mind about what to move and what not to move: you’ll have to gather the necessary packing supplies, protect your (fragile) belongings with padding materials, and pack them up inside cardboard boxes for safe transport to the new home.

But here’s a house moving solution you may have never thought of before: to sell everything and move away with nothing – no furniture, no appliances, no kitchen items, no books, and no clothes either. You will still take with you a few very valuable items such as small electronic gadgets and jewelry pieces, but that’s it – no big and heavy household items of any kind.

And considering all the benefits of selling everything you own and moving away, the sell-everything-and-move option might just work out great in your case.

Read on to learn how to sell everything before moving away.

Benefits of selling everything and moving away: WHY?

The concept of selling everything you own and moving away may seem pretty shocking and utterly unacceptable at first. Why would you want to get rid of all your stuff and move out with nothing but a mere backpack on your back or a single suitcase in your hand?

The thing is that the more you think about it, the more not-so-outrageous this house-moving idea will become. Once you learn all the advantages of selling everything and moving away with nothing, you may even decide it’s the right thing for you under your specific set of relocation circ*mstances.

So, why would you want to sell everything you own and move?

• Extra cash. You will make money from the sale of all your possessions before you move away. Of course, the idea is to use that cash to purchase new household items for the place you’re moving into.
• No packing costs. Since you won’t have any items to pack, you won’t need to buy packing supplies at all. Also, you don’t need to hire professional packers to pack any of your extra fragile items.
• No moving costs. The best thing about selling all your stuff prior to moving out is that you won’t incur any moving expenses – you won’t have to pay movers to transport your items and you won’t have to rent a truck to move your things on your own.
• More free time. Although you will need time to sell all your stuff before you move away, you won’t have to spend days and days packing up all sorts of household items. As a bonus, you won’t have to spend any time hunting down the necessary packing materials and searching for a top-rated moving company.
• No stress. One of the main stressors when moving house is the worry of whether the household items will reach the new home in the condition they left the old one – in other words, whether they will survive the haul unscathed. With nothing to move between the two homes, your moving experience should be as stress-free as possible.
• New beginning. Selling everything before moving away will give you the perfect opportunity to get a fresh start by furnishing and decorating the new place in a totally different way.

Move It or Sell It: What to Sell Before Moving

Circ*mstances of selling everything and moving away: WHEN?

As you can see, it can be hugely advantageous to move house without any possessions at all. But the thing is that the sell-everything-and-move scenario is not always possible. In reality, you will have to have the right set of circ*mstances for it to work out well in the end.

Here’s WHEN you should consider selling everything you own and moving across the country or moving to another country altogether:

• You’re moving on a budget. When you have some money but you know it won’t be nearly enough to cover all the moving expenses coming your way, then you should think about getting rid of all your things by selling them and using the earned money to buy new stuff in the new place.
• You’re moving without any money. Moving on a limited budget is super-hard, but moving with no money saved would be impossible… unless you decided to sell everything you own prior to going away. After all, desperate times call for desperate measures, right?
• You’re moving across the country. Moving great distances across the country – a coast-to-coast move, for example – will cost you thousands of dollars. Think about this: when you’re hauling big and heavy items (furniture, for instance), then the money you pay for their transportation may turn out to be more than what the furniture items are actually worth.
• You’re moving abroad. When you’re planning a move to another country, then it’ll make all the sense in the world to sell everything you own and move out with a single suitcase in your hands. It can be really expensive to move to a new country, especially overseas, so you can easily minimize the international moving costs by not hauling any household items.

The best way of selling everything and moving away: HOW?

Once you reach the decision that you’ll be much better off selling your stuff and moving with almost nothing, then it’s time to put your plan into action.

Basically, there are three ways to sell your things before you move away: 1) sell your stuff at a garage sale, 2) sell your items online, and 3) sell your household items together with the property.

Now, before we take a closer look at each of these sale options, let’s point out that selling your things to any of your friends is not really a good idea. You could still choose to do it, of course, but it can be really awkward and uncomfortable to take money from your pals, even when you offer them something in exchange.

If a good friend of yours seems to like something that you intend to get rid of anyway, it’s much better to just give away that item to your buddy as a goodbye present than to attempt to sell it to them. Think about this: you would not get rich accepting your friend’s money – instead, you’d be running the risk of introducing a serious dose of awkwardness in your friendship.

Here are the 3 best ways of selling everything before moving away:

1. Sell your stuff at a garage sale

Probably the most straightforward way to sell everything you own before moving is to organize a huge yard sale. That’s a good solution when you’re about to move out of a house with a spacious yard where you will put up your stuff for sale. Also, organizing a moving sale requires plenty of time, so if you’ve got that covered too, then nothing can stop you from having a profitable garage sale before moving out.

Here are the major steps of organizing a successful moving sale:

• SPREAD the word as far in advance as you can. You must put some effort into advertising your garage sale, otherwise, people won’t know about it, and (almost) no one will come to look at your items for sale;
• USE your social media networks to let anybody in your friends’ circle that you’re planning a yard sale. Ask your friends to share the scheduled event with their friends too to increase exposure. Also, put up advertising signs around the neighborhood at designated places to inform the people living nearby;
• PRICE your sale items reasonably. This is really important since you’re trying to sell EVERYTHING before you move away. If you price your things too high, then most people will be discouraged by the overpriced tags and won’t buy anything in the end. Remember to set your priorities right – your goal should be to get rid of all your stuff by assigning reasonable prices to them;
• MAKE every effort to turn the sale area into an attractive and safe place for both kids and pets. Playing some nice music in the background and tying up a few colorful balloons can make a big difference in making visitors feel more welcomed and inclined to leave your garage sale with a purchase;
• ARRANGE all items for sale in a tidy and logical manner that will make sense to the guests at your garage sale. Whenever possible, bundle stuff together and be ready for certain price discounts as you’re pursuing the goal of getting rid of all your items before you move out.

How to Organize a Garage Sale Before Moving

2. Sell your stuff online

Selling all your possessions online is another good option to fulfill your goal of moving out with almost nothing but a few top essential items on you. The biggest drawback of online sales is that sometimes they require plenty of time to complete, and depending on your specific relocation case, you may or may not have that time on your hands.

So, provided that you have enough time until the move-out date, selling everything you own online could turn out to be a masterstroke that will help you save BIG on your cross-country or international move.

Here are the main steps that will help you sell all or almost all your things online:

• EXAMINE closely all items and see if they have the required market value to have a chance to sell online in the first place. As a rule, you won’t be able to sell things that are too old, too worn out, or too broken;
• PRICE the items you wish to sell online. Now, good pricing is critical for the success of the entire operation. Pricing is a tricky business – on one hand, you don’t want to overprice the items for sale since they won’t sell easily or may not sell at all. On the other hand, you don’t want to give away your things since you’ll be losing money in the process.
  Your best bet? Check what similar or identical items go for online and price them accordingly.
• TAKE quality photos of all the things you’re selling on the Internet. Photos are what will grab buyers’ attention so secure high-resolution photographs with enough daytime light. Use close-up photos to document any potential defects or problems on the items to show buyers that you’re an honest seller.
• CHOOSE on which platform to post your things for sale. Where to sell stuff online? You’ve got plenty of options but the top websites to sell things online, especially locally, are Craigslist, eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Carousell, LetGo, and OfferUp;
• PROVIDE accurate descriptions for your items for sale, including any important details that will help buyers make up their minds. Be honest when describing your things for online sale – potential buyers should appreciate your sincerity and uprightness;
• DECIDE how you will ship any sold items to buyers and what payment methods you will accept. Be ready to lower the price of select items if they fail to sell within a reasonable period of time, let’s say one week.

3. Sell your stuff together with the house or apartment

What’s the best way to sell everything you own and move?

If you’re selling your house or apartment before moving away, then one option you should definitely consider is selling most or all household items together with the property. As a rule of thumb, this scenario may work out well when it comes to furniture items, household appliances, and any specialty items found in the home such as a piano, a grandfather clock, a pool table, or even a hot tub.

That’s right – including the cost of your items into the overall price of the house or apartment is, without a doubt, the easiest and fastest way to sell everything you own and move away. Obviously, selling your possessions together with the property will come down to successful negotiations with the new owners.

How to Get Rid of Unwanted Items When Moving

Bear in mind that, oftentimes, you can’t just sell everything you own and move out. Why not?

First of all, most people feel a strong attachment to the things they own, hence it would be almost impossible for them to just let go of all their stuff. And you may happen to be just one of these people too.

Secondly, it can take a long time to sell all your things before moving away, either at a garage sale or online. And as it turns out, you may not have the luxury of having that much time to part with your belongings.

Therefore, if selling everything and moving away sounds like a tempting idea but you know deep inside you that you just can’t put that idea into action for numerous reasons, then you might as well move house the standard way – hire the best movers in your area to protect and transport your prized possessions to the new home, wherever that new home might be.

1. Auction.

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