Moving Thread

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

After we moved my 90-year-old FIL into assisted living in 2015, my wife had to sell his townhouse - which had decades worth of stuff in it. Among his belongings:

++ 9 TVs, including what had to be one of the first gigantic projection TVs ever made, 3 tiny-screen TVs, and a TV/VCR unit designed to fit between the seats of a full-sized van (even though my FIL didn't own a van). The 2 decent TVs were claimed by relatives; my wife and I put the other 7 by the curb with "FREE" signs on them. All 7 were taken by passers-by.

++ 7 record players. My son took what appeared to be the best one - which had a built-in 8-track player. We put the 6 others on the curb and 5 were snapped up. We ended up throwing away one that looked like it had been through several wars. My FIL also had probably 5,000 albums - 4,950+ of which he never played. Some collector took 'em of our hands; I hope he made at least a little money.

++ At least 100 flashlights, most cheap plastic ones my FIL had gotten as freebies over the years. We threw out almost all of them.

++ Hundreds of batteries, most past their expiration dates and many corroded.

++ More than $1,000 worth of coins that my FIL had collected in various desk-top jars, including $700+ in quarters alone. We took that to his bank and deposited it in his account.

++ Two orbital waxers that a UPS driver claimed from the curb, along with a huge bucket of car-care products. One waxer was still new in the box; the other had been used maybe once. Why did my FIL need 2 orbital waxers? Because if he hadn't gotten the second, he would have only had one!

++ A dozen or so heaters, fans and air purifiers of all shapes and sizes. These were popular items among the free stuff we left on the curb.

++ An old elliptical trainer and an even older step-climber, neither of which worked. They sat for awhile on the curb but were eventually claimed. People will take just about anything if it's free.

++ Dozens and dozens of framed pieces of "art" -- if pictures of fake flowers, ducks and Dennis Rodman can be called "art." All the sports-themed stuff went to my wife's cousin for his man-cave. The rest went on the freebie pile or in the trash.

++ Probably 300 pounds of various tools, many of which hadn't been used for 20+ years, and most of which were claimed by family friends.

++ Bags and bags filled with clothes, many of which were still in their original wrappers. My FIL wore a total of 2 pairs of pants and 3 shirts, so he didn't need 200+ outfits. That clothing - along with usable linens and kitchen dishes and utensils - were donated to his church.

++ Five boxes of self-help books, most of which were based on various conspiracy theories. ("Diet Coke: The Silent Assassin!")

++ Carpet-cleaning equipment and at least 4 bucket/mop combos. My FIL used to be in the floor-cleaning business. Friends took some of the stuff, the worst junk got pitched.

++ Lots of large furniture (sofas, beds, lamps, tables, chairs). The buyers of his place took some of it, we sold some online, the rest went to the curb.

We donated lots of the stuff that didn't get claimed to Goodwill, but they wouldn't take some of it. We rented two huge dumpsters from Waste Management and filled them.

The experience reinforced our hope to not leave a household of crapola for our adult children to have to deal with after we die.

Before moving from Charlotte to Seattle, we sold or gave away all of our furniture and tons of other stuff too. Sold the big items on Facebook Marketplace or to the couple that bought our house, also donated a lot. Our move was lean and clean!

And a partridge in a pear tree.

[dgies9156]

For our last move, we closed on the purchase several weeks before the sale. We arranged with our mortgage bank that we'd be recasting the mortgage after closing on the sale, and negotiated that they'd waive any fees for doing so. Saved us a chunk of money.

Similarly, if you're still in the mortgage market, talk to as many as you can stand. I've shared this here before but I talked to probably 15 lenders. Rates varied wildly. Lowest was from some internet bank I wasn't keen on working with, but I got a local bank to match their rate, shaving either 1/8 or 1/4 off what they had quoted me.

We thought about recasting too, especially since the rate was 3.75 percent. But we were later in our lives and careers and wanted the debt gone asap.

We went with our bank because the rate was competitive and the junk fees were minimal. I work with banks in my day job and had a very strong understanding of the market. Our bank, a money center bank that's been good for us, had a strong product and we received excellent service because we were deposit customers.

One final thought: keep in mind that financing is only as long as you want it to be. Rates were awful when we bought our home in Libertyville, so we had annual refinance appointments to get rid of our one year ARM before it repriced.

[MU82]

And a partridge in a pear tree.

Crazy, right?

I had put all of that in an email to a few relatives about 10 years ago and archived it, so it's easy to pull up and put in a forum like this. People get a kick out of hearing what a pack-rat some folks can be.