Blog: Moving, Downsizing and Organizing for Boomers, Seniors and Elders
What to do with all your stuff, part 2

The first step in determining the disposition of your stuff is the sorting process. Literally going room by room and labeling items and creating piles and groups of like things.

Generally those groups look something like this:

Keep and Use

Store

Give to Family and Friends

Sell

Donate to Charity

Haul Away

It's generally the selling, donating to charity and hauling away areas that cause people the most pain and problem. If you are selling items you need a good deal of time to ferret out people to buy them. Avenues for this include: newspaper classified, Craig's List, Ebay, auction sites, liquidation services, consignment stores and yard or estate sales. All these require time to arrange and handle.

If you are donating items, then matching the charities to what you have also takes time as not all charities will take every item you have. You will have to decide if you are delivering items to the charity or asking them to come and pick them up from you. Depending on where you live, you will have to research the best way to handle your charitable donations. You should also check with your tax preparer on the proper way to account for what you donate as tax laws have and are changing on what value can actually be taken as a deduction.

An important note here - charity donations should be confined to items that are in very good condition, work properly and can be readily used by others. Items that are broken, worn, out of date and otherwise not useable should not be sent off to charity. It does no good to them to have to pay to dump what is your responsibility to dispose of.

Hauling services or debris boxes are the last resort all those items that can not be distributed to any other source.

Please note that I will be posting on this blog twice a month from now on... If you have questions, areas of interest you would like me to address or comments please email me so I can respond.

posted on: 2/9/2008 1:30:00 PM by Gayle Grace
category: Moving

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Moving, Downsizing and Organizing for Boomers, Seniors and Elders

by Gayle Grace

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About Gayle:

Gayle Grace is the owner of All Things Home, providing expert organizing and moving services throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Gayle is a Golden Circle member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) and the National Association of Senior Move Managers (NASMM).

Gayle is a also a trained chef and award winning food taster! When not managing a move or organizing Bay Area kitchens, Gayle can be found at one of her favorite restaurants or advising local wineries on food and wine pairings.

Gayle shares her home and the sofa with two cats, Littleone and Pumpkin Pie.

Gayle's Website:

www.allthingshome.com

Gayle's Other Blogs & Email Contact

• allthingshomeblog.blogspot.com
• [email protected]

Gayle's Book Recommendations:

• Rightsizing Your Life by C. Ware
• Scaling Down by J. Culbertson & M. Decker
• No Ordinary Move by B.Z. Perman & J. Ballard
• Moving in the Right Direction by B. Nemovitz

The Kitchen Sink

• My Life In France by Julia Child
• Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin
• More Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin
• Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rodgers
• Classic Stars Desserts by Emily Luchetti

Pumpkin Pie