Moving abroad; what to do with stuff
Discussion
I'm moving abroad (Thailand). Got a house there, my job is moving with me (working remote, retaining a UK salary, 10 year LTR visa, so no Thai income tax). But I have a household full of stuff. What do people do; take it with them, bin it, or auction it? Nothing is worth all that much, and shipping might be £3-4000 for a container. But its a bit overwhelming; ditching essentially my life.
If you shipped a few things over, perhaps sentimental items, was it a case of taking it in excess baggage, or having a tea chest shipped to your new address?
I've decided to sell my UK property; at my age I don't want the hassle of renting a property halfway around the world. I figure the proceeds will go into a share portfolio, which will always given me enough capital should I ever wish to return.
My rough plan was sell the house, and get the estate agent to clear the house, and put items that can be sold through a household goods auction. Has anyone done this?
My cars can't come as Thailand basically banned the import of used cars
If you shipped a few things over, perhaps sentimental items, was it a case of taking it in excess baggage, or having a tea chest shipped to your new address?
I've decided to sell my UK property; at my age I don't want the hassle of renting a property halfway around the world. I figure the proceeds will go into a share portfolio, which will always given me enough capital should I ever wish to return.
My rough plan was sell the house, and get the estate agent to clear the house, and put items that can be sold through a household goods auction. Has anyone done this?
My cars can't come as Thailand basically banned the import of used cars
My mate relocated to Middle East and condensed everything into a storage unit and kept it in that for 7-8 years. He barely checked in on it when back in the country and after growing weary of the long-term costs asked if I would empty it, sell anything of value and chuck the rest.
I probably got £100 or so for him, kept some useful tools for myself and he now has two boxes of degree certificates, documents and motorcycle gear stored in my loft instead. Do you have someone or somewhere you could do the same?
If you can’t take your cars are you selling them or storing them? If storing, could you whittle your belongings down to boxes that could be stored with/in them?
Get rid of any tech as it will be outdated or obsolete by the time you return. Scan all photos/negatives, chuck the clothes you can t take, etc.
I probably got £100 or so for him, kept some useful tools for myself and he now has two boxes of degree certificates, documents and motorcycle gear stored in my loft instead. Do you have someone or somewhere you could do the same?
If you can’t take your cars are you selling them or storing them? If storing, could you whittle your belongings down to boxes that could be stored with/in them?
Get rid of any tech as it will be outdated or obsolete by the time you return. Scan all photos/negatives, chuck the clothes you can t take, etc.
At the age of 33 I disposed of an entire 3 bed house and contents, packed 2 suitcases with clothes and left for Canada….i think doing it that way and not hedging my bets or storing stuff helped in the end, as 20 years later I am still here, I may have a box of stuff left at my sisters, but clearly don’t much miss it.
After my divorce, I moved house but there was some overlap in-between my moving out of the family home and moving into my new house so I put my "stuff" into storage, and it made me realise what little monetary value is all has.
In fact it made me realise that I own a lot of crap that makes my life comfy where I am today but if I decided to downsize (or move abroad - something I'm considering), would be a right PITA to divest myself of because it's essentially worthless.
In fact it made me realise that I own a lot of crap that makes my life comfy where I am today but if I decided to downsize (or move abroad - something I'm considering), would be a right PITA to divest myself of because it's essentially worthless.
beambeam1 said:
My mate relocated to Middle East and condensed everything into a storage unit and kept it in that for 7-8 years. He barely checked in on it
That sounds very familiar!I moved house in March and have a garage an hour away absolutely full of 'stuff'. Because I've always bought nice things, it's good quality stuff and far too nice to throw away - but I clearly don't need any of it as I don't go and check on it at all, it just lives there.
From box files full of old paperwork to washing machine, freezer, wine cooler, lawn mower, ladders and on and on and on.
I don't/won't deal with Ebay people and the garage is too far away to have some kind of sale.
When I got divorced about 10 years ago I emptied a triple garage - and had a man with a van (3 trips) take the lot. 'Are you sure?' he kept saying as expensive tools and stuff was all chucked out for nothing. It was very liberating to have it all gone.
So to the OP I would say, get rid of it all while you can, sell, dump, whatever. Otherwise it's a weight around your neck that you don't need.
We moved into a succession of rental properties over about 14 months while we renovated our house. We got rid of as much as we thought we could before we started the moves and put most of our belongings into storage then, each of the three times we changed rental properties, we got rid of a bit more to reduce moving expenses. When we eventually moved into our own home we had the stuff delivered from storage and realised that a. we hadn't missed much of it and b. we didn't need/want a lot of it so we ended up spending weeks opening boxes and mainly getting rid of their contents to auctions, eBay, charity shops or even the tip. In the end we realised that we'd spent several thousands of pounds storing stuff that, when sold, didn't come close to covering the cost of storage.
My advice is to be as strict as possible with yourself, keep only the important or irreplaceable and get rid of everything else. I wouldn't leave it to an estate agent - they'll want to sell the property furnished as it is easier to sell furnished properties than empty shells. Then, as soon as you have completed, take out what you have decided to keep and get a house clearance company around; a good one will either make you an offer for your stuff or tell you what they will charge, depending on the value they place on what you are leaving; some will also offer a cleaning service on completion.
My advice is to be as strict as possible with yourself, keep only the important or irreplaceable and get rid of everything else. I wouldn't leave it to an estate agent - they'll want to sell the property furnished as it is easier to sell furnished properties than empty shells. Then, as soon as you have completed, take out what you have decided to keep and get a house clearance company around; a good one will either make you an offer for your stuff or tell you what they will charge, depending on the value they place on what you are leaving; some will also offer a cleaning service on completion.
Sounds like in Thailand you could just buy the majority of it again, for less money, and have a new one - all the functional stuff like tools. So would do an LLM Search for things which would be hard to get hold of/buy, and then it's just the sentimental stuff.
Also perhaps look at the processes in other countries e.g. in the Nordics its a ritual when you hit a certain life stage to have a clear out - so maybe follow that approach and see this as a new start, new phase, and an opportunity to move on from things. Sounds amazing to be fair. Best of luck!
Also perhaps look at the processes in other countries e.g. in the Nordics its a ritual when you hit a certain life stage to have a clear out - so maybe follow that approach and see this as a new start, new phase, and an opportunity to move on from things. Sounds amazing to be fair. Best of luck!
I rented out my house in the UK as I was concerned if I sold it and the market continued to rise rapidly I'd lose a lot buying back in. Plenty of horror stories of people who moved to Spain years ago and then couldn't afford to move back the UK as UK prices had risen way more than Spanish prices. As it turned out house prices here in NL are just as mad so the house I bought is going up fast, meaning when I sell and move back the UK I can still afford to buy.
My work paid for movers and as we were planning to buy in NL we took furniture, but cleared out a load of old stuff we didn't need to keep before we moved, and left a fair bit of house and garden stuff with the house (garden tools, step ladder, white goods, etc).
We put it in to storage while we house hunted, and then the first covid lockdown happened about 2 days after we moved which slowed us down, so we ended up paying storage fees for nearly 2 years before we moved in to our new place. The main furniture was good to have but when we unpacked we realised we'd been paying storage for a lot of stuff we really didn't need to keep and ended up binning.
So my advice would be to be really ruthless getting rid of stuff you don't really need unless you have an excessive amount of storage space in Thailand and don't mind the cost of shipping stuff you'll probably never use.
My work paid for movers and as we were planning to buy in NL we took furniture, but cleared out a load of old stuff we didn't need to keep before we moved, and left a fair bit of house and garden stuff with the house (garden tools, step ladder, white goods, etc).
We put it in to storage while we house hunted, and then the first covid lockdown happened about 2 days after we moved which slowed us down, so we ended up paying storage fees for nearly 2 years before we moved in to our new place. The main furniture was good to have but when we unpacked we realised we'd been paying storage for a lot of stuff we really didn't need to keep and ended up binning.
So my advice would be to be really ruthless getting rid of stuff you don't really need unless you have an excessive amount of storage space in Thailand and don't mind the cost of shipping stuff you'll probably never use.
Edited by RizzoTheRat on Friday 9th October 09:47
If you are going to sell the house is there anything worth leaving in the house as part of the sale, ie beds, lounge furniture?
You might not get anything for it as such but it might be attractive to some potential purchasers and could help with a sale.
Maybe younger couples who don't have much stuff who can use what they want until they can afford replacements?
You might not get anything for it as such but it might be attractive to some potential purchasers and could help with a sale.
Maybe younger couples who don't have much stuff who can use what they want until they can afford replacements?
I sold most stuff on ebay, then threw away anything Ikea (this was before FB marketplace) or similar, then put anything I really loved on 2 pallets - mainly hifi , IT stuff, and cookware TBH. Had it shipped to Italy, had it shipped back to UK, still have all of it.
Furtniture and the likes - unless you have antiques, you'd be surprised how few people want it.
Get rid of most of it. It's just "stuff".
Furtniture and the likes - unless you have antiques, you'd be surprised how few people want it.
Get rid of most of it. It's just "stuff".
As much as i hate to agree, its the absolute truth that you're better off just ditching it. Maybe invite friends and family over after you've taken whats important to you and they might offer a little contribution to your future?
We sold our house 7 years ago and travelled, no plans beyond that. we couldn't give stuff away....
To be honest, I found that pretty upsetting. Nice kitchenwear, tools, bikes, you name it. we kept a 6x2m storage whilst we travelled, and when we bought here in Italy, we had most of it shipped over. aside from the sentimental things, it probably wasn't worth it.
The house clearance recommendation above is probably a good idea as you don't have to go through the emotional side of throwing 'your life' away.
We sold our house 7 years ago and travelled, no plans beyond that. we couldn't give stuff away....
To be honest, I found that pretty upsetting. Nice kitchenwear, tools, bikes, you name it. we kept a 6x2m storage whilst we travelled, and when we bought here in Italy, we had most of it shipped over. aside from the sentimental things, it probably wasn't worth it.
The house clearance recommendation above is probably a good idea as you don't have to go through the emotional side of throwing 'your life' away.
Sounds awesome!
I would advertise on local facebook groups - house clearance and set a day. Few pics.
Bin everything thats left, IMO.
I would actually take limited sentimental stuff too - just box it up and leave with friends / family. Then if you really need it just take it in bits on your return visits to the UK.
Out of interest which part of Thailand?
I would advertise on local facebook groups - house clearance and set a day. Few pics.
Bin everything thats left, IMO.
I would actually take limited sentimental stuff too - just box it up and leave with friends / family. Then if you really need it just take it in bits on your return visits to the UK.
Out of interest which part of Thailand?
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