Anyone here sold their Land House "Stuff" to move aboard??

[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Just keep in mind, living aboard full time isn't all sunshine, rainbows and lollipops. You might wanna keep some of your stuff in case you decide on making a change later on.

Stuff comes up like missing family, friends and health. We only know of two people who actually liveaboard full time, the rest keep land-based housing for part of the year. So the ratio is something like 1:200. Don't be too taken by the "sell all and go now" crowd, which is mostly comprised of single men.

I disagree, though single men certainly make up a portion of the sell-and-go crowd.

But I'm not single (and wasn't at the time; we had 4 kids each, though) and have met, just in the last few months, N>>>1 couples who did just that.

I'd say the single guy factor is more likely the 1/200...

Of course, our cruising grounds are the Bahamas, and YMMV if it's the ICW or some other such junk more easily accessing a US homesite.

[skipgundlach]

We had 2 households to disperse.

We sold the valuable stuff (not much, really, when you consider 4 kids) like cars (other than the van, which we gave away after our initial refit) and houses (one each, as we never lived together before we moved onto the boat) and gave everything else first to kids, then to friends, then to charity.

Stuff we MIGHT want back if we decided to bag it we gave on 5-year loan to a kid who could/would use it; if we didn't ask for it back before 5 years, it was theirs permanently. It's fun visiting our heirlooms in our kids' homes when we do shore trips!


Admiral joined me aboard 8-06 and we've never looked back. When the day comes that we HAVE to get off (maybe a trawler before then? hoonose.), we'll rent something very small that doesn't involve maintenance, and being small doesn't cost a lot to go to the various thrifts and yard sales to furnish.

But I sincerely hope that day is very far away. On shore, the bed doesn't move...

[JD-Odyssey]

We sold our house in Allentown, PA in 2004, bought a new Hunter 41 and put the remainder on a condo we have as an investment property in Little River, SC. That's our "backup" if we ever plan to move back on land. We rented an apartment temporarily near the marina so we could start downsizing from there. We moved aboard in the spring of 2005. We had to put a lot of stuff in storage initially while we started posting stuff on Craigslist and eBay. Don't expect much in return for selling off furniture and household furnishings... usually pennies on the dollar. We had acquired some fine artwork which still sits in a storage unit after all these years. I just haven't had the time or ambition to unload it yet. I only retired last year and had been working from our boat since moving aboard (am thankful I worked for a company where most employees worked from home). We've scanned a lot of old photos (negatives are better to scan if you have them) and what's nice is we can share them with our kids using Dropbox. We did a lot of planning and downsized incrementally which worked out well for us. Good luck with your move and enjoy your new lifestyle....

[lesterbutch]

Originally Posted by DeeN

After 4 boats, we've decided to sell our household furnishings and artwork, to unload before purchasing a liveaboard.

We've given ourselves a year to accomplish this major scale down.

We are not rich, however, prior to the great resession, through the years, we accumulated artwork and pieces and furnishings to fill a 4 bedroom, 3 bath house.

We also have a business to sell, which we are still working full time at.

Have any of you done this?

Gotten rid of most of your possessions in order to move aboard? We're looking to buy a a 42 or so foot motor yacht or trawler.

We are not interested in storing our land life things. We've appreciated and enjoyed them, but we want to move on.

Any suggestions and experiences are very much appreciated.

Thank You, Ron & Dee

Yes! My wife and I moved out of a nine room
( including a partly finished basement), colonial
(1645), home in Windham Center CT and onto
a 41' tri-cabin ChrisCraft motor yacht! We had
to sell or store tons of what later turned out to
be junk! I urge that if you do this be careful of
what you store, it cost us a fortune only to
throw most of it away later! If I ever did it again
I'd do it very differntly

[akprb]

Wrote a blog post on this topic :-) sailingohana.com

[warrior 90]

I am in process of selling one of my 2 properties. The one I want to sell was broken in while I was away. I was very upset and decided that I go cruising and save the money of the new furnitures for the boat. So there is not much accumulated to sell.....
Hahaha Yeah Good Luck or Bad ?? I am still deciding.
However I am still worried about my RV wich is my escape route..... just in case the waves get to big for me. I was living 2 years on the road before and liked it. I also want to use the RV while I am searching for my boat and till I can move a board.That allows me to be very flexibel......but most of all I can never ever see myself living in a house or and appartment again. I love to move around and not being tied down to a fixed location.
But now what to do with it ? I invested a lot of money in the RV that I will never get back. One thing I already experienced. Things sitting around and not being used and maintained start to deteriorate. Don´t have the final conclusions yet

[thruska]

I wish we would have had an auction when the house went. Our storage got water damaged once and burglarized twice. Ended upwith an enclosed trailer for whats left. Semsxa shame to trash it but in the long run Goodwill or Salvetion Army might have been the answer. Grief and headaches! Now in 5th wheel and boat and we must keep ourselves in check on purchases . And i wish the rv was smaller hehe.
And sometimes i just want to sit in the rocker....

[emmo]

I did it 7 years ago, lived aboard for over 3 years, then sold up, moved back to NZ to look after my aging Mum, now in a position, where I will be looking for another liveaboard, then decluttering, tho not having so much, again.

[Captdd]

Sold my house "Lock, Stock, and Barrel" 3 Times
Don't regret it it all!
I like new stuff!

Captd

[coloradohi1]

We have dropped out a couple of times. Once
for 8 years. Always had to go back to shore for various reasons. Expensive to get back. Now we go 6 months on the water and 6 on land. We are now looking to do it again, and looking for the vessel. For us it has worked out the same as far as expenses. Keeping the house and boat. Just
a thought.

[Dave22q]

Sold a small house and moved aboard. After tag sale and selling a few antiques I was amazed at how many loads I hauled to good will. Oh yes, I dumped a few kitchen and tool things I wound up replacing but I sure don't miss the suites, ties, leather shoes, etc. In hindsight I would take all tools and small kitchen stuff to the boat and dump the unnecessary over time.

[DebG]

Originally Posted by DavidLGCrawford

When it was time to go for us, we sold our house completely furnished.

It was a country estate, and we were advertising it to city people who were ready to move to the countryside so we included everything. Inside the house that was furniture,, artwork, electronics, all the linens (sheets, blankets, towels, etc), books, aquarium, tools, dishes, cutlery, small appliances and cookware, everything. Outside the house that was lawnmower, tractor, atv, snowmobiles, 24' cuddy cabin with trailer.

It was a complete package deal with everything you needed except your car and your clothes.

It took about 2 years to sell, which was typical for country property around where we lived, but pretty amazing since we didn't have a broker and sold it privately.

On closing day we put our clothes and valuables into the back of our Ford Expedition, and left with that.

So it certainly can be done.

Now.....I like this idea!

[DebG]

Originally Posted by lesterbutch

Yes! My wife and I moved out of a nine room
( including a partly finished basement), colonial
(1645), home in Windham Center CT and onto
a 41' tri-cabin ChrisCraft motor yacht! We had
to sell or store tons of what later turned out to
be junk! I urge that if you do this be careful of
what you store, it cost us a fortune only to
throw most of it away later! If I ever did it again
I'd do it very differntly

Great advice!!!!

[maxingout]

We have only owned one house, although I never was particularly interested in being a home owner.

For us, a house is a home base when we are not sailing or driving in our Land Rover trucks.

When we did our circumnavigation, we would work a while and cruise a while so that our eleven year circumnavigation consisted of six years of sailing mixed in with five years of working on land. It was not our plan to alternate working with sailing offshore, but it just worked out that way. We discovered that sailing for six months and then working for six months is not a bad way to cruise around the world. And if you have a home base, it makes it easy when you are not out there sailing.

We are getting ready to set sail once again, and the fact that we have a home base makes it easier to set sail. We don't have to get rid of all the stuff which would be a giant hassle.

[DebG]

Originally Posted by DeeN

After 4 boats, we've decided to sell our household furnishings and artwork, to unload before purchasing a liveaboard.



We've given ourselves a year to accomplish this major scale down.



We are not rich, however, prior to the great resession, through the years, we accumulated artwork and pieces and furnishings to fill a 4 bedroom, 3 bath house.



We also have a business to sell, which we are still working full time at.



Have any of you done this?



Gotten rid of most of your possessions in order to move aboard? We're looking to buy a a 42 or so foot motor yacht or trawler.



We are not interested in storing our land life things. We've appreciated and enjoyed them, but we want to move on.



Any suggestions and experiences are very much appreciated.



Thank You, Ron & Dee

We would like to do much the same thang....simplify life. Getting rid of things that are so heavy and feeling free if even for a few years. Sooooo I am watching this thread with great interest to learn from everyone, taking notes.