How to dispose household things in USA while moving

Hi Friends,

My family has recently moved back to India after living in USA for 4 years. Though we have conciously avoided buying anything permanent we had accumulated quite a lot of stuff over the years.

I thought we could all share our experience in disposing household items.

I started 3 months before our move. After setting aside all the things we would be packing and things friends had wanted, I categorized the rest into 3 groups.

1) items in good working condition and marketable - electronics, appliances, furniture, branded toys
2) items in good condition but not sellable individually - kitchen items, small toys, books, VHS tapes etc. - this I grouped together and set a bargain price
3) items in good condition and in demand but neglible in value - baby clothes, utensils, crockery etc. - This I had packed for charity/ advertised them as free

All the items in category 1 and 2 were sold through craigslist.

Here are some tips for craigslist ads.

1. List items on Friday morning - more people browse craigslist with a few of picking up over the weekend.
2. If you have little time, advertise as a garage or moving sale
3. For items with more than $20 value, add pictures
4. For branded items , look them up on amazon and add a link for product specification and reviews.
5. Don't give out phone numbers in ads unless you are prepared to stay by the phone for hours. Use anonymous mail for initial sale contact.
6. Sell in spring - there is much less competition with yard sales in summer.
7. Demo electronics before pickup
8. Group relevant items - eg. stroller, baby chair, baby gym, diaper bags etc. can be sold together
9. For cars mention the VIN number and the kbb link for value.
10. items with original box, manual sells faster.

Please add your tips /experiences

Yeah abiv...
Even i have heard abt craiglist ma. Its good and all ur tips are true t the best of my knowledge.


Even i regularly check craiglist to buy househld items, And planning to update in the same site when moving back to india.

Really worth checking this site...

U have shared a very useful info.....

Thanks Rupi.

craigslist was useful. I wonder whether there is anything equivalent in tamilnadu/chennai.

Hi Abi,

Thanks for all your tips.. these are useful to one or the other time to all..

what you told is right craiglist is very useful.. to buy/sell secondhand items..

regards,
ramyaganesh

Hi,

Thanks for sharing. Your tips are gonna be very useful for all of us.

Hi All,

Perfectly Craiglist is the best solution for disposing household items.
Even I keep telling my husband not to buy so much because at the time of moving it would be very difficult for us to resale.

for so many tips.Lets explore this topic more and more so that in less time and efforts we can move easily without any worries and tensions

i would suggest move in sale, where you could prepare lots of sale items list and stick them in the notice board of the apartment. This is another way to get rid of the stuff apart from yard sales.

hi..
very useful topic...craigslist helped me alot when ever we had to move i have been using it frm past 3 yrs and can vouch fr it...since its been checked by not only indians but americans too so the response is huge

thanks