How to get rid of stuff ?- Moving back to UK after 18 yrs abroad!

[Shitemum]

We are moving back to the UK this summer and have a lot of accumulated junk desirable items.

We need to generate some cash from the stuff people might pay for.

How did you get rid of stuff before moving to another country?

There are no charity shops here and no car boots sales or yard sales. We don't have a yard or garden anyway.
Spanish ebay is cr*p and I've never tried selling anything anyway. Maybe try Uk site? Are people willing to pay higher postage for stuff coming from abroad?

Am thinking:

• email list of saleable stuff round friends
• put up notes in area for specific items
• 'jumble sale' in house for friends nearer time

- 1? junk box and books at our shop. But shop sells new stuff so can't put too much second hand stuff in there...

Anyone have any other ideas for shifting stuff for cash?
Thanks

that's 1 euro junk box - for some reason the euro sign translates as a question mark on MN...

no idea on spain but a yard sale can help - particulalry if you are prepared to just give the stuff away to get rid...

we have made a couple of international moves lol, with another one pending, and i have to say i haven't yet found a way to make money out of it - completley the opposite lol!

i'll be watching the thread for ideas though - luckily we can car boot and freecycle this time

good luck!

I did a garage sale before we moved from Germany but without a garden/garage that might be difficult. If you can use your friend's house then I would do that. I put signs up in the local supermarket stating that we were moving abroad and everything had to go. I got a lot of response from that.

Signs up in school/kindergarten

I put everything into the garage then took a pphoto so that the main things were visable (car seats, buggy etc)

Is there an expat website where you are? They have one in in Geneva, EasyExpat and people sell things on there. Or the local radio station do a classified section online, maybe there is something like that there.

We get a lot of emails from DH's colleagues when they move back home.

I'd use UK ebay, plan listings just when you've got someone coming over and going back to the UK and get said person to take back sold stuff in an extra case you pay for. Obviously this can only be done if a) the items in question are small and portable and b) you have someone willing to be your "mule".

Alternatively, look for classified sites. In Italy there's Secondamano, I think there's an equivalent Spanish site, segundamano perhaps? Also there are other sites such as Kijiji which so classified selling all sorts of stuff.

Here's one and here's the secondamano one.

Yes, the local supermarket one is good, although you do get a lot of weirdos popping by....

Thanks for replies!

I sold all my cloth nappies on a Spanish site last year and it was quite a lot of work, tho i got a good price for them.
There is one second hand shop nearby (only 3 in whole town of 300,000+ people tho!) but the English guy who runs it wants 70% of anything of mine that he can sell for me which I think is a bit steep. It's 60% usually for sale or return. And the locals do not really 'do' second hand anyway...

Maybe I should have an open house every weekend with coffee and cake and invite everyone I know and just have a box or two of things out for sale, cheap, see if we can get rid of stuff that way at bargain prices...

Brangelina - I can't have strangers coming to the house for a nose around unless it's for a specific item. There are loads of wierdos here!
I have a lock-up that I could store stuff and meet people at who were interested.

The Barcelona site looks interesting. All my nappies went to people north of Madrid, as i say people in the south just dont 'do' second hand...

No, I don't like people poking their nose around my place either. the friend that did it had an empty flat full of junk as had already packed up and sent off all the nice stuff. Still, the fruitcakes and the weird old ladies.

Italians don't "do" secondhand either alas. I'm very impressed you managed to sell your nappies, I was thinking of having to ship mine over to the UK to sell. I am now encouraged by your success and shall attempt to sell them locally .

Madame - no idea if we can do that here. i think you get tax deduction on cash donations but doubt donated goods would count for anything. Will check.

Brangelina - are you in Italy or Spain? If former try doing a search for parent forums, particularly alternative ones, healthy living etc and see if the talk forums have a buy and sell section. Or search for new cloth nappies as some of those kind of sites also have chat forums. If in Spain it was the 'crianzanatural' site I sold mine on.