Moving out into a much smaller place - practical advice?

[MoveOverDarling]

This is my first post and I'm not sure it's in the right place but since the situation is the result of a relationship breakup I thought there are maybe people here who have gone through this before and who wouldn't mind sharing some practical tips and advice.

So, breakup of a 14-year relationship and I'm temporarily moving in with a friend, renting her spare room as a lodger. The idea is that I'll gather my wits, save up some money over the next 6 months or so to bolster what could put down as a deposit and then try to find somewhere to buy.

At the moment I'm going through all my possessions and am trying to decide what to take with me, what to throw out/send to the charity shop, what to put into storage, and what, if anything, to sell.

I'll need to reduce radically and in some ways it's quite cathartic - plus I've definitely accumulated too much rubbish! However it is taking me ages and I have constant decisions to make so any advice/experience from wise mumsnetters would be much appreciated.

I want to keep storage to a minimum as I'll need to save every penny. For similar reasons selling things would be good but I work long hours so can't invest a lot of time into the process.

If you have gone through this, is there anything you've really regretted not keeping?
Anything you wish you'd been more radical about throwing out?

Does anyone know what documents I'll have to keep for legal reasons? What about old payslips? Bank statements?
Anything I'll need to apply for a mortgage (haven't done this before, our house belonged mostly to my partner and my contributions were from savings)?

And what do I do with all those things that carry so many memories?

Gosh this has turned out long. Talk about reducing to the max! Thank you for any advice.

I can recommend evernote for paperwork. I take photos of allllll my paperwork and upload it to cloud via there. Then I throw away the papercopies. Just keep the super important bits of passport, birth cert etc. Be radical about books and dvds and clothes and be kind to yourself on a box of memories. You should find the marie kondo threads on here and pinterest, it is the perfect postbbreak up decluttering. Keep lots of gin ?

Thank you. Good idea re evernote. Wondering how far back I need to actually bother keeping/photographing records like payslips? Can I throw out bank statements as it's all online anyway or will I get into trouble for that if I want to apply for a mortgage?

Books... so many of them... finding it hard to let go though I probably won't read most of them ever again...

Reducing the whisky collection as I go along :)

I have a rule of if I haven't used something with 3 - 5 years, I will probably never use it.

With bank statements I throw away anything over 2 years old, and the same for payslips, phone bills any else bill-wise (i.e. utilities). The ones to keep live in a box file so they're together and tidy.

I think for my last mortgage they wanted 3 months worth of payslips (most recent) and a few bits for proof of address and identity so it's worth updating your driving licence and address wherever you can, as soon as you can.

Anything that hasn't been worn in the last year goes to the charity shop - it's always tempting to hold onto something in case it fits again one day, but the chances are, when it does, you'll no longer want it.

I have a box for memories - it's a fairly good size but not enormous which makes me think about whether it's worth keeping some things - it's a good dissuader against hoarding useless crap!

Lastly, if you want to sell stuff, try car boot sales - you might not get quite as much as if you put it on eBay, but you don't have to fanny around photographing, uploading, sorting out postage etc...

Good luck OP

Sell all of the books and never buy another one - get a Kindle. Scan all of the paperwork, unless already available on company websites (ie bank statements) - then toss it. Keep a couple of boxes of memories and toss the rest. Donate clothes, shoes and purses.
You can live with a bed, a dresser, a TV, a desk and chair, a computer, a printer/scanner, dirty clothes hamper, a 2 drawer file cabinet, a small bookcase (yearbooks, directories, etc).
Having had to both clean out the houses of the deceased and having had to live this way - you don't need much to live. It's just a bunch of things and stuff.
Every time you buy something new, toss something out.

For your memories storage, keep cards with heartfelt notes in it and throw away the rest that is signed only. They take too much space (my husband keep every single cards sent to him and they took up a lot of space! Birthdays, christmas, thank you cards, thinking of you cards, get well cards, etc.)

Who keeps cards?! I probably am like an anti-hoarder as I throw most things away. All my photos are digitised and backed up to cloud and an external drive, along with pdfs of all my bank statements etc (don't forget if you don't get paper statements, you can usually only go back 12-18 months online.)

I had to get rid of about 250 books when I downsized from a house to a flat and I'm still mourning them now.

Anyway, I'd say analyse the costs of storage against the resale value and rebuy cost of anything like furniture and appliances. Estimate how long you expect it to be before you can move elsewhere, then double it because there's always unexpected costs that set you back. I looked into storage but it's so expensive that for me it became non-cost-effective after about 4 months.

Well my husband does...so annoying.

Hello Move

Everyone has different things that hold memories for them
I guess only you can decide what you want to keep & what to dispose of.
Most of us have far too much stuff !

When you get settled into your new life, different things will become important to you.

You can always buy more "stuff" in the future

The quickest way I have found to declutter & make money for; clothes, books, small household items are car boot sales. However, people will only pay 50 pence to £1-£3. So fill car to the max. Look at it as a fun day out ! & make a bit of money. Alot of people give their "stuff" away at the end of car boot sales that they have not sold, just because they dont want to take it home again. You will be surprised what people will buy !

Or

Donate to charity shops

Good for buying & selling www.gumtree.com/

Good for giving & receiving www.freecycle.org/

www.ebay.co.uk/

There are some companies that buy old clothes & give you money per kg, but this would not generate you much money

You could try sites like www.musicmagpie.co.uk/

Good luck

Hello Move

Some towns have auctions where you can buy & sell

Paying for storage is expensive, suggest calculating the costs

It would be better if someone had a storage space that you could borrow & you do them a favour in return eg housework, gardening, child care, cooking etc

Good luck

I did really well on local Facebook groups - often get a better price as they're buying from someone local. Can thoroughly recommend a big clear out! Anything that doesn't sell - be ruthless and give to a charity shop.