Storing household items when travelling over a year??

[Exile Bean]

Hi Guys,

I hoping for some advice, comments on storing household items while travelling for extended periods of time. Basically we are 4 months away from heading off in the CT and planning to travel of at least one-two years hopefully three or well as long as the mortgage is being paid who’s counting. During this time we will be renting out the house to pay the mortgage and so will need to do something with the contents of the house (ranging from sofas/furniture, TVs, White goods etc.).

I have looked into keeping our belongings in long term storage, however at $3000.00 plus a year it’s a big outlay especially when compared to other options once you get to the two plus year mark. We have also looked at a fully sealed storage container, which we can get for around the same price as one year in storage. Only problem is although we have a large back garden we have no way to get a container down there due to access and unsure if it’s a good idea to keep it on a friends land, as though it maybe  convenient now a lot can happen in a year. Another option is to build a shed (waterproof graded) at the bottom of the yard. This would equate to approximately two years storage, but also may add some value to the house. The final option is to sell it all. We don’t really want to do this as we have over the years upgraded furnishing and now have some expensive items that wouldn’t get much second hand but cost a fortune to buy it all new again.  This concerns me especially as I imagine once we finish our travels (although we will be working our way around), we won’t have much money in the bank to re-kit a house and starting completely from scratch again is not ideal. However the hubby was told some horror stories by someone stored their items in long term storage and everything was mouldy through and through and had to be chucked, in which case they wished they just sold everything. 
 
If anyone has any experience/advice, other ideas, do and don’t etc, please share take a minute to share.     

[D4D]

What about only storing the expensive items you want to keep and rent the house as semi-furnished?

[lino6]

You could sell it off and put the money into a 2 or 3 year term deposit. Then when you get back buy all new stuff!

A 20 foot shipping container will cost around $2k if you were friendly enough who had somewhere you could put it for that time might be another option.

[Mace]

Keep now only what is important or worth $$$ replacing, we have moved three times since 2005, the last time to move overseas!  Before we came to tassie, we got rid of half our stuff that had been in various boxes and remained unpacked for the past 6 years.  We had too much stuff!!

Is it possible to say, put all your good stuff in one room of your house and lock it up, if you have a four bedroom house, you can still rent it out as a three?

Lucky people!!!

[Red Dog 4x4]

I am currently renting a 20 foot container at about $80 a month from Royal Wolf, waiting for the house to be built, so far we have had all of our furniture, TV's, every thing in the container for about 2 years now, I'm just lucky that the olds have a big block to put it.

We looked at buying one but they were rooted inside or rusted badly, when we hired it they asked what it was being used for, so they made sure they sent out and new or very close to new.

[Pling]

We have just moved out of our house for the exact same reason and leave in Januaray.

We stacked our entire house in a 20 ft container.....$2500 grand and when we get back in 2015 we will sell it, Was second hand but in good nik cant beat it I reckon.
.

[Nomad]

I have a storage shed complex. If you walked into my office and said you wanted two or three years storage I would be giving you a fairly substantial discount. Usually most tenants last about 9 months before they come back in to access their stuff and either take it to a second hand dealer or call the Salvo's etc. Its so consistent that I am thinking of starting up a second hand furniture business onsite as well.

I would sell it down before you leave, especially things like couches and tv's etc, keep your keepsakes somewhere and get rid of the rest.

Cheers Nomad.

[Brumbypt]

I bought a shipping container, stored most of our stuff in that. when I opened it nearly 2 years later it was like I had only put the stuff in the day earlier. very little dust, no ant or mouse problem. Container cost approx $2400, $200 approx for delivery cos it was a backload. that was to the country so thats pretty good.

I bought another when I got home for $900 had to fix it up and weld up a few holes in the roof and repaint it. that was going to be used for a workshop or big tool box while I was on a rented property, worked well. moved it into town and also moved the first one, then when I was about to build the workshop years later had them both moved again out of my way.
I sold them both for about $3600 I worked out that I was out of pocket about $500 for a total of 10 years of container owning. Not bad hey. Had I not moved them so much I would have broken even or come out in front. But hey, cant complain about $500 as they were both very uselful..


so find a block of land and BUY a shipping container. a 40footer isnt as easy to pack, so buy 2 20 footers if you need lots of space. But as someone said earlier, sell as much of the crap that will date or you think might not last much longer. Like fridge TV pcs etc..




Peter,
iPad with IOS 7.0.3 using Tapatalk HD

[speewa158]

Cull , Cull , Cull , then Decrap you stuff . pack only the stuff that can never be replaced. When you return  ( if ) you will have a whole new as yet undiscovered view of whats really important to you . l have moved many times including 3 1/2 years living & working out of a 77 LX Torana . very few mod cone , not like we have today  . Go Enjoy 

[GROB]

Where doing the same come Janury , we have been doing the big sell off ,any thing not going with us will or has been sold and house rented out

[HEM19X]

Sell, sell, sell.... all that good stuff, TV's Whitegodds etc will be another 2 years old when you get back and worth bugger all... get the best price you can & lodge the funds in a Term Deposit - 3 months or so, then re-invest Principal & Interest each time it falls due. That way the deposit will grow quicker BUT if you do get stuck in Woop Woop and need to break it, you don't loose too much.

It's a bugger of a problem you have, wish I had it also.. enjoy the trip.

[Wazza2]

At 24 weeks away and only days or hours from returning home, here's how I feel- sell the lot!

We're keen to get back to our pets (2 dogs), established friends and the house we call home that has some nice features. The only furnishing I look forward to is the couch on the back deck. Everything else is nice but if we had sold it I wouldn't care. We'd just take the time to re-establish the fittings in the home when we got back. Can't imagine worrying about how it was all keeping if we were on the road for a few years.

Thankfully we had live-in pet sitters this time so everything has been used and looked after while we were away. Maybe not possible when we do a longer adventure :-)

Our trip has been shorter than your planned one but even so, I reckon you'll come back with different ideas of what you want. No sense worrying about old "stuff" while you are away.

Hope you manage to share some posts on myswag about your travels. No doubt it will be a great adventure

[lilstookie]

Sell it all!! We have a few things stored at mum's, but everything else went. It's only stuff and is easily replaced IF you decide you even need it. Something about long term travel changes your perspective

Lil

[Brumbypt]

Joiin your local facebook buy sell group and you will sell everything you need to and wont pay a cent in fees. and to locals.

some items on my group sell and are are taken within 15 minutes of posting them.




Peter,
iPad with IOS 7.0.3 using Tapatalk HD

[Exile Bean]

Hi Guys,

Thank you all for your replies and advice, you have certainly given me some food for thought. I am currently in the mists of “decrapping” and anything still boxed from when we moved 4 years ago will certainly go. I’ve mainly been using Gumtree however I hadn’t thought of FB, I’ll have to see if there a local selling page for my area. Although tempted to sell it all, I’m a bit of a realist and want to keep some furnishing incase were not in the situation to but everything again or something happens. I also have previously sold almost everything once before and we moved over here 6 years ago and there are some items we’ve said in hindsight we wouldn’t of sold. But I have taken note for the shouts for culling and selling, so armed with my trusty camera I will be trying to sell basically sell everything but keep essential basic furnishing such as one bed, a sofa etc. All we need to set up again quickly if need be.

I like the idea of storing the items in one room of the house, however we really need to get the top rent to cover the mortgage and doubt we’d get it if we rented it with one less room. I still like the storage container, however again still unsure of keeping it on someone else’s land, especially don’t want to be in the middle of woop woop to be told their selling and we have to find somewhere new to put it and we have no family over here so that’s not an option either. But I do like that we could sell if off when finished and have some cash back for it. So I am now looking at the option of using someone like Port Container Services, who will store container too.  I’ve requested a quote and we post what I get back as it maybe useful so others. The shed is still a possibility (the size where looking at doesn’t need any council approval) however liking PCS option, if it’s as good as it looks on the website.  Once I get more info I post it to this tread, as they are Australia wide apparently.

Thanks again guys for sharing your wisdom. 
 

[Exile Bean]

get the best price you can & lodge the funds in a Term Deposit - 3 months or so, then re-invest Principal & Interest each time it falls due. That way the deposit will grow quicker BUT if you do get stuck in Woop Woop and need to break it, you don't loose too much.

It's a bugger of a problem you have, wish I had it also.. enjoy the trip.

Excellent idea and one I should have thought of... I am planning on having an emergency fund, which I was just going to keep in our mortgage offset account. However I’m going to fix the mortgage for the time when we are away (so not worried about rent covering mortgage with any rate rises) and so the offset account won’t help the mortgage interest anymore anyway. So for course a short term deposit would be excellent way to keep it separate from the travel funds and watch it grow. Awesome idea...I shall have to start looking into that. Thanks!!
 
LOL yes a real bugger of a problem… 

[Exile Bean]

Hope you manage to share some posts on myswag about your travels. No doubt it will be a great adventure

I'm sure I will, kinda feel like I'm going to be like a new mum posting all the time but they'll will be of the CT in various positions instead 

[HerGU]

We sold 99% of our stuff keeping only 2 items of furniture that we foolishly bought 1 yr before our trip along with keep sake photo's etc, Oh and a 4wd comp car. We bought a 20ft container and put a shelf in it over the bonnet of the car. All the remaining household items and tools from the shed we kept went into about 30 x 54L plastic tubs with lids on the welded shelf. The container then went to Perth and is being stored for $66 per month in a storage yard. We left in Feb 2013 and plan to be travelling for 2 yrs before planning to re settle and start again. We sold all electrical items as it Wont be any good when we return. Gave all clothes to friends or vinnies, used the sheets and towels to pack all the photos etc. Kept only the really expensive 2 kitchen pans we owned and sold everything else. It doesn't cost much to buy a new dinner set there days when you return. We plan to buy property So the container Will become the shed.

[chester ver2.0]

mate gut it and throw everything but the personal stuff out. My gear has been in storage in melb for 3.5 years now and i have just requested an itemised list as i am going to go over there and we have already identified more than half the stuff can be thrown away.

Will you wear your same clothes in 3 years probably not
Will your tv even work after 3 years maybe

Like a said get real cut throat with it all and try and get it down to a half container as the storage rent on a full container is more than double