In our years of experience we have learned that just because something comes to you without a price tag, doesn’t mean it comes without a price.
Take, for example, a scenario we come across frequently when we are helping adult children clear out their family home.
A son and his wife living in New York City hired Managing Moves & More to help clear out his mother’s home. The home was full of furniture, art and sentimental items, in addition to the usual useful and perfectly good things you find in a home. The entire home had to be emptied in order to prepare the home for sale.
The son came out for a few days to identify what he wanted to keep, and his wife had one week to spend in California to complete the job.
When everything in the home had been sorted through were fifteen boxes of photos, to be shipped back to the couples New York City apartment.
At this point the client came across a firesafe. The couple had always wanted a safe so they started to discuss plans to send it back to New York City.
This is where Managing Moves & More experience with years of helping people downsize helped the couple realize just how costly this “free” safe was going to be.
The safe in their mothers home was 15 years old, 2.5 cubic feet, and weighed approximately 150 pounds. A new safe would cost about $150 to $250.
Cost of a nationwide mover – interstate move cost is based on weight and distance – adding this safe to the load of moving items would add at least $100 to cost of overall shipment home
Cost of taking up space in your home – all 15 boxes plus the safe would be shipped to and piled up in the couples small New York City apartment
Cost of straining your back – already had a strained back. Moving a 150 pound safe and 15 boxes might do more harm
Cost of moving the safe twice or more – The couple will be moving from NYC in a few months and the safe would have to move again incurring more moving charges
Cost of acquiring something that isn’t what you really want – you realize the item doesn’t suit your needs and now you need to go through the process of getting rid of it.
In this situation the couple decided to leave the safe in California.
Can you think of an item like this in your life? In the end there may be less cost associated with letting the free item go.