5 Things To Consider Selling When You Move In With Someone
Written by
Andrew Lisa
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Amber Barkley
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Moving in with a romantic partner, roommate or family member can be an exciting beginning to a new chapter in life — but it’s not without its challenges.
Among the biggest obstacles is cramming two lives’ worth of stuff into one shared space. The key to success is not to cram at all. It’s all about ditching the duplicates by selling what you don’t need so you can bring extra money into the new living arrangement instead of extra stuff.
As an expert on the nomadic lifestyle and an adherent to the minimalist philosophy, travel expert and Pantheon Tickets founder Matteo Valentini knows the importance of picking and choosing with a discerning eye.
“Travel teaches us the value of essentials,” he said. “When moving in together, it’s crucial to evaluate items for their practicality and emotional value. I advise selling duplicate items and those that don’t contribute to shared goals or lifestyle. This not only declutters space but also helps in building a shared vision for the future.”
And if you sell the right things the right way, it can also get your new arrangement off to a healthy financial start.
Artwork That Suits Only One Partner’s Style
If the merger is romantic, one of the best ways to start strong is to sell what registered psychologist Rod Mitchell of Therapy Calgary Emotions Clinic calls “solo identity items.”
“When couples move in together, it’s crucial to consider selling or donating items that strongly represent their solo identities, especially those that don’t align with their shared vision as a couple,” he said. “It’s a symbolic gesture of making space for a new, shared life.”
According to Mitchell, one of the easiest and potentially most lucrative objects to offload is artwork that represents only one partner’s taste.
Big-Ticket Appliances
Unlike artwork, appliances don’t typically have emotional value — and if you both have a washer, dryer or refrigerator, there’s virtually no argument for hoarding duplicates, no matter how often you eat or do laundry.
Appliance flippers maintain side hustles — or even earn a living — by purchasing old appliances and selling them for a profit. To get top dollar, the pros recommend thoroughly cleaning them, replacing inexpensive but essential parts like filters, taking high-quality videos and pictures, building free shipping into your asking price and listing them for sale or auction on sites like eBay.
Duplicate Furniture
According to Sharetown, full-time furniture flippers earn between $1,500 to $2,000 per piece for after-expenses profits of $3,000-$4,000 per month.
You shouldn’t necessarily expect that kind of haul, but since you probably need money to start your new life more than you need two couches, breakfronts or chaise lounges, it’s worth taking the time and effort to get as much as you can for duplicate furniture.
Follow resale best practices like taking high-quality, filter-free photos, including accurate dimensions and descriptions, being honest about defects, and cleaning and improving the piece as much as possible. You can list furniture on familiar platforms like eBay, Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, or you can try professional services like AptDeco, which takes a fee for enhancing your listing, managing the transaction and handling pickup and delivery.
A Car You Won’t Need Once the Move Is Complete
If you each have a car, but you can get by with just one after the move, now might be the perfect time to sell the extra set of wheels. According to Kelley Blue Book (KBB), the average used car sold for $26,533 in October, which represents a 0.6% drop from September and 3% less than last October. Prices in the used market are falling despite painfully tight inventory, but they’re still high compared to 2021 — but it might not stay that way for long.
On Nov. 17, KBB wrote, “Prices may even fall further in the near future,” which means you can still probably command an inflated price for your soon-to-be-unused used car — but you should act fast to avoid leaving money on the table.
A TV Worth Selling
You’ll have to decide on consumer electronics on a case-by-case basis. For example, most people have their own smartphone and laptop, no matter who they live with.
But you probably don’t need an extra TV.
Even so, they’re not always worth selling. According to CNET, new TVs have become so affordable in recent years that used ones don’t always fetch a lot of money on the secondhand market. Budget or mid-range LCDs, plasma TVs, early smart TVs and anything more than 10 years old likely won’t be worth your while.
But if you have a high-end TV from the last five years, an OLED TV or anything larger than 65 inches, you can probably count on cashing in.
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