Hi Rose,

I went through this last year when I had to give up my 3 bedroom apartment that I'd lived in for 13 years and move into transitional housing. I had to get rid of most of my stuff and only keep what would fit into a small one bedroom apartment, which will likely be my next stop, plus I wanted to keep storage costs down.

What I found - in Toronto, no charities pick up for free, so donating would have meant paying to have it hauled away and I had a lot of heavy antique good quality furniture. So my goal became getting rid of the maximum amount of stuff without it costing me too much to get rid of it.

I contacted several antique dealers, estate sale agents, and none of them were interested in my stuff, apparently the market had really dropped out for the type of furniture I had.

I had about 800 books to get rid of, and I couldn't find any buyers interested in them, so I posted an ad on Kijiji (similar to Craig's list, but more popular in Canada) saying 800 books - primarily fiction free to anyone who will pick them up.

I did sell some stuff on kijiji - musical instruments, and electronics. It was relatively easy, but it can take time.

I got rid of a lot of stuff using Freecycle.com Freecycle is an online site that has local sites for most cities. You join the site for your area, and then you can post Offer or wanted adds. The catch is it has to be free. I finally got rid of all my unwanted furniture, some more books, and a slew of kitchen equipment and some of my china/crystal that I decided I didn't want to keep, through Freecycle. People who are interested in your stuff, e-mail you and you decide who gets it. They have to arrange pick up with you at a time which is convenient for you.

I also had some art I didn't want, that I wound up auctioning off, through an art dealer, and I made good money on it.

The final stuff I wanted to get rid of, small appliances, clothes, shoes that were still in good condition, linnens, etc. I donated to Goodwill. I enlisted a friend with a truck and we took 2 truckloads to Goodwill.

Good luck with it. Downsizing is a major pain.

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