I was on my way to the thrift store with yet another load of donations yesterday and I was naturally thinking about the amount of stuff that has left my home over the last three years. I have lost count of the number of times I have loaded up my car with the same crates full of odds and ends and driven across town to the Lifeline shop on Hubbard Street.
During the drive I got to wondering what it will be like the next time we pack up our household to move to a new location. Due to the nature of our removal contract we have to do a complete inventory of our belongings for insurance reasons should anything go missing or get damaged during the move. Everything on this inventory is allotted an estimated value. I am looking forward to seeing if the overall value of our belongings has dropped considerably since the last time me packed up. I am also looking forward to the cubic metre estimation for the shipping container.
All this lead to another thought:-Â wouldn’t it be nice if the value of our belongs has dropped so much that we will be able to reduce the value of our home contents insurance. That will be a saving that I will be more than happy accept. There are so many unexpected advantages to reducing ones belongings that I don’t understand why more people don’t jump on board with this lifestyle.
Well the lady at the thrift store was thankful for my donations and I made it known to her that I was just as thankful that she was taking then off my hands. That will not be the last she sees of me.
ITEM 198 OF 365 LESS THINGS
Here are some books that took a ride with me to the thrift store yesterday
Awesome thoughts Colleen. I wouldn’t be surprised if your decluttering doesn’t reduce the value of your homeowner’s insurance. Let us know! ♥
Hi Betty Jo,
I hope you are correct. It would be better to find out now and reap the benefits but if there is one thing I hate about moving it is having to draw up that inventory. I would rather be over-paying on my insurance for a couple of years.
Good points. Since I am not PLANNING to move anytime in the near future it may be a while before I have some of these advantages. But I do know that if a move comes about due to the passing mf my mother I will be leaving with a whole lot less than we came with. It is my intent in that event to move to a studio apartment where I can live with only the necessities. It doesn’t take much to keep me.
hi Deb J,
a studio apartment sounds great, that is also the type of dwelling my husband and I look forward to enjoying once the kids have left home. Even though we only have our son here I think our grocery bill alone will be halved once he leaves. If the apartment complex has a swimming pool and gym that would be even better.
I’ve read On the Road and figure the library can keep it. Jared Diamond’s book–my son might have liked it as he is an anthropologist 🙂
I like the idea of lowering the cost of home owner’s insurance! I’ll have to look in to it. And yes, I agree, I don’t see why everyone doesn’t do this! It’s really just common sense!
Hi Willow,
these were ll my husbands books and I don’t think he thought much of On the Road either.
whaaat? I can’t believe you let On the Road go! If I had to reduce my personal library to ten books, Kerouac would be the first to stay.
To each his own?
Hi Albert,
it is interesting to see what spurs people on to make comments on blogs, obviously you enjoyed this book. This book was the subject of a speech made at my daughters high school graduation, I think that is why my husband decided to read it. Sorry Albert but he wasn’t impressed, different strokes for different folks I suppose. It was nice of you to drop by though and I hope you will comment more in the future. I like to know what people are passionate about.
Great books!! How could you?!!! lol
Hi Ellis,
Welcome to my blog, join us anytime in comment we love the input. There are so many other things in life to explore so we don’t have time to read the same book twice which begs the question why does my husband insist on buying them if we could just borrow them from the library. I’ll have to talk to him about that.
Funny that the topic of home content insurance should come up. My homeowner’s insurance came due last week. Since I had gotten rid of a bunch of things, I called my insurance agent to find out if I could lower the amount of insurance for the contents and thus save some money. Apparently the insurance company allocates a percentage of the entire coverage to the contents no matter what they’re worth, unless one would have special items like jewelry or some other valuables that are specifically listed separately. Now, if one only has renter’s insurance and not homeowner’s insurance, that is a different matter altogether. In that case the insurance coverage could be reduced for the contents.
Hi Di,
that is what I am bargaining on but without doing an inventory I have no idea of the contents value so it will have to wait until when I am forced to do an inventory the next time we more.
a potential solution for books is http://www.bookmooch.com. You list your books, people request them, and you pay the postage to send them off. You receive books in return (they pay the shipping) or you can donate your credits to a local school or library. Another way to keep reusing those books!
Hi CindyK,
thank you for that tip I am sure my readers will find that useful.
Anybody who owns as well as drives a vehicle is aware that they must have auto insurance to lawfully be on the
roads, but the tariff of annual policies will be substantial, this means you will really damage the family funds the way
the economy is. Nonetheless you might should just borrow their own car since
yours influences repair shop and also you do not want to pay for the cost of
a rental. If after a couple of hours or days, the purchase seems
necessary, then go ahead, but if after the cool down period has lost
its luster, go ahead and take the amount you would have spent and
put it in the savings account.