In preparation for our move, we have started selling off our furniture. This finally allows me to estimate how much we have actually paid for the use of our furniture. Furniture follows a depreciation schedule, so what we essentially do is to subtract the price we received from the price we paid and then divide by the number of years we have had the furniture.

You can develop more fancy scheme such as accounting for inflation and dividing by “miles”-of-use rather than “time”-of-use, but we are really talking coffee-money here, so I won’t bother.

Four years ago we paid $150 for a used king size bed with a head board from an older couple that had had the bed for a year and was moving into something smaller. We later sold off the head board for $75 and yesterday we sold the rest for $50. Total cost for this bed: (150-125)/4=$6.25/year

We also sold our TV-stand. Four years ago, it cost $35 at a garage sale. It sold for $20 yesterday. Given the speed and enthusiasm by which it was picked up, I should probably have asked for more. Total cost for some place to put our TV: (35-20)/4 = $3.75/year. Now our TV is sitting on a table until we move.

Dining table with 6 chairs: Held it for 2.5 years. Bought it for $75. Broke one chair (don’t ask). Sold the rest for $70. Total cost: (75-70)/2.5 = $2/year.

I wonder how those afflicted with chronic redecorationitis are doing 😛

Of course there were some lesser successes (total failures?).

Desk with hutch. Bought for $40. Gave the hutch to Salvation army since we never used it. Then split the top board (don’t ask!) over a few inches. After continuous attempts to sell it for $5-10, we finally gave it away on craigslist. Total cost: (40-0)/4=$10/year.

We also bought a leather love seat for $300 about 3 years ago. This cost will be practically impossible to recover. Remind me not to get into the trap of buying new furniture again(*). Total cost: ?

We have some (crappy) Target/Walmart-ish laminate book shelves that will also be hard to sell. Most likely these will have to be given away.

(*) After much prodding from DW we just ordered a *NEW* mattress for the RV from bedinabox.com. Win some. Lose some. My excuse is that mattresses are somewhat consumable as they get less functional the older they get. For the record, the RV did come with a mattress.

We have an easy chair and a very nice desk that I got for free on craigslist. The chair probably has to go for free, but I think I can score a profit on the desk. It certainly looks like something one would pay a couple of hundreds for new.

Of course the hits we are going to take are far less than the ad, I saw on craigslist yesterday. Some guy was having a moving sale where the furniture for EACH room cost around $2500 after it had effectively been reduced by 30-50% Wow! That guy is losing thousands and will be postponing his retirement by a few years.