Hire a skip bin, be ruthless and toss everything that can be easily be replaced.
Enjoy the adventure!

Get yourself decent tenants, with references you can check. 

Arrange post office to hold mail, or a trusted person to collect and re-address. 

As another advised, de-clutter as much as possible.  Have a massive garage sale before you sent stuff to charity, the money is better in your pocket.

Sell on ebay, gumtree, or find an auctioneer who could sell it (they charge a commission).

Have an awesome holiday.

 

You haven't said how long you intend to be away and whether it will be a one off or you intend to make this a regular thing.

If its a one off and youre only going for, say 6 months or so, then use this as the time to get rid of all the things you no longer use (like spare beds. large furniture and kitchenware and all the garbage that's collected in the garden shed/garage. Keep what you will actually need and use when you get back and put into storage. Plus the sentimental things that you want to keep but cant take on your travels. VERY IMPORTANTLY, check the insurance cover on the storage facility (if youre paying for one). Friends of ours have their household goods stored in a national storage outfit. About 6 weeks ago, a Tradie using an angle grinder else where set fire to someone elses goods. It set off the fire sprinklers and the contents of the whole row of storage units got water and smoke damaged. Although the storage company had insurance, our friends had major problems with the insurance assessor and had to fight for everything - justifying the cost of each item (difficult if you don't have a tax invoice for every item).

It is often better to get your own Insurer to cover the goods for an agreed (one you set) amount. If you confirm the Storage company does also provide similar insurance, what you pay as a premium to your own Insurer will be low and you wont have the same punch-up our friends had

Hello there Allirah - welcome to a great site - I am not in your situation as I am a solo traveller (hubby won't travel) so I will always have a base but just wanted to offer a little suggestion on the back of Bruce's comments about insurance - you could take photos of what you intend to store and then if the worst should happen, you will at least have some proof of condition etc. of the items. Anyway hope you enjoy this great country - Nelly

We did this last year. We got rid of the lot. Most everything we had was over 7years old. If you say travel for 2 years n pay storage for that time it would be thousands of dollars. I figure the money we saved on storage will pay for our things if we ever want to tie ourselves down to a house again. We went one room at a time , then one cupboard in that room at a time. There is on facebook a Site called garage sales and put in your suburb , join and sell stuff for free. You would b amazed what people buy. I was over material possessions. Much, much happier. All we own is caravan n car. Aahhh. What a feeling. Good luck. Rocket n strop

-- Edited by the rocket on Sunday 4th of October 2015 03:39:58 PM

Hi we have just recently downgraded from a 5 bedroom large home into a lifestyle village and had to off load heaps of accumulated stuff .Took a lot to the Salvos and sold lots on the local Facebook buy and sell ,took some doing though ad you need to be home most of the time for this ,we put 7 thousand dollars in the bank thank you very much ! As far as storing you may need to work out how long for ? Maybe cheaper to buy new later on ,having said that you may have certain bits and pieces that you will need to store and keep and that's understandable .can you sweet talk a family member into the use of a small place in the shed?

Thanks for all of your replies!

We think we want to be on the road for a couple of years at least. Having said that, I guess we might hate it ... but I kind of doubt it!

We have a garage that we can use (generous single car size, lockable) and also a couple of lawn lockers .... free. So tools and mowers etc will be locked up and some of the more 'key' furniture items. I don't really care either way but my partner would rather have them accessible at short notice when we eventually settle down again.

Tennants and the risks - I hear you! Last lot I had here burnt the bloody house down - we live in the rebuild. It's taken a lot of time to work up the courage to consider renting it out again!

I've packed up a half dozen plastic tubs of my photo albums and most precious memories ... all the little mementoes from the kids etc. I'll seal those up and store them and hope for the best and yes - I think for the rest of it, I'll mostly follow all of your wonderful advice above

and

GET RID OF AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE!

Gooday,
Have moved many times including living full time in caravan for 1½ years.

1 The best piece of information I can give you is use Boxes that are not too big, Books are heavy, get empty wine bottle cartons from a bottle shop, plenty of them available.

2. Go to a Woolworths or Coles and collect, or as I did ask them to hold any fruit cartons, used to go once a day to collect them or they got compacted, the ones that have a LID that slips over the top, usually from Citrus, Tomatoes, or Bananas. A local Fruit shop may also hold them for you.

3 Get an exercise book, or similar, and write down Numbers from 1 upwards, 2-3 numbers per page, but only write the numbers on the pages as you need them, leaving several lines between each number. Some times you only need 1 0r 2 numbers to a page.

4 NUMBER EACH BOX on all 5 surfaces, top, both ends and sides with a black felt pen, decent size numbers. when you store them you are able to identify the box you are looking for.

5 Now, as you begin to fill each box, write the contents going into each box under the relevant box number you are packing, on your inventory, it does not take all that much extra time, but is essential. EG Cutlery Drawer, Kitchen Utensils, Laundry Cupboard, Linen Cupboard, 3rd Shelf and so on. You will be mixing things as you go depending on article, size and fragility, shape etc .That is why you need at least 2-3 boxes on the go at once, as you place items in that box write its content, or a note of what cupboard or place it came from.

Only use Removal boxes for bulky or light fragile things, such as Lamps etc, these boxes are too heavy to move any time, and too heavy to stack, they will also collapse if stacked, as wlll other boxes over time, but not much of a problem with the size of boxes I have suggested.

6 Use your linen and clothes as packing material for crockery, glassware and other fragile Items as you go, also to fill a void where you have a larger item that needs to be protected,such as a a big bowl or vase, speaker or electronics etc.

This may sound arduous but it takes only a little extra time and is so important when you go to get something out which WILL HAPPEN. Numbering boxes on all surfaces except the bottom, means you do not have to be careful to have the 1 side numbered facing out, this does not happen when you have someone helping which is likely to occur.

Also so much time is saved by not having to tape the lids down and so easy to just look at your inventory for, say, box NO 26, and then when you find it just lift the top off.

7 Wherever you store them, place them on 3"x2" or such, pieces of timber, (offcuts are fine), so they are not sitting flat on the floor if water does seep in to the storage place.

Good idea to copy the pages of your inventory and leave in a safe place, I helped moved my Sister a few years ago, had 196 Boxes in rows in the one half of the double garage of the house she moved to. She went looking for something in a box a few weeks later, put the inventory on the boot of the car, got the thing out, put the box back all good.

Later that day went to the shop. Inventory obviously was still on the boot lid and never to be seen again despite hours of searching.

As others have said, be fairly Brutal and have a decent Garage Sale, I have done many of them and can give you some good information to make that a success if you are interested. I would NOT store Fridge, Washing Machine, etc as they will deteriorate if not in use, faster than being used.

Also place plenty of Rat-Sak or similar around and have it checked regularly by somebody reliable. Also get some baits for ants etc, best got from an Asian Food store if you can.

Can guarantee this works, have moved some 17 times in 40 odd years the last time just under 3 years ago and have used this system for ourselves and other friends many times with great success, and saves many tears unless you lose the inventory.

Cheers,
Bliss on Wheels