Firstly, congrats on your position, that sounds like a great adventure. We just left calgary for the US and did something similar (ie. left in a hurry). Was a bit disconcerting selling off all of our possessions, particularly when we didn't actually own anything (ie. no house, no cars etc). It took a surprisingly short time to do it all and start from scratch. (well, kind of scratch-- we did have relocation assistance so a lot of things were moved, but a lot of big things we disposed of). As far as empirical tools which works for us, it goes like this:
- Cars advertised on CP, kijiji, autotrader and at mechanics shop. Ended up selling one car to a friend at our kid's daycare, and one from the sign at the mechanics place. (We did have other people interested from the autotrader add and kijiji eventually, but the cars were gone already and I had forgotten to remove the notices).
- House through a realtor. Paid ~500 for staging which was money very well spent, I can ask my wife for contact info for both realtor and stager if you're interested. tons of interest, and sold at more than what we paid 3 years ago.
- We weren't too stressed about $$ so ended up donating most of furniture and household items we didn't want. Some went to my grad students, some to Women in Need, and some to the Drop-inn center. Was a lot easier than trying to sell for sure, although it sounds like you might have a lot more to get rid of which would be a significant investment.
Let me know if you have any questions on specifics as this is really just the basics. Good luck!
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