When a couple divorces, the personal property must be divided. That includes households goods and furnishings, and general “stuff” in the home. While the division of items can often be a contentious subject, family court judges discourage spouses from devoting too much time and emotion (and expense) to it.
In many cases, the spouses divide the personal property when they establish separate households. But in other cases, a spouse who has departed from the marital home may have living arrangements that are temporary, or lack sufficient space to accommodate half of the couple’s belongings. If one spouse has all (or nearly all) the personal property, there are several common resolutions, other than renting storage space. The spouses may agree to an itemized division, memorialized in writing, to be implemented on a certain date, or within a certain time period. It may be agreed that one spouse is keeping all, or nearly all, the property items (because the other spouse doesn’t really want a lot of “stuff” anyway), the parties agree on a reasonable value for the items, and that value is accounted for in the overall division of assets and liabilities. In some cases, a mediator or arbitrator is appointed to oversee the parties taking turns choosing items, one by one. A garage sale, and division of proceeds, is a common idea that is not commonly implemented. (The property items usually have more value to one or both spouses than they do to any third-party willing-buyers.)
If the spouses must incur legal fees in a dispute about personal property, there may be a danger of spending more in legal fees than one would spend in replacing the disputed property items.
There are family court anecdotes about judges unhappy with couples bickering over the stuff — such as ordering one party to divide the items into two groups and allowing the OTHER party to choose one of the groups of items. Or threatening to toss a disputed item out a fourth story window if the parties do not quickly resolve the dispute on their own. In the end, it is better if the division of personal property is resolved without the need for the family court to make a ruling.
After a spouse moves out, how long do they have to come and claim their personal belongings before it is considered abandonment of the property?