Hi, I’m Veronica Yeung, a lawyer with Feldstein Family Law Group.

The end of a marriage is hard. Having to divide up personal belongings with someone you shared your life with does not make the breakup any easier.

Here are some simple tips to make the divvying up experience as quick and painless as possible.

When dividing your household items, you are only expected to divide what is considered “marital property,” meaning that anything that you owned before you got married is not included. You and your spouse need to focus on splitting up the household contents that you bought and kept during the marriage.

At this point it may be necessary to have some of your property appraised, but keep in mind, the value is not what it would cost to replace it, but rather what someone would pay for that item in its current condition.

The worst thing you can do in this situation is dig in your heels and fight for every little thing. The time and money spent fighting over household goods and contents (i.e. dishes, furniture, and the family television system) will likely be worth more than the thing being fought over. Therefore if you can navigate this part of the separation without your lawyer, it is wise to do so.

One tactic that may make this easier is having one spouse create two lists that divides all household contents into two different columns. Then, the other spouse may pick which column-list they would like to claim as theirs. It is a simple and efficient way of keeping things fair.

Thanks for watching – for more information or to schedule a consultation with one of our lawyers, please contact us online or call 905-581-7222.