Last Tuesday I featured my garage shelves showing you before and after shots. The empty containers have since been delivered to the thrift store and hopeful I will find they have been sold by the time I go back there this week. I am sure though that many of you were thinking that for someone who writes a blog about decluttering there seems to be a lot of stuff stored on those shelves. And you would be right. Below is a rundown on what it all is and below that I will write what I would like/will be doing with it all. The Christmas decorations, including the nativity scene and the tree are … [Read more...]
Consider it a donation and let it go!
In quick response to last Monday's Mini Missions I received this comment from Annabelle explaining how she had mastered the weeks challenge in one day. Her quick decision to donate the seven things that she had chosen to charity then and there reminded me of something that happened on the Sunday before. A friend of mine has been decluttering her house for a while and I have offered to show her how to go about using ebay and giving her suggestion on how she can get rid of some things. Her husband and mine work together and they have both used the online notice board at their work place to sell … [Read more...]
Choosing the right home for your stuff
The intention for this post is to help you choose the best way to dispose of the objects you are decluttering. Some objects will be just trash but for others you will be endeavouring to find new homes either by donating to a charity, giving them to someone else or selling them. There are often emotions involved when it comes to clutter. Finding the right home for your things can make the decision to let go a lot easier. For example it feels easier to let go if you... Know that the procedes of donating your items to charity will help someone in need. Get a little money back by selling … [Read more...]
The basic system I follow in preparation for listing on eBay
A Quick Message Before we get started I just wanted to mention that one of my readers emailed recently saying she was having problems leaving comments. She wrote... ...I have no difficulty getting your current post but when I go to the comments my system freezes. Just went back to try one of the postings in the archives and the same thing happened... If anyone else is having difficulties please let me know and I will get my tech guy on to it. I would hate to think that my readers have something great to share but can't get through. Please contact me through my contact page if you are … [Read more...]
My stumbling block
Sixteen months into my declutter mission and thirteen months blogging about it and I still have the odd stumbling block when it comes to decluttering. It isn't staying away from shopping I mastered that discipline very quickly but then again I was always a bit thrifty. It isn't obligation clutter because I feel no compulsion to keep things just because someone else thinks I should. It isn't bringing stuff back into the house that I had already decluttered to its departure point. I don't think in all this time that I have ever done that. It isn't I might need it some day clutter. … [Read more...]
To Sell or Not to Sell
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom Back on November 13, 2010, Eve commented on Colleen’s post about selling your decluttered goods. She said: I do have an opinion on this, which is — just give it away. I picked up this attitude when I used to read the American decluttering/cleaning website called Flylady. She advised we just give our stuff to the Goodwill or other charity instead of burdening ourselves with starting a new project/hobby/part-time career of trying to earn back some money on the items we no longer want. . . It’s hard to face the fact that I may have wasted money on these items, but … [Read more...]
Reduce Reuse Recycle
One of my golden rules for decluttering is... Don't waste it just because you don't want it. There is no doubt that during the course of decluttering your home you are going to have to deal with what to do with all the items you are getting rid of. We have spoken quite a lot over the last thirteen months on how to go about rehousing items but it never hurts to refresh our minds of these details. On my page Give away-Throw away - Sell - Use up, I list what became of all the 365 items I decluttered from my home during 2010. I will use the info from that page here to explain what was … [Read more...]
Day 345 eBay revisited
I have written several posts about eBay before... Day 134 My eBay preparations Day 155 A selling milestone Day 127 Snow gear eBay sale ...including posts about packaging up items for shipping... Day 138 Packaging up your eBay sales Day 160 My thrifty packaging ...I also keep a tally of how many items I have sold on eBay and how much money that has returned to us through these sales on my Give Away – Throw Away – Sell – Use Up page. Recently I wrote a post about my eBayers Block and how I had a bunch of things that I wanted to sell but just couldn't force myself … [Read more...]
Day 322 The garage – Before and after
I am satisfied with the fact that our garage is a work in progress. Certainly the step by step strategy is being employed in this area of our house more so than anywhere else. Sometimes it may be one step forward, two steps back because it is the holding area for many things... Items awaiting their trip to the thrift store. Ebay auctions items that we haven't dealt with yet. Things that belong to the children that will move on when they do. Things that we are not real sure we want to get rid of or not. And I dare say there are more than a few things that we just haven't … [Read more...]
Day 317 Ebayers Block
I seem to be suffering from ebayers block at the moment. I know what the cause is and I was hoping if I share it with you maybe you would have some good advice for me on how to overcome it. Here are a list of my symptoms... Lack of enthusiasm for writing descriptions and uploading photos. Not being sure what starting price to set. Fear of not realising a good price for the items that are going up for auction. Taking into account the original price paid and the lack of use some items received. Fear that the items won't sell and I will have wasted the money on insertion fees. Not … [Read more...]