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 definitely on the list of items that may not be around for much longer. I will consult the family on that one once again and make a decision possibly before Christmas comes around this year.

The Snoopy collection is on the short list of things that are going very soon as is the Coca Cola collection. I might give them one more chance on ebay and if that is unsuccessful they will be going on Freecycle or to the thrift store. The box of possible eBay sale items will also be listed soon and if not sold they also will go to the thrift store. And when that exercise is complete the rest of the eBay packaging items will go in the recycling.

My son’s skateboard collection is near and dear to him so it will stay.

Of course my husband’s work items will be staying. I look forward to his early retirement so we can finally get rid of them.

My daughter’s “moving out” homewares ~ I am sure that I have mentioned several time on my blog about how I  would like to see the back of those. I have learned my lesson about planning too far ahead with that exercise. If she ever does really move out (not just to Grandma’s) I will personally deliver them to her. She will be every bit as happy with the situation as I will be.

That box of picture frames were bargains I couldn’t resist when working at a craft store in America. Now I am reluctant to get rid of them because my son is doing a fine arts degree and they might come in useful (ever heard that one before). The jury is still out on this one.

There are a few other items there that aren’t on the possible declutter list such as the bike parts, the motorbike seat, the esky (cooler), the Husband’s motorcycle magazines. For now anyway! The baseball collection and the husband’s and son’s keepsakes may be subject to further culling.

The only definite stayers I can see are the empty suitcases and the toolbox.

Spare Storage Containers are forever emptying around here but my intention is to repack all my daughters stuff into ones that she can keep when she takes them away. This way they will all stack neatly together in the meantime while awaiting this happy event.

Once a few of the above items are gone I can start the next round of reshuffling. These shelves will probably never be empty but hopeful they will eventually house everything that lives in the garage and we will be clear in every other corner. That will make sweeping out and vehicle parking a whole lot easier. I will keep you posted on my progress.

Since I started writing this post all the items destined for ebay have been listed. Fingers crossed they sell but either way they are out of here.

Today’s Declutter Item

This is my mini mission declutter item for today. These items have been tucked into the corner of my linen closet and have been lingering in my home since some years before we left America (4 years ago). They held the last remnants of Christmas gift wrap that has been slowly dwindling over the years. I finally folded up the last little bit of paper and put it with the rest on the gift wrap supplies in a drawer in the spare bedroom. At last I have freed up the corner in the linen closet. Yay!

Empty Gift Wrap Box & Roll

Something I Am Grateful For Today

It’s 5pm, the house is spotless and I am sitting comfy on my sofa with a glass of wine at my right hand. It is just hubby and I for dinner this evening and for the rest of the week. (Our son is visiting with his sister interstate). The evening’s dappled light is shining through the windows next to me and the only sound is the keyboard tapping as I write this. Ahhh, what a great life. What’s not to be grateful for.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

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 several things. This friend has also given some things away to friends.

On Sunday she asked if I could come over to see what she had left and give her suggestions on what was sellable and what she should just give away. There was no doubt that some of the things she had were worth trying to sell but there was also many things that would just be a waste of time to try to sell on ebay. Like the general retail situation at the moment, I have found that ebay is also in a bit of a selling slump. People just aren’t buying unless you are just about giving the stuff away, and sometimes not even then.

My friend did not want to waste her time sitting at the local flea-market for six hours to try to sell her stuff.  She didn’t want strangers at her home so a garage sale was out of the question. And she wasn’t keen to do the ebay thing and would rather give me a commission to do it for her. But as I said I didn’t think ebay was the answer right now.

In the end I pointed out some things that I thought were worth trying to sell on the work notice board. As for the rest of the stuff, I asked her whether she had made any charitable donations this year. Her reply was “Yes, but not that much.”  but she also donates her time by doing a little volunteer work. I said to her “Well here is your chance to make a donation that won’t affect your bank account directly and/or you can consider it a free pass from volunteer work for a little while. Just give all this stuff to charity. It will be worth cold hard cash to the thrift store and you will be doing yourself a favour by getting it out of here quickly and painlessly.”. I even offered to have her bring it to my house and I would deliver it to the thrift shop myself.

It is ironic that we have no qualms about wasting our money on all this stuff we probably didn’t need in the first place but then when it comes to getting rid of it we suddenly want to redeem ourselves. I have done this myself as I am sure you all have. I can tell you one thing for sure though, I will be very careful that it doesn’t happen in the future. Be wise about what you buy then you won’t need to be wise about how to sell it when you don’t get your money’s worth out of it. If the item has surved you well but you don’t need it any more then call it even and donate to charity. Donating is a feel good effective way to get rid of your stuff.

Today’s Declutter Item

If I have used this declutter item photo before please someone let me know. I declutter in advance of my blog posts because life happens sometimes and it would become easy to get behind. I think I have gone to pot this item a couple of times but changed my mind. Anyway it is a book I read some time ago and then I loaned it to a friend. Against normal convention she actually brought it back to me but I really didn’t want it back. I have donated it to the thrift store. It was quite a good book by the way.

Read it don't need to keep it

Something I Am Grateful For Today

My little girl contacted us from Seattle to say she got their safe and sound. She is so happy to be “home”. I hope she enjoys her time there and doesn’t spend all her money before she get back and be calling us for a loan. 😉 That would be funny if it hadn’t happened before. Love you precious girl! ❤

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

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 your items.
• Know your items will be appreciated when giving them to family or friends who have admired them.
• Doing the right thing for the environment by finding a way to recycle items you thought were good for nothing.

Donating to charity is simple. In some places it is as simple as making a phone call and the charity will come to you to collect your items. In some cases you just amass the objects until you have a car load and then drop them off to a charity near you.  I won’t go into specific details as to what charity to use because that will be different depending where you are in the world. I am sure everyone is aware of a charity in their area that you can either drop off or phone for a pickup.

Be mindful of what you send to charity. They will not accept certain item because of safety and/or hygiene reasons. They may or may not accept mattresses or sofas that are stained. Some won’t accept mattresses at all. They usually will not accept underpants, for obvious reasons, unless they are new with tags on. Also, please make sure any items that you send to a charity are clean and in useable condition (working order). Soiled and broken items will be rejected and the charities end up having to pay huge fees to send loads of these uncharitable donations to landfill. If in doubt about what the charity will accept just phone them and ask.

Selling is a great way to eleviate the guilt of having spent money on an object that you didn’t get good value out of. It is also a good way to redeem a little cash to help pay off credit card debt that you probably shouldn’t have racked up in the first place.

I mostly sell on eBay but there are also other world wide sites like Craiglist. These are not the only options though. My husband’s work place has a on-line community board where employees can post For Sale ads, maybe you have such a resource. Australia has Trading Post and Gun Tree and others I am sure. Most places will have newspapers that also have on-line classified. My daughter once sold some old clothes using Facebook as her advertising medium. Just use your imagination or google something like “Selling Online” and see what comes up.

It is important however when advertising items to give a detailed description of exactly what the item is you are selling and what that includes. Just as important is to be honest about the condition the item is in. Just because something doesn’t work or isn’t complete doesn’t mean someone won’t want it. Parts can be just is valuable to people as the whole. If you think an item is worth selling why not give it a go.

Giving to family and friends is can be a very satisfying way to pass things on. Particularly things that you have held dear for some time. Perhaps things that have been handed down to you from other family members. If someone you know admires something you have decided to declutter they would be a good candidate to offer this item too. Always make certain that the person you offer it to only takes it if they truly want it. Make sure you explain that there is no obligation and you won’t be upset if they turn down your offer.

Giving to family and friends isn’t always about precious objects it can also be about useful objects. My father recently gave my brother his ride-on mower because my father no longer lives on a large property but my brother has a vacant block of land to mow.

Other ways to give stuff away.

• Freecycle is a great resource for giving things away. Especially those odd things that aren’t suitable for charity or for selling.
• Putting stuff out on the footpath with a free sign on it has also worked well for me in the past.
• One of our readers occasionally leaves a box in the foyer of their apartment building with free items in. You could possibly do this at your place of work or at a community group that you visit like a children’s playgroup.
• When I lived in the US there was a homeless man that was often begging at my freeway exit who I used to give things to every now and again. One day I even brought him a hot meal, he was very happy about that.
• Rachel, one of our readers is having a give away morning on the 20th of August to reduce her stuff before moving into a smaller dwelling. Hows that for ingenuity.

The options are endless. Once again just use your imagination. Today I googled “Give stuff away” and came up with some sites I didn’t know about like ozrecycle.com, scoodi.com and altruists.org. I didn’t check to see how good they were but I did find those and many more.

Recycling is an important aspect to decluttering. Anything that can be recycled should be disposed of responsibly. There are several way I go about this….

1. I put any items, that are suitable, into my recycling bin. Your local government department in charge of the collection of these bins will most likely have a web site giving clear instruction as to what type of items are suitable to go in them.
2. Larger items that may have some potential for recycling get saved until our local council has a curbside pick-up day. This is where you put the bigger items that won’t go in the trash or recycling out on the street for pick-up. Old mattresses, furniture, televisions, building materials and many other items are suitable for this type of collection. Many of these items will have components for recycling. I find that, in my area, the piles of stuff awaiting pick-up are well picked over and deminished in volume by the time the actual collection day happens. What is collected is sorted into trash and recyclables and treated accordingly.
3. There are often designated drop off areas or special drop of days for the recycling of certain items. Batteries, paint, electrical goods, chemicals etc are often disposed of in this way. Once again you can utilise your search engine by typing something like “recycle batteries (name of your city)” and helpful information will likely pop up.
4. Once again Freecycle is also a good way to recycle or repurpose items that are no longer in working order. I have given away pieces of furniture  and electrical items on Freecycle. There are often folks out there who are happy to fix of use the parts for these items.

I hope this post has helped you find some ways to responsibly rehouse or recycle your unwanted items. You will have peace of mind knowing your once precious things are going to good homes. And I can not stress enough how important it is to do the right thing by the environment, by keeping perfectly good stuff out of landfill and by decreasing the demand for the production of new products.

Here is a link to a guide I am slowing adding to that gives you ideas and web sites that will help you find appropriate places to donate and recycle.

Today’s Declutter Item

Some more t-shirts off to the thrift store today when I go to do my volunteer work. 

My husbancs T-shirts

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I love how fast my donations leave the house now that I am volunteering at the thrift store where I drop them off. Last week I even dropped something off for my neighbour. I am grateful the the lovely people at the thrift store have made me feel so at home there already. I look forward to going each time. It is wonderful to see the stuff walking out the door to be reused by someone else.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

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 having similar difficulties.

Today’s Post

Today, while the procedure is fresh in my mind, I just wanted to share with you the steps I take when listing items on eBay. The whole process goes a lot more smoothly if you have a system to follow before you begin. I will also share any extra tips I can think of that will help with the process.

The System I Follow

1. I choose the items I intend to list, being realistic about whether it is worth the effort. I don’t see the point in listing anything under five dollars although I am trialling a 99c (fee free) starting price with one of the items I have recently listed. Personally I don’t feel it is worth the effort or the listing fee if you aren’t likely to make at least $5 on the deal. Even then I wouldn’t bother if I didn’t have numerous items to list at the same time.
2. Make sure the items are in good order and condition and that all the parts are pressent. Make any repairs or clean-ups required to get them up to selling condition. You don’t want to ruin your seller reputation by delivering poor quality items.
3. While you are carrying out the above step write down a description of each item. Size, colour, condition, items included, volage, capacity, materials constructed from etc etc. This all depends on the item/s involved of course. Tip: The more information you give the less emails you will receive asking for more details on the item.
4. With all this information in mind decide on a starting price and add that to the notes about each item. Tip: Check out the listing fee in relation to the starting price. A $20.00 starting price will cost you a fee of 75c while a $19.99 will only cost a fee of 50c. Needless to say the more profit you make the better so save where you can on fees.
5. Weight each item so as to make it easy to calculate the transport cost when listing the item. Measure the items if necessary to estimate the size of the overall package. Once again add this to your notes about each item so the information is all there when you begin the listing process. Tip: I try to use all recycled materials to post my items once again minimising my costs therefore increasing my profit margin.
6. Photograph each item. Some will require multiple photos while others will only require one good shot. Tip: Best to overdo it here than take too few pics as each picture will take some time to set up, some more than others. It is easier to eliminate shots than have to drag everything out and do it all over again.
7. Download your photos and do any editing required to make them the best they can be to sell you items. Tip: Don’t forget to minimise the kilobyte size of you photos as this will make them quicker to upload.
8. Sign in to eBay and get started listing.
9. Take your time and carefully work your way through the Create Your Listing template, being sure not to miss any details. You can save templates as you go along so listing similar items is simplified.
10. I always preview each listing before hitting the list button to make sure I have all the details correct. It is too late to realise you underestimated the postage cost once someone has placed a bid on an item although changes can be made if no bid has been placed.

From here on it is just a matter of waiting to see how the auction unfolds. I have to confess that I can’t help myself but check on how my auctions a doing several times a day once they are underway. It is a bit like gambling really except that you haven’t got much to loose except a small listing fee.

Next week when my current auctions are over I will run you through the checkout and posting process. Hopefully I will be able to brag to you about how well my auctions went. What doesn’t sell will be going to charity, either way I will be glad to have it all leave my house.

Today’s Declutter Item

These Christmas crackers have been lingering in my kitchen cupboards since before we returned to Australia if they haven’t been used yet then they are probably never going to be so off to the thrift store they go. Now if I can just figure out where the thrift store went I will take another load of donations there. 😕

Christmas Crackers (Bonbons)

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I was grateful to have the car today as I had some errands to run and that was much to accomplish with a convenient mode of transport. I just hope it doesn’t rain on my husband on his journey home from work on his motorbike. 

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

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. I think I knew from the get go that this is often what gets most people into this mess in the first place so I don’t play that game any more.
• In isn’t guilt clutter because I have certainly gotten rid of plenty of that.

And yet in a way it is guilt clutter. Not clutter I can’t make a decision on because guilt makes me feel I should keep it. Or like obligation clutter I would feel guilty getting rid of something someone gave me. Not even straight ~ I can’t get rid of this because I paid good money for it and I haven’t used it to it’s full potential. What it is is this..

I spent good money on this item and I would like to recoup some of that money by selling it. Sounds easy and it is, that’s the point. All I have to do is retrive the item from its hiding place take a few photos, write a blurb, choose a selling price or starting bid depending on how I intend to sell it and leave it in the lap of the Gods to decide whether I am successful of not.

I have written similar posts about this at least twice already over the last fifteen months and I still can’t convince myself that this is as easy as it sounds. There are items in my house that have had every intension of decluttering right from the very start that I have done nothing about them simply because I don’t want to deal with the selling process and all that that entails. I think as much as anything else it is the fact that once I have dragged these items out of hiding I have to put up with having them in plain sight until the sales has reached completion and I can send the item on its merry way.

Here are some of the items in question

• Daughter’s ski jacket ~ I somehow missed this one when I sold all the other ski gear and now is the best selling time again because we are about to go into ski season in Australia. It is just a case of listing it on eBay and even though I am sure it will sell well I am still unenthused. I have actually taken it our of the cupboard and taken the photos already but haven’t listed it yet.
• Paper craft supplies ~ Granted this one is a little trickier because my intention is to have a sales table at the Air Force base craft group gathering. This happens once a month, I think, and I have never attended so it requires me to get in contact with the people running the group to get the OK to do this. I have to weed out all the items I want to sell, price it all, travel forty minutes to get there, have someone meet me to get me through base security… blah blah blah. But oh the benefits of having an interested captured audience and the freedom of getting rid of the over abundance of supplies cluttering up my office/craft space. I really do need to use the excitement of the end result to spur me on with this task.
• Daughter’s keyboard ~ I have only just asked her if she wants to keep this even though I have had my eye on it from the very beginning. She has now told me she no longer wants and is keen to reep the extra cash at my inconvenience. It is a bit inconvenient (shipping cost) to sell on eBay but I have other local options which I think would be successful. My only hold up here is the effort dragging it out of her bedroom cupboard and photographing it and come up with a selling price.
• Son’s Coka Cola collection. Awkward to list, lots of photos involved (already taken, mind you, but I still haven’t done anything about it). Awkward to ship (I think this is my actual stumbling block here) and not sure how well received it will be on eBay. Not sure whether to sell items separately or one job lot… What I really want out of this is a few dollars back in my boy’s pocket which is why this box of items haven’t just been given away already.

As you can see there is more to this than meets the eye but you know what, I have no shortage of stubborn determination. I have hit this wall before and I dare say I will hit it again but in the end my determination wins out and I sell sell sell. Just like when I sold my iRobot cleaners, shelf unit, Kiss dolls and much more. You are probably thinking why not just do yourself a favour and donate these things. Why not indeed? Because like I said every now and again an item comes along that I just want to recoup a little money back on or a want to make a few dollars for the kids and for that I find the will.

What is your decluttering stumbling block or Achilles’ heal when it comes to decluttering? Share it with us by leaving a comment maybe myself or someone out there will have the perfect solution for you or at least some much needed encouragement.

Today’s Declutter Item

If I could just work out why I keep getting holes in my t-shirts I wouldn’t be forced to declutter them. I wouldn’t mind so much if they were old but I only bought this one last August. Not happy. I think it is one of two things ~ my laptop or the seat belts in the car rubbing the t-shirt against the fly of my pants. Either way the solution is simple and I have to ask myself why I haven’t done anything to fix the situation. The think the word I am looking for is Apathy. 😳

My Gratitude List

• Something that made be laugh ~ My neighbour was telling me he has his chicken well trained but they only speak Macedonian. We laughed together.
• Something Awesome ~ Greek Yoghurt ~ there are so many ways you can use it. My hubby has it on his cereal, it is great in and along side a curry, it is delicious mixed with honey with a sprinkling of muesli (granola) on top, as a raising agent in Naan bread, for making tzatziki sauce to have with crumbled fetta and Greek fries…
• Something to be grateful for ~ That Liam’s motorbike started OK this morning. He had a slight problem in the morning yesterday then flattened the battery in the evening to end the day on a low note. He would have been a very cranky boy had the bike not started this morning as he has a lot on his plate at the moment.
• Something that made me happy ~ Oddly enough getting to the bottom of a box of tumble dryer sheets made me happy. I don’t believe they make a significant improvement to the softness of my towels and they are most likely bad for the environment on many levels so to me they were wasting space in my laundry cupboard. I am not counting them as a declutter item but I am nevertheless glad to see the back of them.
• Something I found fascinating ~ My neighbour left Macedonia when he was nineteen be must be in his sixties now but he still speaks Macedonian to the chickens. I thought that was cute. He also told me he has been tempted to put bells around a few of the chicken necks to remind him of the sounds of the home country when he used to herd sheep. He told me it was very hard for him to leave his country and come to Australia all alone so long ago. It makes me wonder about the affect leaving America has had on my children. Even though we moved as a family they still miss what to them had become their home country and I know they miss it greatly. If my neighbour can still feel the pain forty plus years later (though his situation was very different) I imagine the memories will never fade for my children either. Funny how something that made me laugh at first has now made me equally sad but it is fascinating to me to make this comparison which didn’t even occur to me at the time when I was speaking to Jack.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

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 wasting my time in a pursuit that I hate won’t put that right. And I’ll think long and hard before buying stuff in the future that may just add to the clutter cycle. So I say — lesson learned, money has been lost, move on and try to do better in future.

I’ve trimmed Eve’s comments a bit; she definitely isn’t telling others not to sell, just saying it’s not for her.  I’ve thought a lot about her comment since then. Is selling on Ebay or Craigslist just cluttering my life with another hobby? Sometimes it feels that way.

Selling on Craigslist has a much higher hassle-factor than selling on Ebay.

Ebay involves taking photos, writing a listing, figuring out what you’ll ship in and how much shipping will cost, waiting for payment, and then shipping. Sometimes people don’t pay, and that can be a real inconvenience.  (Also, make sure you thoroughly investigate shipping charges. The quickest way to lose your earnings is to underestimate shipping.)

At first glance, selling on Craigslist seems easier, but successful selling actually takes more time.  You have to take photos and write a listing. Easier, so far. Unfortuntely, Craigslist is the land of ridiculous scams, people whose entire correspondence with you will be “Do you still have it?” and people who think they want it, tell you they want it, but really don’t. (On Ebay, these people would be “watchers” and never buyers, but there’s no such mechanism on Craigslist.) Craigslist items frequently need to be re-listed, because your listing can get buried so quickly. Austin, Texas where I live has 300 – 500 new furniture items listed daily, for example.  When someone does want to purchase, there can also be bargaining, which a lot of people despise, and of course, the inconvenience of arranging to meet someone at your home or another location. I get around this potential annoyance by rarely agreeing to meet elsewhere. My home is easy to find, I’m not concerned about being robbed, and I figure the item is a bargain enough without me investing extra to go to them. Also, if my item is $10 or less, I’ll just leave it on the porch and instruct the buyer to leave the money under the mat. This method has never gone wrong, and everyone appreciates the increased convenience.

Nonetheless,  both avenues have a place. Bulky or heavy items, for example, are better candidates for Craigslist, as are items with enough value to make them worth selling, but not for enough value that people would be willing to buy them and ship them for a price that makes your efforts worthwhile.

Then there’s selling books and CDs on Amazon.com. Without a doubt, this is the easiest listing service available. You can only sell what they’re already selling, and you can’t make sets of things (i.e. 20 CDs from the 1980s), so those are disadvantages, but you don’t take photos, writing the description is easy, and Amazon determines the shipping for you. The big disadvantage is the bite that Amazon takes out of your profits – about $3 per item.

So, circling back to Eve’s comment: Is selling a hobby for me? I guess it is. Am I OK with that? Yes, I am. In my eight months of decluttering (also a hobby), I have shed over 1600 items and I have made $1361.70, which is an average of 80 cents made on every item out. The vast majority of those items have been donated – a blessing to others, as the FlyLady calls it – but those that I have sold have been a blessing to others and to me.

Today’s Declutter Item

These were a great pair of shoes and they got a lot of wear in three years. After walking to work in the rain one day I soon worked out why me sock was getting wet. I checked if they were repairable but it would have cost three times their worth. So unfortunately this pair had to go in the bin.

I am grateful from anything that brings me joy. Below are five things that gave me joy today.

• I got plenty of exercise walking to pick up my car from the mechanic, walking to the store to buy an avocado and then going on my evening walk with Steve.
  
• Finally doing a few jobs I had been avoiding. It feels good to get them out of the way.
• Receiving a letter from an old friend from America. It was wonderful to hear from her.
• The little things you notice when you walk instead of taking the car.
• I love it when I write a blog and in the process inspire myself.
  

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow.

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 involved in the disposal of these items and other methods that you could utilise to achieve the same result. The title of each topic speaks for itself but there is more to some of them than meets the eye…

Give Away (237 items)

Thrift Store – Most were taken to my local thrift shop where they were more than happy to take them off my hands. Now the thing with thrift shops is that they can’t take everything, and you really should speak to them first to make sure you aren’t just adding to their rubbish removal costs. Even when we think an item is still usable there maybe a health or safety reason why thrift stores can’t take these items for resale. Please click on this link to read about how some charities in my area are pulling their bins because of this problem and because some people just abuse the system.

Freecycle – Because of the inconvenience of having to arrange the pick up I generally only use Freecycle to offload the items that are not suitable to give to the thrift store. For example I have had three separate baseball card give-aways because baseball isn’t popular in Australia and these would just be a burden to the thrift store. I also had a lamp that required rewiring that one lovely lady was happy to take away because her son was an electrician. Once again this item would have been useless to the thrift store.  I have also given away a couple of American voltage electric appliances that people were happy to run from a step down transformer. As you can see these would not only have been useless to donate but also difficult to sell.

Friends – I have also given away about a dozen things to friends who were glad to have the use of them. In some cases the item would have had to be purchased new had I not been able to step in and help. My friends soon learned to see me before running off to the store.  We are doing each other a favour here and I thank them for taking the items off my hands.

Other Organisations – I managed to find homes for all of my 237 items just using the three avenues mentioned above but there are many other organisations out there that would be glad to accept donations. Scout groups I am sure would be happy to take camping equipment, schools would be glad of the generous donations of craft and stationary items, sporting clubs can always use extra equipment. Just use your imagination and I am sure you will find someone happy to re-purpose your unwanted stuff.

Sell (58  Items  sold on eBay at a total of $1533.65)

On-Line – Although all of the items I sold were sold on eBay there are other online selling options that you can chose from such as Craigslist.

Newspaper – You could advertise to sell in the classified section in your local newspaper. This is a good option if you have items that are too big or cumbersome to sell on eBay. Although eBay and the like do have a pick up only option that targets local shoppers I think you may find a bigger audience through using a non-online selling venue. In Australia, we have an online/local newspaper combo selling option called the Trading Post that I am going use to try to sell some musical instruments soon. I will let you know how that pans out.

Notice Boards – I don’t know if you have ever seen notice boards in your local shopping centres where people paste up photos and contact details to sell, rent or give-away items. I have seen a few in my area perhaps there is one in yours.

Garage Sale – I have had several garage sales in the past though none of my 365 things were sold this way because I was purging slowly and did not want to store the items until I had enough for a garage sale. One thing to remember with garage sales is that you have a very limited audience, and they are looking for a bargain but if you were only likely to donate the stuff anyway then you could end up with a few hundred dollars in your pocket instead.

Market Stall – This is much the same situation as a garage sale but you have a larger audience and have to haul the stuff to another location to sell. Like garage sales I have had great success in the past offloading my stuff this way.

Use Up (Only 3 items of my 365 were declutter this way)

Even though 3 is a very small quantity over the year there were many other items that were used up that I didn’t include. Items such as clothing that wore out that I didn’t replace and cleaning items that I didn’t like that I persevered with rather than cluttering up my cupboards with a duplicate in another brand. As you in know I call this Natural Progression Decluttering. I really hate waste and I would rather find a way to use something up rather than throw it away because that is a crime against the environment in my eyes.

Throw Away (67 Items)

To me this quantity (67) seems like far too many but it isn’t as bad as it looks. I scanned back through my records on my Google calendar to find out what was among these 67 items. Some of them were sent to be recycled such as paper products like old magazines, files and boxes while many of them were items that were simply used beyond there usefulness, just plain old worn out, rusty or perished in some way. There was nothing thrown in the trash just because I was too lazy to deal with it and that should never be the case for anyone. If an item still has use in it please please find it a new home.

Today’s Declutter Item

Today we have another mystery item which fetched $10 on ebay. Actually they are parts to an old wood plane.

Things I am grateful for today

• Getting through the housework quickly – So I could go out for a coffee with a friend.
• That it cooled down before we went for our afternoon walk – I would also be grateful if these 35°C plus days would go away for the year.
• Space in the freezer to put the water bottle for a quick cool down.
• Online product reviews – My stab blender is dying and I want to be sure to get a replacement that will perform admirably.
• Having fun with my guys – They are a pair of mischievous devils but lovable ones. (I speak of Steven my husband and Liam my son of course.)
  

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow.

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 to get on with it. Well I am pleased to say the we finally took the plunge and put several things up for auction and had some reasonable success. You will be seeing these items popping up in the item of the day for the next week.

My best success was the sales of my two iRobots. My Roomba vacuum cleaner made just over $100 while the Scooba floor washing robot made over $130 which I was very pleased about. I won’t bore you with the full details as to why I sold these items but I will say that the vacuum cleaner was great and well used (I called it Rupert) but I was never really fond of the floor washing robot so it was a bit of a waste of money.

It takes a bit of effort to get the auctions up and running. I made a list of step involved in this process…

• Layout the items and photograph them.
• Upload photos to the computer.
• Select a category for the item you are selling
• Decide on a title for the item you are selling (I copied the details off the box in order to be precise).
• Find the model number of the item for extra detail (if applicable)
• Type up the item description including condition and things I thought the seller needed to know in order to make an informed purchase. (I copied the details off the box as to what was included).
• Decide on a starting price and whether I wanted to include a Buy It Now option.
• Investigate shipping cost. I used two indicators for this…
  • Shipping calculator link
  • Investigating what other private sellers where charging for a similar product.
• Type all this information into the eBay Start Selling form.

Of course then I can’t leave it alone and check about 6 times a day to see how the auction is progressing. I have to admit I do suffer from a bit of eBay anxiety at times once the auction is up and running which probably causes my procrastination in the first place. There are a couple of reasons this anxiety crops up…

• Reason:-I am always concerned that someone won’t be satisfied with their purchase and cause me a whole lot of grief.
• Solution:-I do my best to be as honest and detailed as possible with my item description so that this is unlikely to happen.
• Reason:- That the item won’t sell and I will have wasted the money on the insertion fee.
• Solution:-
  • I keep my insertion cost to the bare minimum on items I am not confident about and just hope for the best on the others.
  • I also check to see how this type of item is selling before I decide whether to put it up.

The best mental approach to eBay selling is to just be grateful for the the items that sell well and chalk it up to experience on the items that don’t. I have had a few items that have sold that I didn’t lose on but were hardly worth the effort to list or post but I have had more experiences where I made more money than expected. To see what is possible, read Day 155 A selling milestone about my husband’s exceptional experience cashing in on eBay.

Item 344 of 365 less things

This is Rupert he served me well but I wasn’t prepared to spend $150 to make him suitable for 240v current and besides my smaller home is easy enough to look after without his help. Bye Rupert.

5 Things I am grateful for today

1. A game of scrabble with the neighbour
2. Going out for Thai food for dinner
3. Having a friend to walk with this morning
4. A cooler day after a sweltering week
5. Liam vacuumed my car – He needed some pocket money but at least I didn’t have to do it myself.
   

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow.

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 considered for decluttering yet.

What ever the reason, I am OK with that. One thing a day is all I have committed to do and I am happy to continue at that pace even if it takes longer than the 365 days. I am more than satisfied with the progress we have made, and with the benefits I discovered that came with going slow. Being calm and relaxed about the process and knowing that the lessons I learned along the way are now engrained into my psyche.

Now please join me for a tour of the garage before and after and keep in mind this isn’t the end of the garage declutter…

BEFORE

AFTER

Item 322 of 365 less things

We dismantled the wardrobe that took up valuable real estate in the garage and put it out on the street during bulk waste pick up week. You can see this item in the middle of the Before photo at the top of the page.  Most of the items removed from it were either disposed of during the pick up week or found a new home in the garage where once again something has been disposed of to make way for them. I featured some of the other items on Days 308 to 313 and Days 318 to 321.

5 Things I am grateful for today

1. Coffee with a friend.
2. Being able to play CD’s on the laptop – when you want to stay sitting next to your husband but don’t want to listen to the c**p on TV.
   
3. Music – I really don’t stop to listen to it often enough while my children can’t live without it.
4. My new little ebook – I hope everyone picks up a copy it is free to subscribers new and old.
5. A chance to show our gratitude – Liam, hubby and I went back to the ICU and Ward G2 today to thank the staff for taking care of Liam for the first two week after his accident. Liam didn’t recognise anyone but they sure remembered him and were glad he was doing so well. We hope they enjoy the cards and chocolates we delivered as a token of our gratitude.

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…

1. Lack of enthusiasm for writing descriptions and uploading photos.
2. Not being sure what starting price to set.
3. 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.
4. Fear that the items won’t sell and I will have wasted the money on insertion fees.
5. Not wanting to deal with postage and handling.
6. Fear that I will regret selling at least one of these items.

Now that I have listed the symptoms I think I have worked out the cure..

JUST GET ON WITH IT!

I have a feeling that no matter what the outcome I will just be glad to be rid of the stuff even if I practically give it away. The guilt burden from those few items alone has been gnawing at me for some time now and it is time I put myself out of my misery and set a good example for my readers.

I will still be happy to receive any advice you have on the subject even though I appear to have made a decision. Someone please call me out on this before the end of the week to make sure I followed through on my resolution.

ITEM 317 OF 365 LESS THINGS

I listed this item on Freecycle today lets hope it is gone by tomorrow if not I will have to decide what to do with it. I is made for American power supply and the battery needs replacing.

5 things I am grateful for today

1. Finding the charger for my camera within a hour of discovering it wasn’t where it should have been.
2. Being bored – It is a strange thing to be grateful for but it means I am getting back to normal after the last three weeks of madness and need something useful to do.
3. My new blog layout gives me room to put a bigger photo.
4. The red chicken curry with bamboo shoots I made for dinner turned out really nice even if I say so myself.
5. Liam was firing on all four cylinders today- He is starting to realise how silly some of the things were that he believed to be true. He has suddenly realised how important it is to score 12 on his PTA tests and is starting to employ strategies to help him remember the correct answers. The problem is that he has also realised how boring it is being stuck in hospital and is getting obnoxious about it. All good signs but this could mean trouble!