Can we just talk about it? If you’re obsessed with not wasting things, what the heck do you do with your kids’ outgrown underwear? Yeah, let’s get weird. Ewww…not like that. Just, seriously, like everything else, they outgrow stuff long before it’s worn out, the you have a pile of underwear that’s perfectly fine, but donating undies just seems weird. So yeah, ex-undie sizes, I give up, you and I are parting ways. Done.
Halfway through the month. Just getting warmed up.
I have the only granddaughter and grandson on both sides of our family. Sure, I’d rather have tons of nieces and nephews, but instead, I have two awesome kids that want for nothing. They have plenty of toys and a great collection of clothing, especially my daughter, who gets hand-me-downs from a friend with excellent taste in clothes. This is a wonderful thing, until they outgrow them. We are still planning to have another child, but it’s taking a little longer than planned to make that plan happen, so what started as a few boxes of extra clothes is now an out of control wild prairie of Rubbermaid boxes across the preserve of our 1000 SF attic. It’s not OK.
So I’m starting slow….a box of my shoes that don’t fit anymore and pants that aren’t at all special cast off by my son, sizes 3-5T. They’re for sale on my Minimalism sale on Facebook. Get these things out of my house folks, right here: https://www.facebook.com/tanyakeith/media_set?set=a.10202251802514841.1073741831.1183778292&type=3
Also, the Ebay page: http://www.ebay.com/usr/djotzke#
Please, buy our stuff.
I have a problem. I have cool stuff I could sell, but I seem to get lost in the thought of how complicated it would be to sell it. I will have to find it, clean it, photograph it, list it for sale, meet with the buyer….ugh…it’s all so complicated. I will put it off forever. I will sometimes donate things I know I could sell, just because it’s so much easier. What I’m learning through this minimalism is that inaction can be just as draining as action. Seeing stuff time after time and having to think, “ugh, there’s that X again. Someday I’ll get rid of X” takes energy, energy I was expending over and over again.
Case in point: The spice rack from our first home. We used to have a house with no cabinet space, but a fair amount of counter space, so we moved everything we could out of drawers and into counter based storage solutions, such as this lovely spice rack. I thought it was so cool looking, and I loved the part it played in our first home. Now we have a home with plenty of drawer and cabinet space, but very little free counter space, so I moved the spices into one of the drawers, but couldn’t seem to let go of my little rack when I unpacked the kitchen stuff.
But 12 jars and a rack….that’s 13 items, if I could just force myself to clean it out and list it. So I dumped the several year old spices, cleaned the jars, photographed and posted. In the end, it didn’t take that long, and once it was posted, it didn’t take long for it to sell and the drop off was seamless. The lesson: less stuff and more cash in my pocket is the way to go. I promise you, there will be more to come!
I’m cheating. I worked ahead. We have friends visiting this weekend, and I wanted tasks done, stuff out. Plus, once you get going on decluttering, it gets easier. I enlisted the kids on filling out the numbers for the weekend, but we made it with room to spare, and two huge boxes of clothes, toys, and books are on their way to charity. Have a great weekend, minimalists!
Technically, it’s one thing, but this 6 arm chandelier has been sitting in the corner of my dining room since I changed out the kitchen fixture 6 months ago, and Thanksgiving is around the corner. I’m not sure why it bugs me so much to list things for sale. It’s just annoying, getting the photos, measurements, writing the ad, posting the ad, dealing with the calls about the items…ugh. But this thing is worth more than $5, and I should sell it before one of my kids or cats breaks it! Listed for sale, buyer coming to see it tomorrow! HOORAY!! Get out of my house!
Hatton House Diaries 