2018 Decluttering Thread

[disneysteve]

Our neighborhood garage sale is a bust, too. Poorly planned. They put a little blurb in our community newspaper to be on the look out for more info, and then they never gave more info. They didn't put out any ads, either.

When we participate in a neighborhood sale, I ALWAYS do my own advertising and put up my OWN signs. I never depend on anyone else to promote my sale. Most yard sale signs are pathetic - handwritten on notebook paper in ballpoint pen. Two drops of rain and they're trashed.

I have a stack of stiff posterboard day-glo green signs that I made years ago. The writing is in thick black marker easily visible when driving by. I just change the date each time. The signs hold up fine if they get rained on. And after the sale, I go around and collect them all. I've used the same signs over and over for many years. And our sales are always a big success.

[disneysteve]

We periodically have trouble with water getting into our basement. It happened this weekend with some violent storms that moved through. Every time I'm down there running the shop vac to suck up the water, I get more and more fed up with the clutter. I have made tremendous progress down there but there is so much more to do.

As soon as things dry out down there, I'm going to find some time to dig deeper and get rid of more stuff. I did list a few things on ebay the other day and need to do more of that. But there's also stuff that just needs to get trashed at this point. And some other stuff like hardware, painting supplies, holiday decorations, etc. that need to be gathered together and dumped into storage bins so that they are easier to deal with and not taking up as much shelf space.

[disneysteve]

Despite my complaint about ebay automatically making my auctions accept offers, I actually agreed to an offer on one item and negotiated a 2nd offer on 3 items. So 4 items I listed on Sunday are sold for a total of $60.00 (minus fees). I may have done better letting the auctions run but I'm satisfied with that. I'll pack them up tomorrow after work and ship them on Wednesday.

As much as people complain about ebay, it's still a great way to get rid of stuff and make some extra cash.

[msomnipotent]

When we participate in a neighborhood sale, I ALWAYS do my own advertising and put up my OWN signs. I never depend on anyone else to promote my sale. Most yard sale signs are pathetic - handwritten on notebook paper in ballpoint pen. Two drops of rain and they're trashed.

I have a stack of stiff posterboard day-glo green signs that I made years ago. The writing is in thick black marker easily visible when driving by. I just change the date each time. The signs hold up fine if they get rained on. And after the sale, I go around and collect them all. I've used the same signs over and over for many years. And our sales are always a big success.

Our community is pretty strict about everything, and there are rules about signs. I didn't bother reading the pages about sign rules in our booklet that rivals a phone book. Although everything must be "pleasing to the eye", which just begs for a lawsuit one of these days.

Just got a card that Amvets is doing a pick up on June 11th. Just in time to get a bunch of crap out of my house before the exchange student comes! Woo!

[disneysteve]

I have a set of 4 toys that I just listed on ebay. I actually have 6 sets so listed all of them with a Buy It Now listing and a discount if anyone buys 2 or more sets. We'll see if I get any action. The toys currently occupy a large carton box in the basement. I'd love to get rid of all of them.

I just started to disassemble our old broken treadmill. I want to get it out of the basement but it will be far easier if I take it apart first as it weighs a ton and is really awkward and difficult to move. I have a coworker who will help me but even he agreed that breaking it down first is the way to go.

[CarolBee]

Taking a page out of DisneySteve's book and listing some things on eBay - some old photos we acquired from who knows where (already have a bid on this one), blank vhs tapes and cassettes - who knew there was a market? Have successfully cleared out two rooms in our house and am waiting for the weekend to start on the third room - everything I need to go thru from the previous two rooms has been stashed in there. I'll have to get it done, because I'll need the space to work in soon. It's a great incentive.

[msomnipotent]

This dog and all of her vet visits is turning out to be a major time suck, so I only managed to get one large box of junk, a garbage bag of clothes, and all of the wire shelving we recently tore out of the closets ready for Amvets. I'm pretty sure one of our neighbors stole the shelving. I had the Amvets tag on part of the shelving so they knew to take it, and I heard them pull up and take at least the bag. When I left to take the dog to her appt, the Amvets tag, box, and bag were gone and all the shelving was still there. So I tell myself to call an animal shelter when I get back to see if they want it, and it was gone when I got home. I'm ticked off. I'm trying to tell myself that maybe the Amvets truck came back for the shelving later, but I have a feeling someone walked up to my door and took it. I'm going to schedule the next pick up for when I can be home all day and pop out of my trunk when the bastard comes to help himself again. Peeing himself (or herself) with fright will be the very least of their problems.

Or maybe it couldn't fit on the truck and Amvets had to come back later. I don't know. I'm still planning on hiding my hatchback, though.

[disneysteve]

I'm struggling a bit with the sell/donate/trash decision, particularly in regard to old stock of collectibles. We no longer actively sell stuff but do a little here and there. A bunch of things that we used to sell fairly cheaply are now 20 years older and bringing much better prices. For example, I sold 4 items last week that back in the day we sold for $1 each. I just sold them for $10 each and probably could have gotten more.

The problem is that selling stuff online does take a lot of time and effort between cleaning them up, photographing them, listing them, and packing and shipping them. If I could easily sell everything, I could probably make a couple thousand dollars or more, but is it worth the time and effort?

I hate to give stuff away (or throw stuff away) that I know has substantial value. It's the salesman part of my brain. But I also know that realistically I'm just never going to get all of this stuff sold at the rate I'm going. I'm starting to think I should just give away as much of it as I can and throw away the rest and be done with it.

Has anyone else faced a similar dilemma?

[snafu]

Is daughter interested in doing the work [clean, set-up, photo, write ad, upload, respond to inquiries, pack n'send '] as a side hustle? Is there a young relative, friend, who would be interested for a 60/40 split [or whatever is negotiated]. Fact is at some point in time you may wish to retire, sell up and move to Florida or some warm climate. Your collection has potential to be a barrier in the future. Further the economy is currently robust, opportunity is good, what will it be when the economy roller coasters like 2008 bump?

[Bluebird]

DS, can you list a large number of items together as a lot and sell?

[disneysteve]

Is daughter interested in doing the work [clean, set-up, photo, write ad, upload, respond to inquiries, pack n'send '] as a side hustle?

I don't think she's interested and I honestly wouldn't trust anyone else to pack and ship things, or at least not the fragile stuff. I definitely need to be the ones writing the descriptions as I'm the only one who knows what everything is. Maybe I could get DD or DW to help with cleaning and photographing stuff. DD knows how to use Photoshop well enough.

DS, can you list a large number of items together as a lot and sell?

I've actually started looking into doing this for some of the items. I haven't actually listed any lots yet but probably will.

[bjl584]

I'm going to start decluttering the basement soon. It's starting to fill up. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the unwanted items right now. I might have enough to justify a yard sale.

[creditcardfree]

I'm struggling a bit with the sell/donate/trash decision, particularly in regard to old stock of collectibles. We no longer actively sell stuff but do a little here and there. A bunch of things that we used to sell fairly cheaply are now 20 years older and bringing much better prices. For example, I sold 4 items last week that back in the day we sold for $1 each. I just sold them for $10 each and probably could have gotten more.

The problem is that selling stuff online does take a lot of time and effort between cleaning them up, photographing them, listing them, and packing and shipping them. If I could easily sell everything, I could probably make a couple thousand dollars or more, but is it worth the time and effort?

I hate to give stuff away (or throw stuff away) that I know has substantial value. It's the salesman part of my brain. But I also know that realistically I'm just never going to get all of this stuff sold at the rate I'm going. I'm starting to think I should just give away as much of it as I can and throw away the rest and be done with it.

Has anyone else faced a similar dilemma?

If it's not worth your time it is perfectly okay to donate the items. No need to be mentally exhausted from selling things particularly if you don't need it. You will feel lighter donating or selling. One is just easier!

[creditcardfree]

I'm going to start decluttering the basement soon. It's starting to fill up. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the unwanted items right now. I might have enough to justify a yard sale.

Good luck! Yard sales are a lot of work, and can be worth it if they motivate you to declutter. Just remember not all of it will sell and you should have a plan for the items don't sell. My sister had Goodwill pick up an hour after her sale ended. All stuff out of the house!

[disneysteve]

If it's not worth your time it is perfectly okay to donate the items. No need to be mentally exhausted from selling things particularly if you don't need it. You will feel lighter donating or selling. One is just easier!

Yep. And we actually have donated quite a bit over the past few years. I need to get down to doing more of that.