I've accomplished the part of getting all the "clutter" into boxes, but I'm having a hard time with what to do with it. I find I'm attached to the fact that this stuff has value and I'm just throwing money away. I really don't have time for a garage sale and I've given my friends a chance to look through things, but I'm stuck on just taking the boxes over to good will. Some big items can go on Craig's List, I know. I get anxious of thinking about "what if I throw something away I'll need later...I'll waste money on having to re-buy it." Any suggestions on how to move through that part? Thanks all!
Overall Rating: 1 vote
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Posted 1 year ago #
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If you get rid if something you'll need later, you'll do pretty much what you did before you got it - borrow it, buy it, or find a different solution.
Ask yourself "why did I think I needed this in the first place? Did it solve the problem? Does the problem re-occur frequently?" And, of course, "What was I thinking??"
Helps for me, anyway.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I can't remember who said this -- Possibly Erin at Unclutterer, or Leo at Zen Habits -- but it was something to the effect of "You wasted the money when you bought this; you're not wasting money when you get rid of it."
At some point one has to balance the prospects of getting monetary compensation for clutter with the hassle of keeping it around and the extra work of finding a buyer. For people who normally sell things either online or in person, it isn't much of a problem, but if you have to set up an Ebay account from scratch or otherwise run around looking for prospects, it might be more trouble than it's worth.
I'd focus on getting the large big-ticket items sold first. If you don't want to outright donate the smaller items, perhaps set up a garage sale with a few of your neighbours.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I once helped a friend pack for a move. We filled two huge boxes with old leather purses that she had not used in years because of various problems: broken zippers, worn-out straps, torn linings, out-dated colors, she never liked the damn thing to begin with, etc. Her movers were charging by the amount of space she filled up in the truck. I asked her why we couldn't just get rid of the purses, rather than having her pay to have these two gigantic boxes driven a thousand miles to her new home. She said they were all too worn-out to give away, and too expensive to throw away!
Two years after her move she mentioned, in a phone call, that she still had an entire room full of boxes that she had never unpacked. I'll bet two of them were full of handbags.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I try to think:
(1) There is someone else who could use this stuff that i am hanging onto but not using
(2) If I need it again I can buy it again -- only a better one. In fact, this rarely happens. I remember the few instances when I threw out something I later needed and forget the hundreds of things I tossed and never needed again. Selective memory.
(3) And also remember there is a cost to holding onto things -- it needs to be stored, maintained, dusted, moved aside to get to the stuff I really need --
(4) If you do decide to sell stuff set a time and effort limit. Your time and energy has value too -- more value than stuff.Posted 1 year ago # -
Also, your clean, decluttered house has value, too. I try to remember this when deciding whether to get rid of something: there is value in having my house (and my life!) be clean and uncluttered. You never see pictures in home magazines, movies, etc. of cluttered spaces (and if you do, rarely do you want these spaces for yourself...except in the case of The Selby, but I digress...). I think most people aren't used to thinking of emptiness as having a value, because there isn't really a way to sell it. Picture your life when you are free of this stuff, not having to worry about what to do with it, where to store it, how to keep it clean, etc.
Posted 1 year ago # -
The items you're holding on to are probably not worth as much as they think you are. A few minutes or hours spent browsing eBay will tell you how much things *don't* cost nowadays. When you search, do a search on completed listings - amounts in red indicate that item never sold (if in green, that's the amount it sold for). I've been steadily selling my mom's Hummels and other figurines. They are going for hundreds less than what she paid for them. A guy in town just sold a Nordic Track for $25 cash. That's it - just $25 (and he had trouble getting any offers too). If you still want to sell your stuff, good luck - but you may have them on your hands a long long time.
Posted 1 year ago # -
The fear is worse than the thing, I swear. Unless these boxes are the only things in your house, try just donating this little bit that's boxed up and then see how you feel in a few days, to see if it was worth it.
Me, 99% of the time I feel better. The other 1% is ridiculous errors that I promise won't happen to you (Like, we accidentally donated a box of pornographic novels & comics to St. Vincent de Paul once. I don't really regret not having them but I REALLY regret giving them to the religious charity and I didnt' go there for like a year just in case they remembered me.)
Posted 1 year ago # -
The things you take to Goodwill can be deducted on your taxes at a pretty healthy rate. Check out "It's deductible" through turbotax sometime.
Also, I have learned that anything I donate to charity is pretty easy to also FIND at that charity. Set the stuff free for people who are in greater need right now than you. Build up that donation karma!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Rosa that is extremely funny!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Don't forget to calculate your time you would spend to sell the things. If you figure an hourly rate for yourself and compare it to what you made selling the junk, you may be spending hours doing something you find annoying for no money at all. It's time you could have spent doing something that would really make you money, like a craft project to sell, or even just working overtime.
When we cleared my gram's hoard and had an estate sale, I did most of the sorting and tagging of things that made to the "might be sellable" pile in the pole barn. I kept track of my hours, and my sister agreed to pay me for my time, since she lived too far away to easily run back and forth to help with the mess. By the time we deducted my hours and the cost of the teenage kids we paid to help us haul the stuff out of the house - we actually lost money. We still had to sort everything, because the hoard had to be cleared to sell the house, but all the time I spent tagging and getting organized could have been better spent dumping things in boxes for donation and then going to work at my regular job.
Posted 1 year ago # -
jbeany: when my father died, my brother decided (he was the one who lived nearby) to offer everything up to an estate auctioneer who gave us a flat rate for everything. It took him a couple of hours, vs. a gazillion hours trying to sell the stuff himself. Didn't make nearly as much but preserved his sanity.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I agree that we have to set useful stuff free to be used by other people who need it. It does nobody any good if items just deteriorate sitting in the back of a cupboard somewhere.
I suspect that the people at St Vinnies were probably waiting for Rosa's next donation!
Posted 1 year ago # -
I can't stand trying to sell things. The hourly fee is ridiculous unless it is something really valuable, which I'd of course try my best to sell as fast as possible, but anything smaller like books, kitchen gear and knick-knacks? No way. If it is in your box, you're not using it and if it is there, it has no value or you'd have sold it already. Like last year :) Donate, donate, donate!
@Rosa: Good lord, that's funny! And @Jack: quite possibly so! LOL.
Posted 1 year ago # -
rosa, how comical! lol!
i am firmly in the camp of " just donate it and be done with it" unless it is some large expensive well-looked after item that generally retains value.
it is easier all round.....trying to sell stuff is one huge headache most of the time.
it feels far better to donate the stuff and enjoy your space.Posted 1 year ago # -
I agree that selling things is a pain in the rear. I'm currently eBaying my mother's figurines, only so that she can recoup *some* of the hundreds/thousands she spent on acquiring them (sigh). She's getting pennies on the dollar, and my office is filled with boxes and packing supplies. Whatever I make for her goes towards her assisted living expenses- luckily it's just the gravy, since there's no way I could cover even her medication costs!
My stuff goes to the local Goodwill or Habitat for Humanity - much, much easier than shipping things all over the world!
Posted 1 year ago # -
On the other hand...
Among the things I inherited from my mother, there were two antique whirligigs, both with damage and appraised at $100 each. I put them up on eBay hoping for at least half the appraised value. One sold for $200, and the other took off in a bidding war that ended with a final sale of $3,000! So you just never know.Posted 1 year ago # -
I just do the math. If an item retails for $100 and I figure there's a 1 in 5 chance I might need it in the next year, it is worth $20 to me. If it would cost more than that to move or take care of, out it goes! Plus, think of all the good it would do someone who really needs something to get it at a thrift store price :)
Posted 1 year ago # -
Like Parsifal, I try to use Cost Per Use to be realistic about the economics involved in holding onto the cheaper stuff.
I also think about Sunk Cost Fallacy - the money is already spent, so why spend more money sticking with a poor purchasing decision?
I also consider my possessions to be consumable goods that depreciate over time. I spend money on food, utilities and my car without thinking I've invested it.
I remember the $50 per hour that it costs for each member of a moving crew to haul my pile from one abode to the next.
I think about my time spent ebaying/packing/mailing stuff as costing at least my hourly wage at work. It should really be my overtime rate.
I remind myself that I'd rather live in a smaller, nicer house that's easier to keep clean.
I look at minimalist and contemporary style blogs and photos for inspiration. I'm moving from a cluttery vintage style of decor where you can never have enough cute bits and pieces to a sleeker minimalist style. This really helps me let go of a lot of detrius.
I can do all this because I'm in a more comfortable place financially now than when I was younger and a military sahm wife with 2 small children. Back then I had to hang onto material resources, now I can rely on financial resources.
That's pretty much how I persuade myself to let go of sentimental junk or stuff that just breeds in my closet!
Having said all that, I am having issues with letting go of a vintage doll and dollhouse collection - they're not toys I can give to friends children, they're difficult to mail so I don't want to ebay them, en masse they're too "valuable" to donate. So I hauled them all to my new home (I moved yesterday} and now I'm eyeing the stack of boxes of collectibles I had to pay to move - all I did was delay the decision of how to get rid of them. urg!
Posted 1 year ago # -
I'm late chiming in here, but new to the forum. I appreciate the original poster's dilemma, as I sometimes find myself thinking similarly. I very much appreciate everyone's responses (Rosa - how funny about the VdP donation!)!! They are inspiring me to purge more. I started at the beginning of the year but have slacked off.
Some of the most difficult items to deal with for me are those I've inherited. Both my parents and my eldest sister have passed on and I've inherited some unique, individual, family heirlooms. For example, I now have the dollhouse that my great-uncle made by hand for my sister. She didn't take good care of it (stored it in a hot, dry attic), and it needs repair. However, this is something that should stay in the family - I can't go out and replace it. Currently, it's sitting on an extra table in my dining room...what to do? Similarly, I have a large (20") Miss Revlon doll that was my sister's, and a small one (in pieces) with a vintage Pierre Cardin case and clothing... I looked on ebay and they're not worth that much, but the sentimental value prevents me from tossing them...
Anyone have ideas of what to do with these types of items? I also inherited a ton of crystal that I never use from my mother. I have 2 daughters - should I save it and divvy it up between them when they're older?
Thanks for any advice.
Posted 11 months ago #
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