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Stuff I know I should get rid of but just can't quite make it happen

(36 posts) (19 voices)
  • Started 1 year ago by shebolt
  • Latest reply from jsights
  • RSS feed for this topic
Overall Rating: votes

Tags:

  • collection
  • donate
  • ebay
  • emotional attachment
  • overwhelmed
  • toys
12Next »
  1. shebolt
    Member

    I'm sure most of us have something that rationally, we know is clutter and needs to go. But we can't let it go.

    I have a few categories of items that fit. But right now, the biggest is collectible toys. I used to buy toys at yard sales and other places and sell them for a nice profit on ebay. This helped keep me afloat during a time when it seemed like the bills were a lot larger than my income. I stopped doing this because ebay fees shot up, buyers were down thanks to the economy, my salary went up and my time became limited. But I still have a large volume of toys.

    I have a room in the basement full of old Fisher Price Little People. I have a display cabinet upstairs, with the pieces that are most important to me. The rest can go.

    I have two closets filled with legos.

    I have a large stack of the Simpsons action figures. They were stacked on the top shelf of a closet I just redid, so now they're stacked about 2 feet high on my dining room table. I got as far as listing them on Craigslist, but so far there's been no interest. These are the hardest of the toys for me because I know that had I sold them when they were in production, I would have made a nice profit. But I held onto them thinking the demand would just go up. It didn't. It plummeted. A few pieces are in demand, but the rest aren't. I won't even break even. Part of me is mad, but part of me is resigned to the fact that I made a bad decision to hold on to them.

    I want all of this to go, but I can't bring myself to just donate everything or throw it all away. But I'm just not motivated to try to sell again on ebay.

    Rationally, I know I'm using the classic excuses "but I paid good money for that" and "it's collectible". I also no longer need the money (although a little extra income would be nice).

    The sheer volume is overwhelming. I could probably easily let the toys go if it didn't seem like there was so much money involved. I just don't know where to go from here, but I need to get this stuff out of my house. Ack!

    Posted 1 year ago #
  2. hlg
    Member

    If they are new toys, donate them to Toys for Tots (started by the US Marine Corps) and take a tax deduction.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  3. PandP
    Member

    Is there a homeless shelter or head start program in your area? Do any of the local churches have day care centers? That would be best for toys.

    Whenever I struggle with letting something go, I like to think of it as "releasing it back to the universe."

    Posted 1 year ago #
  4. sdevjkt
    Member

    There might be a battered women's shelter where women and their children go with hardly any belongings. In my area, there is one where they are always looking for children's items. It's easier to let things go when you know that a child in that situation will be enjoying them.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  5. needtocleanhouse
    Member

    You could contact an ebay store who might want to buy cheap and in bulk and be willing to hold on to the items and speculate. Someone still in the business.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  6. Rosa
    Member

    Is there a comics shop where you live? They might take the action figures. And it's possible a kids' resale shop would take the Lego - it would only take about 10 minutes to call and ask both places.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  7. erksh
    Member

    Any donation of vintage toys to a shelter, etc. may end up in their disposal because of lead concerns.

    Your best bet is to find a church rummage sale or similar organization (church thrift shop, etc.) that will recognize their value, make a mass donation and get a receipt for tax purposes.

    I work for a church and our rummage sale collection would do just that for you and be glad to have the stuff.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  8. susanintexas
    Member

    Things are only worth what people are willing to pay for them, and once a fad had passed, it isn't much. My SIL spent a lot of money on beanie babies years ago, convinced that they would pay for my niece's college education. She now has a bucketload of student loans and a closet full of beanie babies.

    One way to look at it is what the toys are costing you. It's hard to put a dollar value on peace of mind, but some organizers suggest dividing your mortgage or rent by the square footage of your house and coming up with a price-per sq-foot. Another way would be to figure out what they would cost to store -- the monthly cost of a storage unit.

    The cost of the toys is a sunk cost -- it's spent. You have ongoing costs to maintain this inventory, whether it's in storage space or angst.

    If it were me, I would set a relatively short deadline to get rid of them -- something like 2 months, which should be enough time to make craigslist pan out or not.

    It sounds like the collectible toy business was a good one for you in its time -- be grateful for that and move on.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  9. shebolt
    Member

    Great ideas everyone! I'm lucky because, as susanintexas pointed out, the collectible toy business was a good one for me.

    I have extra closet space where most of these items have been living, so I could ignore this problem. But now I want my closets back, and my house full of only things which I love or use regularly.

    I like the Simpsons Toys, enough to have toyed with taking them out of their boxes and putting them on display. I may end up keeping a couple of the pieces that speak to me the most, selling the valuable ones on ebay, and maybe donating the rest as hlg and others suggested.

    The legos should still bring decent money, but the sheer volume of those (2 closets!) is a bit daunting. But I can ignore those while I focus on the items that are more in my way.

    The Fisher Price Little People collection is also a lot to deal with. I've thought about getting rid of (yes, actually throwing out) the playsets that aren't in great condition, selling the full playsets that are in good condition, and then selling the remaining smaller pieces in larger lots.

    Maybe my problem is just that when I consider the toys as a whole, it seems impossible. But when I break it down as I did above, it becomes manageable.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  10. Rosa
    Member

    That's a really good point, shebolt. If that breakdown sounds manageable to you, you should do it - it makes a lot of sense.

    What I actually came back to say was, maybe if this is daunting you, you should start with something easier, to get the ball rolling. I do think this gets easier with practice and thinking "I should really tackle that Big Giant Project, it's the real problem" is a form of perfectionist procrastination.

    Though maybe everything else is done and now you're at the Last Big Thing :)

    Posted 1 year ago #
  11. shebolt
    Member

    Rosa, I wish this was the Last Big Thing.

    But, luckily, many years back I went through the house with a camera to document the total mess it had become. When I get down and think I'll never get rid of the clutter, I can look back at those pictures now and see how far I've come.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  12. gS49
    Member

    I'm in exactly the same process, with ridiculous volumes of books, comics books, etc. I'll describe how I'm going about it in hopes it may be helpful to you.

    First step was to conceptualize the mess--I mean mass--as distinct chunks, then pick one to deal with and ignore the rest for now. I chose the comics because it would free up the most space.

    Then I sorted the comics into four groups:
    --For auction (the most valuable)
    --For direct sale (middle value)
    --For most efficient disposal (of little value), such as donating to a charity or selling en masse.
    --For immediate destruction (recycling)--of no real value
    A fifth group is those few I pick out to keep.

    The idea is to keep dividing the stuff into smaller and smaller groups, making it easier to deal with.

    I'm currently selecting the most valuable comics for professional grading and auction. I am not concerning myself with the rest of the comics until this batch is sent away. Then I'll start the individual direct selling. And so on.

    This is the theory, anyway: One thing at a time, broken down into units that can be handled one way.

    In practice, I am overlapping some chunks. For instance, I just dumped five decades worth of National Geographics on the local recycling company in between working on the comics. Getting quick things done is very satisfying and encouraging.

    If any aspects of this method (which isn't particularly original) are useful to you, I will be happy. And I look forward to hearing how you go about your projects. I might be able to steal some ideas from you.

    gS49

    Posted 1 year ago #
  13. bandicoot
    Member

    you have listed these points already:
    1. you don't need the money
    2. you don't have the time
    3. you do want the space the stuff is now occupying
    4. the stuff is no longer worth anything significant

    truly....you have to just give the stuff up.
    simply get rid of it right away.
    either donate it....or seek out an ebay seller who will be willing to take the lot off your hands (as cleverly suggested already).

    your end goal is to have the space and to stay sane, right?
    you already know the quickest way there.
    i agree that the money you have spent on this stuff is sunk costs.
    the money has physically LONG gone. now you just have to mentally let it go.
    sometimes in business, we make expensive mistakes.
    that is the nature of business.
    write it off, learn from it (this is the biggie!)....and move on.

    good luck!
    and when it's my turn, please direct me back to this thread!

    Posted 1 year ago #
  14. Jacquie
    Member

    The two month deadline seems a good idea - and two months conveniently takes you over Christmas. Surely the best time of year to be selling toys.

    I would have thought much of the Lego should sell. Perhaps if you don't have the original packaging you could get some shoe boxes, cover them with smart paper and pack them full of an assortment of bits. It is so expensive new that even getting half or quarter shop price for it would be worth the effort. It would make good photos with the boxes packed full (you could clip the bricks into blocks so they don't rattle around, with odd shaped bits in the centre) and then the mound of lego when it's tipped out.

    Probably much the same comments about the Little People stuff except some of that is already in boxes so could be listed almost immediately. If it's the same as a similarly named one in the UK, it's aimed at children young enough not to care if it's in fashion or not.

    But it depends if you can find the energy to get started or not. The first few bits will be the hardest to do. If you then get a sale or two, it should give you the oomph to do a big chunk of the rest. Anything that's not sold, is already packed to give away.

    Or another thought, if you are somewhere where it's not icy cold in early December, is to have a well advertised "Big Christmas Toy Sale" as a garage sale, either where you live or at a friend's house if better located. A lot of work for one day, but it saves all the e-bay listing and shipping chores.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  15. shebolt
    Member

    Got the Simpsons figures grouped and photographed, and then realized I had long ago recycled of all of my boxes and packing supplies. D'oh!

    I'll be getting more tomorrow, but at least the first step is done. Now I need to remember how to list on ebay (so much has changed, I don't even recognize the site anymore) so I can get some of these gone.

    It's a start. :)

    Posted 1 year ago #
  16. erksh
    Member

    Can I be brutal?

    You're going out to purchase more stuff to help you manage THIS stuff.

    Your quote:

    But now I want my closets back, and my house full of only things which I love or use regularly

    Either you want your closets back, or you want to jump back into Ebay as a hobby. There are very simple ways to get your closets back within the week. You just have to let go and prioritize your time and space.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  17. irishbell
    Member

    Take a few pics and post the whole lot on Craig's list. It's easy, there's no fee and if you don't get any hits within a certain time frame - donate!

    Posted 1 year ago #
  18. shebolt
    Member

    Brutality is fine! :)

    I've already listed the entire lot on Craigslist with no bites.

    I'm not going to buy boxes, just grab a few from work.

    I'm also setting a strict timeline. The items will be listed for 7 days auctions. Several are actually valuable. They will be listed individually. I've grouped the others in lots by release, which may get more interest than listing each piece individually. If they don't sell the first time around, they are out. Gone. Donated. The boxes will not be hanging around, either.

    This is a one-shot deal. One last attempt to pull whatever residual value out of them. And it'll get me back into the ebay mindset, so when I get to the legos it won't seem so daunting.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  19. trillie
    Member

    I guess I come a bit late into this topic, and I have nothing to add except: Yay for the brutal answers, and especially a big huge Yay for you shebolt, for listing it all on Craigslist! I bet you feel a little more free already ;o)

    Posted 1 year ago #
  20. Claycat
    Member

    I'm having the same problems, shebolt! So little is selling, though, I need to take more drastic measures!

    Posted 1 year ago #

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