De-clutter Your House & Life

Do you ever feel like you literally drowning in stuff?  For me it always seems to be paper.  I have this obsession with creating piles of mail, important documents, pictures, cards and pretty much anything I don't feel like dealing with.

Every January I get on this organization high and I run to Bed, Bath & Beyond with my 20% percent off coupon in hand and buy up organizational baskets, bins, hangers and do-dads.  Only to come home and literally use them as places to shove my clutter.  Those "organizational" items were supporting my hoarding.  I never even thought about it that way until I read a book on minimalism by Francine Jay called, "The Joy of Less."

I happened to buy the ebook after the positive reviews I saw on Amazon.  This book literally changed the way I saw my stuff.  To give you insight in to how severe of a change, my husband noticed.  Let's be honest ladies, isn't that ultimate proof of really drastic change?  Your husband noticing?  He doesn't notice that you cleaned the toilet or when you got your hair done, but he notices when something big happens.  I turned over a new leaf.  The drowning stopped and I started swimming around in wide open rooms of freedom.  I also had a little extra cash in my pocket too!

What did I do with all that stuff you ask?  Well let me tell you.


1. Consignment Store

• Consignment stores take your things and sell them for you.
• They usually give you a percentage of what the items sells for.
• My store is 40%.
• This store gets a ton of traffic.
• Some don't.  So don't assume your stuff will sell if the store doesn't have people in it regularly.
• It took:
• Home Decor
• Nice Linens
• Clothes in good shape including:
• My whole line of "pre-baby" too small clothes (AKA "Goal" clothes)
• All my maternity clothes.  
• Bigger clothes I had to buy that I was now too small for.

2. Resale Retail Stores

• These are stores that pay you cash up front for the items they go through and select.
• They are much more picky and are looking for certain brands.
• Examples: Plato's Closet (Trendy Young Clothing.), Play It Again Sports (Used Sports Equipment) & Once Upon A Child (used baby clothes & toys).
• This may be the place you start to see if you can get cash up front.

3. Seasonal Kids Consignment Sales

• I have a whole blog post on Children's Consignment Sales so you can read more there.
• It's way more work than a consignment store but I keep 70% of my sales which is better to me than 40%.
• Traffic at these sales is high.
• If your items are priced right you can expect to sell 75% of your items.  Last year I sold 90%.

4. Thrift Stores

• I picked my favorite local thrift store and donated any items I couldn't sell but thought would benefit someone.

5.Trash/Recycle

• The final resting place or the new beginning.
• It was hard at first to throw away all my 1-5th grade drawings and writing assignments but frankly, I never look at them and they have no real meaning to me.

It's hard to start, but once you do and your life gets freed from stuff, you will find a ton of joy!  Let me know about your own experiences with de-cluttering your home.