The past 3 days have been a downsizing whirlwind and boiled down to the following subroutines:
1. Sort It
Each item gets categorized into piles. I’m a office supply horder and apparently this is the biggest pile right now. Followed by electronics, then art supplies. I’ve also got toys, costumes, camping, and holiday. Games, tools, gardening stuff and books are different, we use these items rather regularly, but there isn’t enough room for them.
2. Repeat Step 1
I have to repeat step 1 over and over again because I’m downgrading my emotional attachment with each pass. Its hard, but this repetition of re-evaluation works.
3. ID Unitaskers
There are some items that were once super useful, but they only performed that one task. This is not handy while on the road. For example, have an electric juicer. I loved that juicer, but all it can do is juice. Same thing with the costume light saber. So out they go!
4. Convert or Find Digital Equivalents
Books become eBooks, boardgames for the iPad, documents to PDF, pictures to JPGs, CDs to MP3s, DVD & BluRay to MKV, MP4, or ISO.
5. Sell, Sell, Sell!
Selling is hard. Watching people paw through your stuff is kind of emotional. But sometimes its harder when people don’t want your stuff, and then you think “Whats wrong with it? Its perfectly fine!” Unfortunately, we don’t have enough time to sell via eBay or Amazon. Instead we’ll be resorting to a series of estate sales.
6. Donate
Today, I learned about the Buy Nothing Project. Buy Nothing’s moto is: “Give Freely. Share creatively. Post anything you’d like to give away, lend, or share among neighbors. Ask for anything you’d like to receive for free or borrow. Keep it legal. Keep it civil. No buying or selling, no trades or bartering, no soliciting for cash.” Then there’s also Goodwill, who will just accept nearly any donation.
7. Dump
I hate dumping things, but sometimes its got to be done. Being from the Pacific Northwest, I have to recycle as much as I can. I would prefer to find new homes or some use for the things I have.
1 Comment
This is a good time of year to suggest when giving things away on buynothing or freecycle to suggest your games that don’t get sold will make great holiday gifts for families in need of help. When I posted my boys sized shoe skates I requested that they be used for that purpose in my listing and that is where they went. It takes away the sting of no one wanting to buy something. There are other items I have taken to my local senior citizen center where they put it into their rummage sale or in the case of item such as teacups they put them on a special shelf they have for everyday selling of special, small, pretty things. That money goes directly to help fund the center. Children’s Hospital might be a good place for some of the games to go or to one of the after school programs or a homeless shelter for women and children. I find it helps me feel good to direct my donations to specific groups where I would not otherwise be able to provide the donated funds to them. My unsold books get donated to the library where their sale helps them to provide more books to more people.