Happy New Year, everyone! I just wanted to announce that I’m joining the Declutter Challenge from The Single Saver. You can read more about it and sign up on Single Saver’s page. The idea is simple:
1) Declutter and remove 366 (or more) items from your home/apartment.
2) Items may be donated, sold, or given away to count towards the 366 item total.
3) Trash doesn’t count towards the 366 item total (but it will still help declutter!)
4.) Items don’t count towards the 366 total until they actually leave the house.
What I’ll Get rid of
I’m going to concentrate on a few areas of my apartment and get rid of as much stuff as possible.
1) Bookcase – I have wayyyyy too many books, and many of them I don’t intend to read again. I do lend some out to friends, but that doesn’t happen as much as I hope. My bookcase is almost full now, so I’ll be looking to get rid of a few dozen books.
2) Closet – I have a pretty small closet (think the width of a bedroom door), but I’ve cluttered up the bottom of it with random clothing and shoes that I rarely wear. I just need to get in there and toss this stuff quick.
3) Junk drawers – I have a few spots that are catch-alls for random stuff like power cords, mail, and other things. Much of this stuff can probably be thrown away, but there are some useable items that I just don’t use.
4) Storage areas. I’ve been living in the same apartment for nearly a year now, and there’s some stuff in storage that hasn’t been touched since I moved in. It’s probably a longshot that I’ll ever need or want to use these things again, so I might as well toss em.
My Strategy
I covered much of this before in my own post about clutter (also my first ever post!) This is the order of priority for each item I’ll get rid of:
1) Sell on eBay. I prefer this method for items that are worth at least $30 and are easy to ship. I feel I get the best return in price with the least amount of time and stress needed.
2) Sell on Craigslist. This works best with things that I can’t ship. I’m not a huge fan of responding to emails and meeting with potential buyers, but I’ve done it dozens of times in the past with good results.
3) Donate. Basically all of my clothes will go this route, along with a few other suitable items. I tend to just drop them off at Salvation Army or Savers (although they’re a few miles away and not owning a car makes this a little more difficult).
4) Curb it. This is my favorite method for getting rid of stuff fast. It might not be as useful as donating, but it’s still better than trashing perfectly good stuff. Basically all I do is put stuff out on the curb at my house with a “free” sign. Then I create a listing on Craigslist saying what I’ve put out and where it’s located (note: I purposely leave out my email address since I don’t want to bother responding to emails over free stuff). Oftentimes the things I put out are gone in as little as a half-hour.
5) Trash. I doubt very many things will make it into the trash (Yay!), but it’s going to get thrown away if all else fails.
I encourage you to take the Declutter Challenge, too! I’m not even sure I own 366 things (nevermind have 366 items to declutter), but it will be a fun experiment nonetheless.
$ $ $ $
My First Giveaway!
I’m planning to host my first giveaway on Money Spruce to mark the one year blogiversary! Stay turned for more updates.
Carnival
My post on finally being debt free was featured in the Yakezie Carnival at the Ultimate Juggle this week.
$ $ $ $