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Not sure if I posted this earlier, but my one indulgence is buying discounted books. Fortunately I have spare space, and two dedicated rooms for them. Nice and organized. Otherwise I'm streamlining my house as much as possible. I figure I will bequeath my books to whatever new/used bookstores there are in the vicinity, including Manhattan.
There's one large room, a former dining room, I vow to make totally empty and use as a meditative place.
Gave away a old cheap treadmill on Craigslist. Amazing what people will come and get when you say it's free. I've used Craigslist "curb alerts" to good use to get rid of stuff I don't want, and don't want to haul to the landfill.
Also sold an old recumbent bike on Craigslist. Craigslist works!
Gave away a old cheap treadmill on Craigslist. Amazing what people will come and get when you say it's free. I've used Craigslist "curb alerts" to good use to get rid of stuff I don't want, and don't want to haul to the landfill.
Also sold an old recumbent bike on Craigslist. Craigslist works!
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I just made an account on Craigslist for some exercise equipment. I used it many years ago for a variety of free stuff and it was amazing how many it attracts.
Yesterday I completed a project that had sat idle for 4-5 years. I installed new hinges on the two kitchen cabinets that hadn't been updated previously with the rest of the kitchen. Then tossed all the old hinges which had been collecting dust in my workshop, some for 4-5 years.
Today I replaced two receptacles in the basement, Laundry and Sump Pump, with GFCI to meet current codes so I won't need to do it in 1-10 years when we sell this house.
I need to tackle the 5 boxes of personal work stuff in the basement that moved there after a job change in 1999, again in 2012, and finally retirement in 2020.
Anyone need a PalmPilot with batteries that died maybe 15 years ago when O/S changes to my laptop made it a non-functioning relic? It is embarrassing that I continued to carry that thing in my computer bag until my retirement!
[quote=westegg;52885297]Not sure if I posted this earlier, but my one indulgence is buying discounted books. Fortunately I have spare space, and two dedicated rooms
If you don’t care about the physical books, but just about the contents of the physical books, then you could consider destructively digitalizing your books. I watched the entire series about digitalizing books. I unbound and scanned about 6 bookcases of books and magazines with a Fujitsu IX-500 multi-page scanner. The scanner is like a reverse printer. It scans stacks of pages that are unbound, into PDF files. After digitalizing your library, you need to back up the digital files multiple places. The unbound pages are recycled. I decluttered almost all of my books and magazines. I then sold the bookcases. A couple years after digitalizing my books and magazines, I’ve read less than 1% of the library.
I also scanned all of my statements, paperwork, and store receipts. It much easier to find the digitalized store receipts, when I need to return something. When you digitalize the paper from your life, it significantly reduces the clutter in your life!
The decluttering starts with things you haven't used for a decade or longer. If you haven't used things in a decade or longer, the chance of actually needing that thing in the future is low. Also concentrate on large and heavy things. The idea is to significantly reduce the footprint of the possessions. If you are moving long distances, the cost to move those items is very visible. There's a chance that you might have to re-buy items that you didn't keep. That happened to me after my decluttering, but in the larger scope of decluttering, I rarely had to re-buy items. It's best to go through every room of your house and garage over and over, looking for more things to get rid of. After you get rid of some possessions, it is easier to get rid of more possessions.
More about decluttering. Don't waste your time with Craig's List! Instead, use Facebook Marketplace. Facebook Marketplace works about 20 times better than Craig's List. I started off using Craig's List, then switched to Facebook Marketplace, after I discovered how much better it worked. There will be two types of customers who buy things. One type always wants a discount. So, you have to think about how much you are willing to lower your price from the listed price. The other type of customer pays the listed price, no questions asked! Some items will not sell, even if you drop the price to free! Some items, you'll get hit with 120 requests in the first 20 minutes of posting your Facebook Marketplace listing.
Things that don't have value to sell, or cannot sell, try to donate to thrift shops, to get rid of the items. You need to reserve space in your trash and recycling bins for the things that are not good enough to donate. Large and heavy items, like old pianos, and big furniture, made mainly with wood, can be cut up with an electric reciprocating saw and a wrecking bar. The wood can be burned to reserve space in your trash for other trash. Also, haul you extra trash and recycling to your friends and in-laws to use their spare garbage and recycling space, to boost your garbage and recycling capacity.
After our move from Minnesota to Florida, there are a few things that I should have kept, but not many items to re-buy. But we should have decluttered more than we did. Now, we'll have to go though many boxes of things again, to reduce the footprint of possessions even more, things that we will never need after moving that stuff to Florida.
I just take items to the local Goodwill. They are good about not asking what is in those big black garbage bags. I live in a small town and I guess everything sells.
Just reading about Facebook Marketplace, much less Craig's List, makes me tired. I could sell my surplus stuff for some money (and I love money), but it's pretty clear I'm never going to, so I've put a bunch of it into boxes and put the boxes by the door to be loaded into the car to take to the thrift shop next week. It's a start.
I am another one who would prefer $ but I don't have that kind of patience to list on FB Marketplace though I do spend lots of time browsing there.....so my 2 suggestions are
Look for a buynothing group on facebook. They are really local and everything must be free. Once they get going, they are very very active and it's unusual for something to not be claimed.
Freecycle is the old standby and that is still good but I find it a bit less active lately ( thanks to FB)
Nextdoor is also a possiblilty .
When you offer things for free, they get taken.
I mostly do porch pickup ( contactless).
Even odds and ends- like we had a bunch of lightbulbs for older appliances and since replaced with LED etc,--- people took that. I have certainly given away better things ( good crystal, vases, lamps,furniture, etc etc) but my point is most stuff that is working will get a new home.
Except for vehicles i only sold a few big items and sold them for no more that 15% of the price if new. Everything else was picked up in two trucks by Habitat Restore. I was moving and preferred speed over cash. Plus I’d used all my stuff for at least 10 yrs so I’d gotten my moneys’ worth already
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