{Image from here}
So I’ve been a little mom lately on the blogging for the most part because I’ve been spending a ton of time weeding out and organizing. As much as I love new projects it feels just as good to get organized and get rid of things. And while this task is slightly less glamorous than working on new home decor projects, it’s so worth it to do a total organizational overhaul now and then. In fact, I love it so much that sometimes I think in my next life I would want to be a professional organizer (and basically I love looking at other people’s stuff!).
Organizing for me has included going through every single box in the basement and various closets in our house and finding a home for things we want to be using on a regular basis in an accessible place. We really try to not to store a lot of things just for the fun of it. For example, we use our inherited fine china (and wedding china) on a regular basis and keep both in our kitchen cabinets or dining room buffet rather than packed away somewhere. I adhere to two rules 1) if it’s out of sight it’s out of mind and you won’t use it, love it, cherish it, and 2) if something is not overly sentimental and you haven’t used it in the past year, it’s maybe time to move it along to someone who will use/love/cherish it.
For the few items that are a) seasonal or b) we’re keeping on a long term basis (mostly a few things from my childhood), these have been re-packed in CLEAR plastic bins with labels taped to the side describing all of the contents. This really takes little time to do and there’s nothing worse than digging through twelve boxes looking for one thing because you haven’t labeled your boxes or can’t see what’s in them. Putting items in clear plastic bins also protects them from rodent and insect friends (we unfortunately have had both of these types of visitors to our basement), and prevents them from water damage in case of leaking or flooding (also happened).
One of the things I didn’t have time to organize to sell prior to our last Home Decor Sale was a bunch of clothing that no longer fit or I wasn’t into. I used to sell clothing on eBay pretty routinely but it got to be a lot of work (more than I wanted to do with the photographing, listing and mailing), and after getting into a “dispute” with someone over whether a pair of jeans were in fact actually “jeggings,” my spirit was a bit broken. Yes, the jeggings were the final straw.
I thought about consigning the clothes at a local consignment store near our house, but my friend Shelby (Hi Shelby!) mentioned that there was a Clothes Mentor near our office that paid cash for clothing without waiting the six weeks or whatever to see if it sells. If you have one of these in your area (they are a national franchise) I would highly recommend them. I’ve taken a bin of jeans and a bin of shoes to them so far and received about $200 for my items. Yes, you may be able to do better by selling those clothes on eBay, but some of the items they purchased were items I listed on eBay in the past (a significant investment of time) and that didn’t sell. So the fact that Clothes Mentor was giving me cash on the spot for them, and I didn’t have to haul the clothes back to my car (and into our house), was an awesome feeling. I also find that when I’m feeling disenchanted with my wardrobe (a la “I have nothing to wear”), all I have to do is weed out my closet to get rid of the items that I’m not wearing or loving. The items that are left are all things that I like/love, which makes me less grumpy and more inspired when getting dressed in the morning. Psychologically I have no idea how this makes sense, but it works.
As far as home decor items that we’re no longer using, I sold a number of these at our Home Decor Sale. A few items that didn’t sell I kept to resell on eBay or at a future yard sale (or on the blog–anyone want to see/buy these here?). Many of these items are vintage or collectible, which can be much less of a hassle to sell online than clothing (yes, I’m still traumatized by the jeggings). I store everything I want to sell in one place so that later I can photograph and list them all at once to save time. Ebay’s Turbolister or Garage Sale for Mac are also great programs to use if you’re selling a bunch of items at once. I’ve also thought about opening an Etsy store and listing the vintage items, but in my opinion Etsy is less user-friendly and harder to navigate than eBay.
Stay tuned for a post later this week on how to have a successful garage sale–there’s still several weeks of decent weather left in the summer and early fall if you’re thinking about having one!
XO,
Heather
P.S. For extra motivation, set up a series recording of Hoarders…