Originally Posted by William Morris

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.

The first time I read this quote it was a like a lightbulb went off in my head and I suddenly thought "duh! Why wasn't I already living by this?" And as the years pass since I first read it, I keep reminding myself of it and striving to come closer and closer to this ethos.

Basically, we've got a lot of junk. Shirts that we feel "meh" about, throw pillows we're ambivalent towards, knick knacks and shoes and just so much stuff we don't like that much cluttering up our lives! It feels like "more is better," and you tell yourself "well I don't dislike it," but the truth is, hanging onto all that junk just weighs you down. There's never a need for 50 shirts, and losing 10 won't hurt you - in fact, looking in your closet and seeing only things you really enjoy wearing is quite a fun, uplifting sort of experience!

So here's my challenge for you! Try to conform to this quote as much as you can. Get some bags and boxes and go through your closet and pull out all the clothes you just don't enjoy wearing. Pull the knick knacks you don't care about off the shelf, get out that set of dishes you never ever use, deshelf the books you're never going to want to actually read, and bag and box them up. Find a goodwill or other such place that takes used item donations and be rid of it all. Trust me, you won't miss it! And being surrounded by carefully selected things that you really love is 10x better than being drowned a lot of stuff you sort of like.

And don't forget, just because something's useful doesn't mean it should be kept! Blenders are useful, but why have one if you never ever make smoothies?

I hope you'll use this thread to talk about purging the unneeded things out of your life, share your successes, look for motivation, and track your progress! Remember, if it seems too daunting a task, remember that a little progress is better than none at all - maybe you can't clean the whole closet right now, but you can pull out those two shirts you're thinking of right now that need to go, right? Any success, no matter how small, is a success!

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED
I should tell my mother this. Her house is so cluttered.

I have clothes that need this treatment. Stuff I've never worn, things I used to wear by wouldn't be seen dead in now, etc. Some is charity shop material, some I should definitely try and sell on Ebay as it not worn-looking, but that requires me to get over the hurdle of not having sold anything on there (just bought) and all the OMG fears that go along with it. Plus...effort

I have taken stuff into work to get rid of it before (I work in a secondhand place) but doing it that way, I have to see the stuff every working day until someone buys it >< It's extremely weird seeing your things out on the shop floor! Right now, I can't even remember what all those things were, so it shows I was right to get rid of them!

Good luck, Pistachio!

Jelly - Yeah, the sell vs. donate thing is tricky. The way I see it, if the effort means you're not going to get around to it, better to just get it out of the house. You could see if there are any second hand shops around that buy things from people instead of just taking donations? That's a compromise I go with sometimes. You don't get as much as if you had sold it yourself, but it's still more than if you had dumped it in a donation box. Which reminds me... I've got tons of bags in my car I've been meaning to take in to one of those places... Guess I know what I'm doing after class tomorrow!

There's one place in town that does that. I volunteered there at one point. Their process is pretty time consuming, I'd honestly rather just get my butt into gear and sell things ><

I am looking forward to the mild excitement of wondering how much I'll get for my stuff! I'd only put things up for the 99p listings, apart from those free listing weekends they do to try and give people like me a poke to start selling. I'll not expect to get any more than that for anything, and I shall be thrilled when I do.

I've even saved packaging from items I've bought on there, to re-use for packing my own stuff. Just got to actually start selling things now ><

Oh, really? With the one I use, you just haul in your bags, fill out a form, then either wander around their store or go somewhere else for half an hour or so until they've finished.

Let me know how your selling goes! Maybe you'll convince me to give it a try.

i need to start selling things.....

At this charity shop, you have to decide what price goes on each item. So you automatically have a ceiling price, no matter how nice an item might be, because it's a charity shop. Also, the deal there is you get half, the shop gets half, so I don't think it's really worth the effort.

Another reason I'd rather try my luck on Ebay. I might get no more than the minimum bid (but that's more than I'd have got if I just gave it away), I might get a bit more than I'd have got selling it through the charity shop, I might get a decent amount for some of it.

Plus the shop's a bit yucky >< I stopped volunteering there after a few times, and I couldn't really understand why. They are very religious there, and start the day with a pray, and play religious music all the time, but that didn't especially bother me, and I enjoyed the various things I was doing. I realised it was the actual shop I didn't like being in, the shabby, dingey environment that turned me off and left me feeling unhappy. Something useful learnt, anyway!

What method are you thinking of using, hummy? Ebay or selling to shops? Or yard sales? Or selling out of your trunk in an abandoned alley? Maybe not that one.

Jelly, it's the ebay fee that puts me off a bit. Got to spend money to make money, I suppose, but I'm so afraid of listing a bunch of stuff only to have none of it sell and me be out a big fee.

I feel you, some thrift shops just feel gross. There's this little church charity shop a few blocks from me with crazy low prices and a very sweet elderly couple who volunteer there. I find nice stuff there and it's not dirty, but it's not the most fresh environment either. It feels like it's stuck in 1987.

But here if you list stuff for 99p there's no listing fee, only the 10% (I believe) from the sale. I'd imagine the US Ebay has a similar method?

Chi: will be able to tell us. =3

Oh really? That would be nice, then! I don't mind a percentage being taken off after the sale is made, I just don't want any upfront fees.

jellysundae:
The last I used eBay it took roughly 10% of everything, including shipping. I haven't had to pay a listing fee in a long time, but I don't know if it's because I had a special promotion or not. It used to be that you could list "X" amount of auction style listings each month for free, and then if you waited for special promotions, you'd get a shot at listing "X" amount of fixed price with "buy it now" options for free.

Any time I list (admittedly isn't as much these days), I have free listing. They end up taking 10% of everything--final price/shipping afterwards. I don't remember if that includes the PayPal fees or not... hrmmmmm...

That's pretty much what I've been told by people here, thanks Chi! I didn't know the 10% was taken from the shipping too, but that makes sense. I can see why some people grouse about that, and why some bump shipping charges up because of that, but it you manage to sell an item that you would otherwise have just thrown/given away, you're still coming out ahead, so what's the problem, you know?

I had an issue with a seller who was (I believe) trying to stiff me with regards to postage fees >.> I won this very nice winter cardi, one of the long cuddly ones that covers your bum. Because it was a bulky item the postage was £6, but I was fine with that. Thing is, she didn't send it through the post, it came by courier. I never bid on anything sent by courier because delivery to me is impossible because of where I live. Only ever bid/buy something if it's going to come through the post and I can then easily collect it from the sorting office.

Needless to say, I was unable to take delivery of this item. The courier was very helpful, but his van had broken down, and someone else had taken over his round and various blah de blah, so he didn't actually know where my parcel was when I spoke to him on the phone. After explaining the issues of delivering to me at home he said he'd drop it off at work if the parcel was still at the depot, but it clearly wasn't.

So I got onto the seller about it and I got a refund. I did make a point of mentioning that I'd never have bid on the item in the first place if they'd stated then that it would be sent by courier. But I still believe they gave the higher postal price, then sent it via the much cheaper method, so they could pocket the difference. : /

I would love to do this, but I create strange sentimental attachment to odd crap. I know it's useless and I don't use it and it just sits in a box so it's never seen, but my grandmother gave it to me and if she sees that I don't have it anymore it will break her heart. Or things like, see this ugly lump of something, my brother found it while we were hiking in place and said it reminded him of thing and now I can't part with it. It's ridiculous I know, I just have to be in a "get rid of stuff" mood to do it otherwise I start to get all nervous about losing things I might regret not having anymore.

Also right now we have thousands upon thousands of MTG cards but I can't touch them because my fiance is thinking about opening his own game store at some point and might maybe need them for start up product or funds.

10% of shipping, that's weird. :/

Long - I used to really struggle with bizarre sentimental attachments. I had trouble getting rid of anything because I had once liked it or someone gave it to me. Now I figure the item has served its purpose and the person wouldn't want their gift to be senseless clutter for me. But until you're ready to get rid of the stuff, you could pack it up neatly and out of the way, if it all isn't already?

Today, I have thrown an empty lip balm jar into the recycling bin! Are you proud of me? I had zero reason to keep hold of it, other than it's pretty and potentially useful. But no, I was tough with myself and into the rubbish it went!

I think we did a major purge before we moved in April. Whenever my mother's house sells, we'll have a ton of storage stuff to go through and purge! Biggest part would be donating baby stuff or hanging onto them "just in case". /sentimental

I do recall having totes full of art stuff. That can go...

The apartment we're in now doesn't allow for much excess, so we're usually good about the extras. Hopefully it stays that way.

Jelly - Woohoo! It is a cute jar, but yeah, no possible second use for that.

Chi - If it helps any, I can say that as a fairly sentimental person, I don't slightly begrudge my parents for having tossed/donated all of my old onesies except one. I have one, and that's really all I need. Beyond that and it's just... a lot of tiny clothes, not special at all. And if I also had a pacifier and a rattle and a bottle and a bib and a bunch of toys... yeah, too much baby stuff!

Oh but Cherry, little jars are so potentially useful :O So many small things that can be stored in them. Say the random detritus that ends up in that particular drawer in the kitchen or wherever. Fuses, screws, drawing pins etc. But I'm terrible for saving various small pots etc. for just this reason...some of them actually have screws and things in them!

Shhhh, you were good to throw it out, shhhh. Besides, they are good for storing little things, but they need to be big enough to store a lot of little things. So that pot was still too small, probably.

Wish me luck - Today, I'm going to try to convince my mother to take up this challenge.

She's awful about holding onto odds and ends. My parents' basement is just filled with junk that has absolutely no use anymore. She was a gym teacher, so she's got mountains of college books about physiology and old paperwork, most of which is from the 70s. This stuff was outdated even 20 years ago! But she retired this year and it's finally starting to hit her, so my dad and I are joining forces in order to "help" her get rid of junk and clean out the house.

Good luck, Knerd! I've found that it can be much easier for someone if they have a helper there. When you're facing your own mess by yourself, it can be so easy to get overwhelmed and not know where to start. But having someone else can help you to focus - even if that means them grabbing each individual item and asking "does this stay, or does this go?" Just forcing them to focus on one item at a time and make individual decisions. It's tedious, but it gets better results! I've done that for a lot of people now, and it always nets more things being tossed than when the person would try to go in by themselves. Likewise, it helped me when my mother would do that for me. If I didn't have her there focusing me, I'd just stand and stare at the mess for half an hour, not knowing what to do.