Time to get organised and get on with it!

jwil

peaceandfreedom wrote: »

How fabulous. :T

20p is not great but better than giving it away as you say. Thing is, I don't think it's worth bothering unless there is a profit of at least 3 quid and preferably a fiver. A couple of my items raised less than 1 pound profit, which is ridiculous and entirely my own fault.

To me the small sales still count - I need every pound I can get! If I can make more on ebay than I would at a car boot, then I'll put it on there. It's not an issue for me to stop at the post office though, so it would probably be different if I had to make more effort to get there.

ebayqueen wrote: »

Morning Jwil

You are doing well at the ebay. Never worry too much about the post office. Its people like us that is keeping them open. Our local one was telling me that there are so many people doing ebay every day so they are glad of the custom. I listed only 5 items last night but its 5 that will finish at the weekend. So need to get going tonight.

Thanks ebayqueen - I think it was just the sheer volume of parcels they gaped about

Good luck with your listings! I need to get some more on now too.

jwil

I was watching that hoarding programme last night on BBC1. It was a little close to home as that is what we have been dealing with. The house that we were clearing was like one of those houses. It was crammed to the rafters and there was just a 'footpath' through the house to the key areas. It wasn't rubbish though, it was all 'stuff'.

That is why I have so much to sell, and why I moan about ours being so cluttered. We have the remainder of the contents of that house in ours while we clear it. So we have no spare bedrooms at the moment, and stuff still piled everywhere.

We made the decision that we weren't going to skip it all, and were not getting a house clearance firm in as we've seen first hand how they deal with everything. We have donated loads to charity, sold loads, and donated collections of items which are now for public display in the relative's name. Very little has been thrown away, and we have recycled as much as possible.

I'm pleased with how we've dealt with it, but it's been very hard work. I think we can finally see the end, though we've still got a lot to get rid of.

DH has hoarding tendencies, but it has completely put me off having lots of stuff, and why I am now happy to clear so much of my stuff.

jwil

Raise £600 extra in May = £103/£600 = £497 to go

List 200 items - 45/200 (DH - 30)

Clear magazines - 14/47 (DH - 15)

Time spent studying - 1hrs 30 mins

Complete ECA - started :A

Complete Assignment

Declutter 100 items - 48/100 ( DH - 143)

Review Amazon listings - 170/394

Update ebay listings - 121/121 (DH 57/57)

Sort recipe cuttings and put into book - some

peaceandfreedom

jwil wrote: »

We have donated loads to charity, sold loads, and donated collections of items which are now for public display in the relative's name. Very little has been thrown away, and we have recycled as much as possible.

I'm pleased with how we've dealt with it, but it's been very hard work. I think we can finally see the end, though we've still got a lot to get rid of.

DH has hoarding tendencies, but it has completely put me off having lots of stuff, and why I am now happy to clear so much of my stuff.

Sounds like very hard work, Jwil. I didn't see the programme last night but I will catch up with it on iPlayer at some stage. Extreme hoarders are quite astonishing - there was one programme I saw a few months ago where the guy could only crawl into his house through a window.

With those extreme hoarders, a lot of the stuff is complete rubbish and they are not making any attempts to reduce it, they are still adding to it and don't know how to stop. You situation is very different, though I can see why you want to get rid of the stuff. A room full of 'stuff' drains your energy too much.

Good luck with it all.

jwil

peaceandfreedom wrote: »

With those extreme hoarders, a lot of the stuff is complete rubbish and they are not making any attempts to reduce it, they are still adding to it and don't know how to stop.

Yes, this is what we were dealing with. Sadly the death of the person involved was all that stopped it despite many attempts to help. It wasn't picking things up off the street, it was a shopping/'bargain' addiction. 'That's a bargain, I must have 10' even though none were needed or would ever get used.

peaceandfreedom

jwil wrote: »

Yes, this is what we were dealing with. Sadly the death of the person involved was all that stopped it despite many attempts to help. It wasn't picking things up off the street, it was a shopping/'bargain' addiction. 'That's a bargain, I must have 10' even though none were needed or would ever get used.

With the program I saw, it was all kinds of stuff. An old moudly suede jacket that had belonged to a friend who had died, old bits of fabric, assorted electrical equipment often where there were more than one of something. One guy had something like 53 sewing machines!

His cats had more or less the run of the place and they eventually found boxes crawling with maggots where the cats had fouled the place and where they had dragged food in which was never found.

It's clearly a compulsion and needs someone strong, usually a specialist person, to come in and persuade the hoarder to part with some of the stuff. It's so sad because the underlying issues that make them want to hoard and the compulsion to hoard are exacerbated by all that stuff.

Like anything, it's hard to imagine what it's like unless you are suffering from it yourself. Must be awful.

jwil

We had so much of the same items as well. While we've been booting, we've actually been asked if we were clearing a shop as we had a lot of similar items.

We were very thankful that there wasn't anything too bad. There was a lot of 'tat' but nothing revolting. There is a lot of random 'it might come in handy one day' stuff though - bits of fabric, string, all sorts. It makes me _pale_ when I hear that phrase now. We only had 3 or 4 sewing machines

I thought the programme last night was very well done actually, and because the presenter had grown up in a house like it, it was handled sensitively rather than the over hyped reactions that you often get from these sorts of programmes. It also went into the psychological reasons, and so helps understand things more.

jwil

Hey everyone

Today has been a funny old day. I have sold 3 books on amazon today :T :T That's brill.

I've also received a £5 amazon voucher as well so that's good.

I've received notification that I've won a water butt :j :j :j so that's great news too

I did make a £12 pad too from some ebay money which arrived in my account.

I had a rubbish nights sleep though last night - it was so hot and muggy, so haven't felt brilliant today. Hopefully a better night tonight.

Hope everyone is well

jwil

Raise £600 extra in May = £115/£600 = £497 to go

List 200 items - 45/200 (DH - 30)

Clear magazines - 14/47 (DH - 15)

Time spent studying - 7hrs 40 mins

Complete ECA - nearly done :A

Complete Assignment

Declutter 100 items - 52/100 ( DH - 143)

Review Amazon listings - 174/394
[STRIKE]
Update ebay listings - 121/121 (DH 57/57)
[/STRIKE]
Sort recipe cuttings and put into book - some

jwil

Well that was £12 on the books, so not bad after all.

I've also had one of my non payers on ebay pay up now, so that's another thing gone.