KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

jellybeantinker1

Ended up being a long post....sorry!

I will try and sell pretty much anything on Ebay. It is really quite surprising what people will buy...even down to ornaments with chips or cracks. Sometimes people are collecting things, and the item, although not rare may be difficult for them to get hold of. It is also amazing how much things sell for. You do have to be a little patient and it does help if you have a space where you can store your items whilst they are waiting to be sold.

I leave them on Ebay, as an auction item or a Buy It Now for around a month, sometimes up to 3 months (again depending on what it is and I do have the space to store stuff in boxes) and if it hasn't gone in a certain time limit, it goes to the Charity shop.

I am selective about what I sell, always check what previous items have gone for and decided whether it is worth it and you might actually find you are sitting on something that is worth quite a few ££. I found that I had a 1st edition of Matilda by Roald Dahl from when I was younger, my children have read it and it is still in perfect condition although a well loved book, hardback. One sold on Ebay for £125! That went back on the shelf!

I generally charge about 10p over the actual postage charge, never more as postage costs can put people off. I reuse envelopes (Amazon) ones are really handy/boxes (again handy to have space to store these whilst you are selling). You may have a handful of items that go for 99p and after fees you get around 36p! but if you are selling a lot all in one go, those 36p's all add up.

I use Hermes for tracked delivery as it is the cheaper option, rather than the PO, though for large letter items and higher value items over £25 I will sometimes use the PO. Hermes and other couriers offer a courier collection (you just have to make sure you give the correct postage price), or you can take the lot to a Hermes Parcel Shop. It is so easy.

Yes it is a bit time consuming in the first place, but rather than donating or throwing things away initially (which MK seems to like) I always try and sell things which are saleable first, as the money you do get from selling can be put towards something that you want to do.

Maybe you want to re-decorate after you have MK's your home, perhaps you want to do a course in something...that money can be put to good use.

Since April 2015, I started selling a lot of our stuff and my in-laws stuff (in-laws stuff was not easy) rather than getting rid of things whilst they were packing for their new home which was going to be A LOT smaller), they decided to pack everything up and then sort it out when they moved in! Arrrgggh! MIL is a sentimental/emotional hoarder, but between them they have actually done really well getting rid of stuff, they realised that they had too! I sold/sell our clutter both on Ebay and Fbk, as well as a car boot sale. So far, I have made around £2000 which is pretty impressive on stuff that could easily just be taken to a charity shop. There were not any high end tech items or expensive jewellery.

Give yourself a time limit to have the stuff sold by and if it doesn't go, then donate it. If you don't have the time, space, inclination, or can't do it for other reasons (health), then donate. It is a lovely feeling to get rid of stuff and I don't miss it!

I have just got to the chapter in Mk's book where she talks about stockpiling and it made me laugh as I think if she came here she would faint! We have about 150 toilet rolls, tins of food in the cupboard. It is not because we think we are going to run out, but for our lifestyle/family it is better for us to have a number of items. I also buy in bulk from a wholesaler as in the end it works out cheaper and saves us money. I know I have X amount of something that will actually last us a year e.g. dishwasher tablets. Also the BIG boxes of washing powder...I have ermm..errrr... 6 of these. But I know that it will all get used (I am also foster carer of little babies (lots of washing!).

I like some of what MK talks about as it makes you think and changes your mind set, and as I have been reading, it has made me realise that the majority of our items, they do actually have a place, it is just a case of them not always getting put back in their place!! It has changed my mind set and I can see a change in our home already.

[Deleted User]

At the start of last year when I began my journey I used to try selling nearly every item I came across, and yes the money was useful at that time, so if you need the money and have the time and patience to sell your stuff, then go for it - facebook selling pages are ideal for this.

But as the year went on I had other health problems and didn't want to sell things anymore, so I must have donated at least 30-40 bags of things to various charity shops last year and I haven't missed the money, or the items inside the bags - in fact I can't remember what was in most of those bags! It made me feel better giving things to charity so they could make some money from things I didn't need. Now I don't think twice and as I come across things they go into a bag in my pantry and when its full I take it down into town.

greenbee

silvasava wrote: »

Thanks for the posts regarding refuges. I have 4 bags of perfectly clean nearly new and new knickers from Auntie that seemed sacrilege to dump but couldn't find anywhere to donate. Will find out during the week if they can be taken.

If you find one locally can you let me know please? I have lots of travel toiletries that I'd like to donate, but was having difficulty locating a drop off point.

dingdongsaving

We're like you PurplePosting. We tried using ebay and FB pages at the start of our journey, but with a house needing cleaning, a family needing feeding, school clubs to sort, 2 dogs needing walking and 2 adults working full time with evening meetings every week who are also thousands of miles from any family to help out when we're pushed and stretched we soon realised that selling (photographing, looking up, listing, responding, packing and posting!) ate into our precious family/down-time. Haha.

We now just have a large carrier bag by the chest freezer and we pop things in as and when we need to. Then, when it's full (every 2-3 weeks) we take it straight to the CS. Even with a fully KDd house it's still this frequent because our little ones are constantly growing out of something clothes or toy-wise, and we're not having more children, so we like to get things OUT and to know that someone else can snap them up for their small folk to enjoy.

We held on to SOOOOOoooooo many toys and clothes after our first it's genuinely a pleasure to let things leave the home 8+ years on now they've been used again.

There's a chance of rain later, so I think we're about to go for a walk to feed the ducks and stretch our legs before coming home to do the final tidy post xmas decorations. Hubby's home from work by mid afternoon, so it'll be nice to come home and "settle-in" together with a film, cuppa, roast chicken and candle. He's off tomorrow too. Yay!

grunnie

Tidying the parental home brings back memories. My father died in 1974 and my mum lived on in the same huge house till she moved into a home. Me being an only child I got the joy of emptying the house and getting it ready to sell. Mum was a hoarder ( think pieces of string too short to use;) and that about sums it up). Three huge rooms upstairs filled completely and she couldn't get up the stairs for years so where the stuff came from is anyone's guess. Under the stair was an aladin's cave filled with st:rotfl:uff that you could date by the decade the further in I ventured. I emptied and tidied the whole house and sold it for twice the asking price. I kept the stuff that Mum needed and the stuff I fancied - a few ornaments and my sons and their friends got a few bits to furnish their flats. The local church got all her hand embroidered table cloths( never used and kept for best) and all of the sugar bowls and milk jugs (about 30 of them ). The rest went to charity shops and only a few bits to the dump. That is why I am tidying my home so the family don't have to clear the cr& p when I am gone.

pollys

I ventured under the stairs this morning. This is one area where I just need to get in and sort. I've sorted out a few items for school and a few bits of rubbish have been thrown. I need to use up some cleaning stuff, I seem to have accumulated quite a lot.
I shredded some old papers that DH had put in the box with the shredder, but not shredded!!! I still feel that there should be less stuff in there as it feels too full. An area to revisit soon.

Polly

greent

greenbee wrote: »

If you find one locally can you let me know please? I have lots of travel toiletries that I'd like to donate, but was having difficulty locating a drop off point.

Our local hospital takes these for the geriatric wards (probably not a PC term, so I apologise - really no offence intended) - some of the elderly don't have (m)any visitors to bring them toiletries and the small sized items from hotels/ travel gift sets are great for one person to use for a few days I used to travel a lot for work and regularly dropped carrier bags full of hotel stuff off to them - I only found out about it because they cared for my granddad on one of these wards for his last few days and I asked one of the nurses.
x

Igamogam

Icey77 wrote: »

Can anyone suggest what to do with my DD underwear that she has outgrown?
It's clean, in good nick (no stinks or stains!) but I've no idea what to do with it except put into ragging at the CS, which feels a little wasteful when it still has life in it although it's not an item most would buy second hand.

I shall see if her nursery would like some to cover accidents etc but I can't see them wanting all of it

pollys wrote: »

Icey - I was going to suggest nursery/school. I'm in school and we are always running out of underwear as it is seldom returned.

Polly

Definitely offer to a school/nursery/playgroup etc. I would bite your hand off for those as Polly says we always need pants/socks/trousers/etc as our parents never return anything and I am sure they believe its all part of the service..............actually we do get the clothes back............the child is usually wearing them:eek: Parents are very quick to complain though if child goes home with wrong jumper - blue jumper is very much the same as all the others when it hasn't got a name in it . The worst we have had is a parent complaining that the trousers we sent home where not a make/style that they liked:rotfl::mad:

lessonlearned

I tried ebaying but didn't do very well, I'm a bit of a technophobe TBH and it used to take me ages to list things. . Now I have a lady who sells things for me. She is a stay at home mum and she has several clients that she sells for. She uses Facebook, eBay and a few other local outlets.

She takes her expenses and then 30 per cent of the profits and I have left what's left. We are both very happy with that arrangement.

i have made a start on my bedroom and I Now have four bags of stuff in the car, mainly clothes, shoes, linen etc. I will drop them off at the chazza on Monday.

I feel better already although I have a long way to go.......

greenbee

greent wrote: »

Our local hospital takes these for the geriatric wards (probably not a PC term, so I apologise - really no offence intended) - some of the elderly don't have (m)any visitors to bring them toiletries and the small sized items from hotels/ travel gift sets are great for one person to use for a few days I used to travel a lot for work and regularly dropped carrier bags full of hotel stuff off to them - I only found out about it because they cared for my granddad on one of these wards for his last few days and I asked one of the nurses.
x

Thanks I'll ask at the hospital next time I'm there. I also want to find out where I can drop off the socks that come in the flight amenity packs, as I know that homeless charities always need them. I just need somewhere convenient to drop them off. As I work from home, I don't tend to be passing anywhere regularly.

Oh - I was in Sainsbury's yesterday (an aberration, but I was passing), and they are recycling wrapping paper, ribbon, cards and Christmas lights. Worth knowing if you will be going so you can take them with you. I didn't, so my dead lights are currently waiting to go to the tip with my old kettle (lid no longer stays shut) and some random chargers for things I clearly no longer have...