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Patti

I’d just like to share what has helped my husband and I keep our home generally tidy and clutter free. He is a minimalist so he doesn’t have the issue as much as I do as I seem to attract junk everywhere I go (finding stuff on the street, bargains to good to pass up at goodwill stores, being given things..you get the picture).

Now I’m a bit of a self confessed shopaholic, something I have been working on in myself for some years to get over as I don’t want to “want stuff”anymore. I also come from a family of resourceful people who are money savvy when it comes to finding bargains and also at generating money from buying/selling and making things. I’m now using this “flaw” to generate an income to more positively impact my life rather than create debt and clutter. I also purchase a lot secondhand and pre-loved so I’m staying in the recycling loop rather than using up more natural resources by buying new. We are about to have our first child and have purchased 95% of the items required for a baby second hand.

Five years ago we started doing two major clean ups a year at home by going through EVERY drawer and cupboard in our home, offices & garage and making two piles- 1: sell on eBay, and 2: give to charity/goodwill. We auction off everything that is of considerable value and donate everything else (for example, we won’t auction items that will only fetch a few dollars). We don’t buy anything until we have sold something, so one item in, one item goes out. We have to date sold approximately $40,000 in office goods and photographic equipment (I am a photographer and my husband was in e-commerce for a while), approximately $30,000 in stuff from our homes including furniture, electronics we didn’t need, designer clothes and accessories we decided weren’t us anymore, got rid of dvds & cds that were taking up space on the bookshelf and our second car that was costing us registration/maintenance etc.

With these extra funds we were able to pay for a small modest wedding, things for our home that we needed and put money into down-payment for our small house. Sure it was a lot of work but the major motivator for us has been viewing the exercise as a part time job that has been immensely rewarding as we know our things are going to other homes rather than land fill, going back into our community to provide funds for charity, that we can “right some wrongs” for having bought things we clearly didn’t need and in some cases make money that can go to much better use in our lives and create fewer tolerations.

I know several people who have adopted our method for keeping their desires for stuff and at the same time keeping their living spaces and offices tidy and clutter free. I hope this helps.