Help!!! Need advice... Badly

[pennywatcher]

You might see if you can find an Ebay trading assistant in your area: Trading Assistant Program on eBay

I don't know how much the services vary from assistant to assistant, but the ones I have seen will do everything, including cleaning the item. You only get a check for about 50% of the selling price, but that would give you an easy way to get cash out of the items without being overwhelmed by thoughts of the work involved in holding a garage sale.

There are lots of charities that will pick up your stuff so you don't have to haul it over to them. If you have a pickup date scheduled, that can help motivate you to put things in the outgoing pile.

Do you have any neighbors with the same problem? We did a swap meet. Everyone brought a bunch of good items they no longer needed then we took turns selecting items from the collection that we wanted. Everything unclaimed went to charity at the end of the day. Knowing that some of our items went to good homes made it easier to part with the rest of the stuff.

You say, "My kids won’t let anything go." Are they actively fighting you on getting rid of things, or are they just not volunteering anything? They might find a swapmeet with friends to be fun.

I know some people who have had luck setting limits for themselves or the kids where if one new thing comes into the house, two (or more) have to leave until they get to an uncluttered point then it's one for one after that. This tends to work well with things like clothes and toys.

[3timesoccermom]

How you doing today neener?? Any progress? I'm thinking about you and rooting you on.

[KRP1981]

Originally Posted by 3timesoccermom Are you an "all or nothing" personality?? I am! And that makes it harder to begin on these tasks because you think you have to set aside a massive amount of time to get it done when in reality a little at a time is effective and not nearly so ovewhelming.

Oh.My.Goodness. That is so me. I tell my husband that all the time. If I feel like I can't devote the time I need to a project to do it the way that I deem "right" then I don't even want to start. So I'll go back and forth between the house being spotless, or a wreck!

We need to start reminding ourselves that every little bit helps! Just do what you can! When I do, I always go to bed happier, and not feeling like the whole day was a complete FAIL in the housekeeping category.

[pennywatcher]

Something I've found helpful in the past is to get a clutter buddy. Every day send a report to the other person to say what you'd done toward the project. This can help keep you motivated if you feel either healthy competition or a twinge of guilt. The other thing it does is makes you stop and appreciate how much you got accomplished on a certain day. Sometimes when you look at it, it doesn't seem like much, but when you write it all out, you realize you did good. Another aspect is that you can trade organizational tips with your buddy. He/She may have a solution for dealing with certain types of stuff that would really help you and vice versa.

[3timesoccermom]

I had the same thought earlier. You could even take "before" and "after" pics of the areas you conquer as you go along and share them with each other for inspiration.

Originally Posted by pennywatcher Something I've found helpful in the past is to get a clutter buddy. Every day send a report to the other person to say what you'd done toward the project. This can help keep you motivated if you feel either healthy competition or a twinge of guilt. The other thing it does is makes you stop and appreciate how much you got accomplished on a certain day. Sometimes when you look at it, it doesn't seem like much, but when you write it all out, you realize you did good. Another aspect is that you can trade organizational tips with your buddy. He/She may have a solution for dealing with certain types of stuff that would really help you and vice versa.

[3timesoccermom]

LOL KRP. And you know what? Having this mentality seems to keep me from thinking creatively about solutions sometimes. For example, a few years ago I really wanted to re-organize and straighten this big cabinet we have that has lots of shelves. I kept putting it off thinking I didn't have the time because I knew it would take all day. Then one day, it just hit me, DUH!!! I can do one shelf at a time!! How simple is that but it never occurred to me until I'd been fretting over that problem for quite a while. It REALLY makes me feel stupid.

Originally Posted by 3timesoccermom Are you an "all or nothing" personality?? I am! And that makes it harder to begin on these tasks because you think you have to set aside a massive amount of time to get it done when in reality a little at a time is effective and not nearly so ovewhelming.

Originally Posted by KRP1981 Oh.My.Goodness. That is so me. I tell my husband that all the time. If I feel like I can't devote the time I need to a project to do it the way that I deem "right" then I don't even want to start.

[neener130]

Originally Posted by pennywatcher Something I've found helpful in the past is to get a clutter buddy.

All and I mean All my friends have the most organized houses. Even their cars and garages are neat and organized!! They are the ones who have no guilt about throwing anything out! I even have one friend give me her Kitchen Aid (brand new, never used, wedding present) because it was either me or the trash. She said it was just collecting dust so she was going to throw it out! I took it!

[SouthernBelle5]

if you have things you dont want to throw out or sell, consider repurposing it for some other use. i have a jeep liberty and it has NO storage space on the dash so everything ended up in the cup holders which was inconvenient. i found a box laying that was mad of sturdy plastic with some decent heights sides, painted it, and velcroed it to the dash. now i have somewhere to toss change or whatever in the KJ. i found i website awhile back that has crazy cool ideas for building and reusing things that you wouldnt even think of. being an artist i consider myself a creative type and some of this people come up with for everyday household items is crazy!

Instructables - Make, How To, and DIY

i am SB5'S DH and i approve this message.

[Mothernature]

Here are a few things done in our household. The idea is to keep the flow of items moving to avoid clutter.

1) We purchase gifts for our household that we need or have resale value. If we receive gifts that we can not use, we sell or give them away.

2) I had to clear out four boxes of frees last year. I've asked DH to pick up free items we need or worth of high value (like the $1k comic book collection).

3) We recycle our videos and video games. There is a local store which issues high % store credit. We then use the credit to purchase DS's DS Lite and Wii games.

4) We purchase higher end cloths on clearance and resell the lots. Ebay is a great resource to resell.

5) We've had much success selling items that we no longer need via Craigslist. If priced right, you won't hold on to the item(s) long.

I am not able to hold a garage sale nor drop stuff off at the local Good will (no street parking at or near the store).

[SuzieB123]

If i were you, I would go through the house one room at a time, get things ready for a garage sale and whatever doesn't sell, donate to goodwill....but make sure to get a reciept so you can deduct all the donations on your taxes! I used to save everything from one year to the next for garage sales and now my motto is that if it doesn't sell, it doesn't come back in the house! If you don't want to have a garage sale, go through things slowly and list them on craigslist or in the local newspaper!