I’ve hit a wall.
I walked into the sunroom where half of our crap is waiting for us to go through it and I walked right back out. I can’t face it today. Plus, the drive from Alabama killed my back and I’m in all kinds of pain. Like, there’s a scowl permanently etched on my face right now. It’s not pretty.
So when I walk into the sunroom, I just get angry. Is it bad that I wish I could just snap my fingers and it would all be done? Aside from a few boxes, I don’t even really remember what’s there. Which says a lot about how much I don’t need whatever is in there.
In the meantime, I’ve decided that I don’t want to mess with listing stuff individually on Craig’sList, so I’m going to try to convince Stephen that we should have a garage sale.
I’m afraid it will be one of several. And I’ll have a donation truck scheduled to arrive right afterwards to cart off whatever doesn’t sell.
I’m thinking that Garage Sale #1 will focus on big stuff, like furniture. Garage Sale #2 will be household items. Garage Sale #3 will be stuff from the garage. And the rest will just get donated as we go.
Speaking of which, this is what got donated most recently:
Not a clue what is in there. I. Don’t. Remember.
Whoops. I just stared at the picture. There’s a Coach leather briefcase under those baskets. I meant to sell that on Ebay. Oh, well. Someone is going to get an amazing bargain or the National Federation of the Blind is going to make some money. I’m not sure what they do with the donations.
Why not just donate it? A garage sale is a lot of effort, especially with a bad back (speaking as one with a bad back and left arm in plaster). I’m all for the easy way to an uncluttered life.
You know, give yourself a pat for a really good deed. It’s a good cause!
Another idea would be to list it in freecycle to get rid of everything. My grandfather in the last years of his life wanted everything gone. He offered everything from one side of his basement on a free ad in the local newspaper. I think he charged $20 but the condition was they had to take everything. The person showed up with two trucks and hauled it all away.
I completely understand being overwhelmed with stuff. When I began clearing out my last place to downsize I had bags all over waiting to be donated, I couldn’t stand to see that part of my house.
You really don’t need me to remind you of this, but here goes: it’s OK. It’s OK to have hit a plateau. You’ve all been working very hard; long before you even took over this blog. You had a fun vacation, but the aftermath is now your reality, and it doesn’t help that we’ve reached the core-of-the-sun hot portion of the program. Take a couple of steps back and allow yourself a couple of days off. You know you have the mental strength to forge onward; you just need a little bit of time to recharge the batteries.
I think if you have hit a wall it’s a good idea to go back to something easy and satisfying. I have recently done a second sweep of DVDs and CDs because I’d already been through the emotionally difficult stage of getting started with it. I found it really easy to go through the second time and get rid of more stuff.
Give yourself a break – it’s totally okay to do that.
Just chiming in to add that you have some time and space to get it done, backing off for a few weeks to do the fun or easy or rewarding stuff won’t matter in the long run.
ditto, what they said. give yourself a break.
heal that back some.
The post is called The Simple Life. Take the easy option and give it all away to a charity. It’s such a wonderful feeling to make a phone call and a charity comes and takes away all the stuff you don’t want but someone else does. I would trade the good feeling of helping a charity for a few hundred dollars and lots of hassle. I just moved house and had loads of stuff worth money and briefly considered selling it but I thought of the times I had found great stuff in charity shops when I was broke. Let someone have the thrill of finding a treasure and enjoy the karma. One phone call and it disappears like magic. X
I have discovered that tax benefit of donating usually out weighs what I could make at a garage sale. It took many garage sales for me to figure this out. Last two garage sales I’ve had, people complained about $1 clothing being “too high”. It didn’t matter how nice or how much I paid, most folks were looking for Dollar Store or less prices. I would rather donate. Check this to see a valuation chart of items. http://www.use.salvationarmy.org/use/www_usn20.nsf/vw-text-dynamic-arrays/33CE09196410A2148825770B0054FF7A?openDocument&charset=utf-8. I also gave some furniture to a friend’s son for college. It was our gift to him and he was thrilled.
You’ve done a lot lately so hitting a wall is ok! You’ll pick yourself up later and get on with it when you feel more like it..
I plan to have a garage sale but most likely until next year cause my mom needs my help. But I would just have 1 mac daddy garage sale and get rid of what you can when you can. Then just get rid of it all after that.
Good luck and you have done a great job considering all you have going on!
Hugs. (And welcome back!)
Thanks. And thanks!
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