Clearing Out

I am at a point in life where I feel weighed down by STUFF!  I've been in a clear-out mode for some time. For a couple of years I sold quite a bit on eBay. I had fun and I made a surprising amount of money.  

Now I am mostly giving stuff away. It's still not easy. I want to live more simply and yet I have plenty of things which are meaningful to me. And I don't like throwing things away if someone could use them. So therein lies the dilemma.

In addition to taking things off to the local charity shops, I also now use 'Freegle' and have had great success!  Sometimes things are too bulky or heavy for me to get in my small car. Sometimes they are things that I don't think a charity shop (thrift store) will take. It's amazing what people will get excited about!  I recently got rid of two extremely heavy (and extremely UGLY!) garden pots - I thought they were destined for the tip, but couldn't even lift them into my car to take them there. So I posted them on Freegle, with a picture, and within 2 hrs someone picked them up and was delighted with them!  Go figure!  

Today I posted several items which went almost immediately - a collar too big for Dolly, a mop, a stack of plastic 'baskets', a stack of magazines and this collection of packing envelopes and boxes. This was leftover from my days of eBay. Some were new but many were recycled. Two LARGE bags full. I posted this picture and a small description and within THREE minutes someone replied and he came to pick them up within the hour!  We realized we'd met before from one of my other Freegle posts (storage boxes he used to store his video game collection) and he was pleased to tell me how useful they'd been. He's just starting to sell on eBay and was thrilled to take my castoff envelopes. I also ended up giving him a bag of bubble wrap, 3 rolls of packing tape and a stack of sheets of large address labels.

So go ahead - take a look at your clutter and unwanted, excess 'stuff'!  Take it to a Charity shop, eBay it or Freegle (or Freecycle) it!  Free up some space, make someone happy and keep it out of landfill!

For more on the concept, watch this short video.