Clearing the clutter & making some cash

I am an avid second hand shopper. Yard sales & thrift stores are like manna from Heaven to me. 4 years ago, we relocated for a new job, and went from a small house with a garage, to an apartment that was actually larger, but with almost no storage space. When we made the move, we shed about 5 tons of crap. Goodwill made a killing off us.

After a year, the housing market was collapsing around us, and we suddenly realized- we could actually afford a house. A nice house. 10 years married, and 3 kids later, we were going to own our first home.

It was love at first site. Well, it was love at first entrance, anyway. The outside wasn't bad- the inside was perfect for us. 4 bedrooms, a den, a pantry, a laundry room, and a 'back room' (slash junk collecting room). Perfect.

So when we moved into the 4th and last house we even looked at, our 1500 square foot apartment's worth of stuff was lost in this new 2500 square foot house. And, in our town, we had a Goodwill clearance center. Oh, praise the thrift store Heaven's above!

I did what anyone else would do- I shopped. I brought stuff home. I saw dirt cheap prices, and realized I -had- to have it. At some point about a year ago, I started to realize that it had become... well, maybe not an addiction, but a habit. If I saw clothing in the kids sizes, and they were $.29 each, I grabbed it. I over-grabbed it.

So, for a bit now, I've started to really limit A) how often I allow myself to go thrift store shopping, and B) limited just what I spent my money on.

Why? Because our 2500 square foot house now holds 3500 square feet of clutter. It's a huge problem. I plan to declutter a LOT this summer, especially the clothing.

Yesterday, I posted several items on Craigslist, including a Step2 rocking video game chair. We picked it up for $5 at Goodwill when we moved into our apartment- we thought our son would love it. It has been loved and abused by our kids for 4 years now.

It was time to go, and was still in great shape, so I listed it for $10- and 3 hours later, it was sold. It was just picked up. I'm happy to have the money in my pocket, and 1 less item in my house. I almost kind of want my house to look like this again.

Blissfully empty and clutter free.