Now that you have inventoried all your stuff (you did inventory it right?), now is the time to start selling your stuff.
Being able to sell things in this world is one of the greatest skills you can develop. Most people hate having to sell things, and they could never imagine doing it for a living, but people do it ever day.
And people don’t just sell things. In fact, one could argue that sales people never really sell things, they sell ideas. They show how the thing they are selling fits into what the potential buyer wants and needs.
Let’s face it. There are plenty of things you have right now that you don’t want, or need, or use anymore.
Sell them!
Don’t second guess yourself. Just do it! Don’t try to rationalize with yourself that you may use that stuff eventually. Sell it, and be rid of the burden of keeping it.
And yes, everything you keep is a burden you carry. If it is going to be any use to you it needs to be stored, maintained, and cared for. All of which are things which cost you even more time and money to accomplish then you realize.
There are numerous ways you can go about selling things, but the internet makes it easy.
Ebay.com, craigslist.org, freecycle.org, half.com, amazon.com, ebid.net, etc.
Lastly, while I don’t advocate minimalism for everyone, the minimalist movement has given us some great ideas for living a better life.
The first is to monitor all the things you use and get rid of anything you don’t use in a certain amount of time. For instance, get rid of anything you haven’t used in the past year. For the braver ones, get rid of all things you don’t use in a month to a few months time.
Another idea is that for everything you buy, you have to get rid of or sell TWO things in your life.
There are many other cool principles to live by, but you get the idea. Make your life simpler and free from too much stuff. Sell your stuff, and don’t buy more.
This is our 12th challenge in The Personal Finance Challenge Series…