Get rid of your stuff! Stuff weighs down your soul!

Hi,

As part of my New Year's Resolution to reduce clutter in my life and to improve my financial situation, I had a family garage sale this weekend.

I was shocked at how many people came. I ran a small ad in the local newspaper (this is way too expensive but it worked) as well as posting on Craigslist. I also did the usual tape-up of signs.

The good thing about paying for the newspaper ad is that it brought serious buyers (people willing to drive to a garage sale).

Here is the kicker, I got rid of a ton of stuff, and I made good money. You really have to ask yourself, "have I used or even touched this in the last 18 months?". If the answer is, "No" then you should really consider selling it. I know this is easy to say. I had a really hard time gettting rid of a few things. Once you get in the mood you can get rid of a lot of stuff that you probably will never use anyway.

Here was my cycle:
1) Sell everything at the garage sale. start dropping your prices fast as the morning goes on (you want to get rid of junk too!)
2) Anything that doesn't sell, seperate into two piles:
a) stuff you should take to donate to charity (Goodwill) THAT DAY. Remember, the tax write-off is worth something too!
b) stuff you want to sell still (try eBay).
3) Stuff to throw away in the garbage, THAT DAY

I did the above and we made over $200!!! It was sweet. I also feel great about reducing clutter.