Monday, September 15, 2008

Selling Off The "Stuff" Is Hard To Do

I have begun my second $500 Ebay challenge. That's where I force myself...I mean "challenge" myself to sell $500 worth of stuff before November. I was almost successful (that's the nice way of saying I failed) in June. I sold $450 on Craig's List and Ebay. After that I lost my momentum. Last weekend I started slowly by listing $50 worth of stuff on Ebay. I'm going to have to try harder to reach my goal this time because I don't have big ticket items like my sewing machine and serger that I sold last time. I did find a Movado watch that I won at a raffle. I checked on Ebay and I might be able to get $180 for it. I haven't listed it yet.

Today there was a post on getting rid of stuff at The Simple Dollar. How timely. I am doing some of the things he suggests like using Ebay and Craig's List. I do plan to have a garage sale in March went my renters leave. I can briefly use the garage and driveway to get rid of the junk that isn't worth my time on Ebay and I want to sell the house furnishings too if there is anything left to salvage. After that I'll rent it as an unfurnished rental.

And a little story about emotional attachment to stuff. ***Do Not Read Further If Your Are Squeamish, You Have Been Warned*** I have mentioned my dear little first car a few times. The pack rats have chewed the wires, nested in the wheel wells and used the interior to throw wild parties. I cleaned the nests out of the engine compartment and sprayed it all down with Lysol. Then I place rat poison around and even put some Bounce dryer sheets inside because I heard the rats don't like them. Well, when I was doing laundry yesterday I smelled something bad. I walked around the garage sniffing and was dismayed to find the smell coming from inside the car. After obtaining a flashlight I located a large dead rat on the floor of the back seat. He was nice enough to die on a dryer sheet so it made the pick up a little easier.

So, why do I keep this car which is now just a hotel for pack rats and their friends? Because it was my first car and I want to fix it. If I sold it now I wouldn't get much money for it. Some day I will have a couple thousand dollars to get new upholstery and new wiring. I just can't get rid of it when it looks so sad. Yup, emotional attachment at it's worse.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope you are being very, very careful - aren't you in Hanta territory? I had a few mice in my kitchen and paid an OSHA cleaning company to come and clean and disinfect($800).

Seriously though, is the car a classic? If not, do you think it would really be worth the cost of restoration? I do understand sentimentality though. That is why I pay a friend periodically to come and help me go through my stuff and tear it out of my hands and out of the house. I have to pay someone to do it because I just won't do it!

Daizy said...

Yes, definitely hanta virus territory. I need more lysol.

Someone actually suggested that the car would make a nice race car, drag racing I suppose. It looks just like a Chevy Nova and those are kind of popular.

The car is on my personal list of things to sell but it is at the very very very end of the list.

Paying someone to "help" me get rid of stuff would be horrible. You are very brave. I have had offers of "help" from friends. Getting rid of it is like getting rid of dreams. I have stuff for when I get a real house, stuff for when I have time to do art again, stuff from my childhood to pass on to my kid(that I don't have yet) etc... The biggest mess is the bedding and decor from the rental house. I need the stuff for next February when my renters come back. After that, all of the house stuff can be sold. I have more excuses...the heat, the rain, no trash service... but this comment is getting really long.