Moving from Hoarder to Hustler

First of all, no, that’s not a picture of my garage.

Have you seen the show “Hoarders” on A&E? (Or some variation of it?)  That show is like a car accident. A part of me wants to watch because I’m fascinated by the levels of filth people will live in, but yet I want to turn away because it’s so disturbing. (Note: I realize that “Hoarders” is mindless reality television, but cut me some slack. At least I don’t watch that “Honey Boo Boo” show.)

After reading a fellow blogger post about her decision to de-clutter her life, I felt the need to do the same. Is my house filled with all kinds of junk? No. But my garage certainly has a few boxes that I know contain items worth something.  Things that I just haven’t taken the time to rightfully part with.

You know how you clean out a closet, and there’s 3 piles? Keep, donate, and sell? Well, the “keep” is pretty self-explanatory, the “donate” goes out to the street when I get one of those card-thingys in the mail, and then there’s that “sell” pile. That stupid “sell” pile ends up in a box and put on a shelf in the garage, next to all the other boxes marked “SELL”.  So it’s come to my attention that I’m in a bit of denial. As if I’ll walk out there someday and find that the Junk Fairy has taken it all away and left me a $50 dollar bill. Hrmph.

So when you multiply that box by several closets/rooms worth of de-cluttering efforts over the years, I’m left with an entire estate sale sitting in my garage.  (Ok, that’s an exaggeration. We have lots of boxes, but we can still park both vehicles in there. We’re not THAT bad.)

So a few Saturdays ago I decided it was find-out-what-the-heck-I-have-in-these-boxes day.  I was almost appalled at the items I had sitting out there just chillaxin’.  A few-years-old Acer netbook.  A relatively new 20″ Sony flatscreen television with a built-in DVD player.  Various audio/video cords and cables, unopened in their original packaging.  Pottery Barn decor.  All of this stuff could easily be sold.  SO WHY THE HECK AM I LETTING IT SIT IN MY GARAGE???

Sorry, but I need a moment to punch myself in the face.  *** THWACK ***

I’m back. Anyway…after finding those initial “easy sells”, I started looking harder at the stuff I had put in the “not-worth-anything” pile. Maybe I need to think a little more before I give up on the rest of this stuff.  So I went on eBay.  Does anybody still want the 10th Anniversary Edition of the PC game Myst?  A quick search of “sold” listings…and it turns out…YES!  They do!  And they’ll actually give me money to take it off my hands!

Suddenly even the pile of “junk” that I had deemed worthless just moments before, was going up in value before my eyes.  I quickly found an empty box and started selecting the first items that would be up for sale.

You’ve got to start somewhere. These little beauties will be the first to go.

The next day I spent about 30 minutes getting my first three items in ready-to-sell condition, and posting them up for auction on eBay.  I listed the Acer Netbook, a pair of wood Pottery Barn candleholders and a Pottery Barn frame.  You can call me Captain Progress.  I was gettin ‘er done.

So I listed them…and…THEY ALL SOLD.  After shipping costs, I made $93.92.  Almost $100 just from 3 items I previously had sitting in my garage collecting dust.  And ya wanna know where that sweet little pile of cash is going?  Straight to our investment account.

Make money? Win.  Clean out my garage?  Win.  And that’s what we call a win-win situation, folks.  From hoarder to hustler.  Why didn’t I do this earlier?