To raise additional funds and to get rid of things I don't use anywhere near enough I have had a major decluttering over the last 3 months. I hate clutter and the feeling that I own something I don't use. It seems such a waste when someone must be out there that would use it to its full extent.
If I can sell my camera (my phone is good enough, didn't need a specialist camera) I should reach £1750 worth of sales in total. Most of the stuff was some sort of past purchasing mistake, and I've tried to step back through the logic that went through my mind when I was considering buying, in order to try not to make the same mistake again.
I thought a post on this subject and any decluttering hints and tips would be good to share. I would love to hear yours.
Here are mine:
1. Ebay works well, I haven't had too many issues, people are generally friendly to deal with and it gets your items out there to a large audience.
2. If an item doesn't sell after a month then I'll give it to charity (providing it's not a really high value item)
3. If an item is more than £30 I now allocate some deliberating time before actually purchasing and I'll increase this period the more expensive an item is. It's amazing that leaving it only a few days the strong desire to purchase disappears and you're left with a much more logical, unemotional view of the item. I like to call this my clear head! My clear head makes the best decisions and in future I will be consulting clear head every time I need to make a decision with my job, investments, pension or budget.
4. I've started adding up things I wanted to buy but don't go through with as a form of encouragement. This total is currently £5000 because my car is ten years old and I thought I should get a slightly newer one as I was running scared of potential higher servicing bills going forward. I soon talked myself out of that one and am looking forward to having my existing car at least 20 years. I will compare this total with my saving rate every now and then and appreciate how much higher my savings are because of good clear head decisions.