Author Topic: As I wander through my house...  (Read 6212 times)

surfastarian

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As I wander through my house...
« on: October 25, 2013, 10:00:49 AM »
I look at everything that I've accumulated surrounding me.  All this clutter and junk, sitting mutely, gathering dust.  Every piece of it reminds me of my failures and inadequacies.  A stack of street magic videos.  A coke bottle.  Half-written-in journals.  A racing number.  Out of tune guitars.  Mismatched furniture.  A myriad of kitchen gadgets with missing parts.  Parts for other things.  Things for things.  Things I meant to do.  Things I never got around to.  Things I forgot.

So, I'm coming here, because all of these things have made me very very sick.

Dulcimina

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Re: As I wander through my house...
« Reply #1 on: October 25, 2013, 10:22:45 AM »
For some reason, I read this to the tune of Gangsta's Paradise

"As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I take a look at my life and realize there's nothin' left
Cause I've been blasting and laughing so long,
That even my mama thinks that my mind is gone..."

Norrie

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Re: As I wander through my house...
« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2013, 10:27:45 AM »
Sounds like you have a goldmine just waiting to happen. Sell those guitars! Sell everything that you don't love, need, or use. Donate anything that doesn't sell. We've got a clean your house challenge going on that may work well for you.

It's all about noting mistakes made in the past, and then moving forward in the most bad ass, confident way that you know how. We all make some really poor life choices along the way. If you'd like, you can even come over and look at my miniature ceramic shoe collection for confirmation.

surfastarian

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Re: As I wander through my house...
« Reply #3 on: October 25, 2013, 11:12:39 AM »
@ Dulcimina:  I'll add that song to my "to listen" list.  I've decided that in order to better reach my students, I need to be a little bit more open minded than I have been to the hip hop genre.

@ Norrie:  I'm not keen on selling the guitars just yet, as I do get a lot of love and value out of them.  It's just that my life has gotten so inundated with so much other clutter that I haven't even gotten around to doing the things I love (such as picking the guitar). 

Ceramics make me uncomfortable.

I'll have to remember to take a look at the clean your house challenge at some point.  I've always been skitchy about selling stuff online just because I'm not entirely sure how it works.

Woodshark

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Re: As I wander through my house...
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2013, 03:42:07 PM »

 I've always been skitchy about selling stuff online just because I'm not entirely sure how it works.

Just like your first date, your first computer and first cell phone. Seems hard until you do it. Then it's easy.

m8547

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Re: As I wander through my house...
« Reply #5 on: October 25, 2013, 04:33:14 PM »
Selling online takes a bit of work and some practice, but it's not too hard. In almost 10 years of online selling, I can't think of any bad transactions (more than 30 sales, but I don't have an accurate count)  Amazon is the easiest because there's almost no work required on your part. Ebay is more work because you have to create a listing, etc, but you can sell just about anything and get a good price for it. Craigslist is OK if you don't mind dealing with people locally.

My favorite way to get rid of stuff is Freecycle. If there's an active Freecycle group in your area, you can give away stuff that would generally have very little value, but it's valued by the people who want it. For example, I've given away half a bag of charcoal, most of a pack of photo paper, an old electric kettle, old computer speakers, and similar things that aren't worth selling.

I really hate throwing stuff out, so I generally won't get rid of anything unless it goes to someone else, or I can recycle it.

You could also list stuff in the Mustachian Marketplace subforum. If you only sell to people who have an established history on the forum it should be a low risk way to get started. It's a small market, though, so you might have more success elsewhere.

One benefit of being good at online selling is what I like to call the "ebay rental service". You can buy anything to use for a while and resell it for a wash or a profit.

oldtoyota

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Re: As I wander through my house...
« Reply #6 on: October 25, 2013, 08:14:42 PM »
@ Dulcimina:  I'll add that song to my "to listen" list.  I've decided that in order to better reach my students, I need to be a little bit more open minded than I have been to the hip hop genre.

@ Norrie:  I'm not keen on selling the guitars just yet, as I do get a lot of love and value out of them.  It's just that my life has gotten so inundated with so much other clutter that I haven't even gotten around to doing the things I love (such as picking the guitar). 

Ceramics make me uncomfortable.

I'll have to remember to take a look at the clean your house challenge at some point.  I've always been skitchy about selling stuff online just because I'm not entirely sure how it works.

You don't have to sell it. You could give it away and get a tax credit for your donation. You could freecycle it. Just some ideas....

surfastarian

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Re: As I wander through my house...
« Reply #7 on: October 26, 2013, 07:22:25 AM »
@Woodshark:  Mind blown.

@m8547:  My biggest confusion isn't so much the selling itself, it's the shipping, postage, etc.  Suppose that's something I'm going to have to learn, though.

m8547

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Re: As I wander through my house...
« Reply #8 on: October 26, 2013, 07:36:54 AM »
@m8547:  My biggest confusion isn't so much the selling itself, it's the shipping, postage, etc.  Suppose that's something I'm going to have to learn, though.

Shipping is the easy part. You can estimate prices online for each shipping company
http://postcalc.usps.com/
https://wwwapps.ups.com/ctc/request?loc=en_US&WT.svl=PNRO_L1
https://www.fedex.com/ratefinder/home?cc=US&language=en&locId=express

In general, USPS is best for small things or shipping books cheap (media mail). UPS and FexEd are probably cheaper for larger boxes. The two are basically the same, so pick whichever one has the more convenient retail location. To estimate the weight you can look up what you are selling (or something similar) on Amazon and they will always list a shipping weight.

In terms of what postage to charge the buyer, I prefer using a flat rate that's around the cost I expect shipping to be. If it's a bit less, that's good for me, and if it's more, I'm still making money compared to not selling the item.  If you don't want to do that, ebay will let you set up a shipping calculator for buyers, but the actual price might still be more or less. Amazon will just give you a flat credit that barely covers shipping most of the time (usually $4).

lifejoy

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Re: As I wander through my house...
« Reply #9 on: October 26, 2013, 01:50:37 PM »
If I get overwhelmed by the thought of selling, I just donate! It is rewarding in itself just to get some space in my house, but it feels good to help others out, too.

surfastarian

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Re: As I wander through my house...
« Reply #10 on: October 27, 2013, 01:20:07 PM »
@m8547:  Thanks very much for the links/info!  I'll have to take some time to look at them a little more in-depth once I start setting to work selling some of my stuff.

@libraryjoy:  That's usually what I end up doing, too.

dragoncar

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Re: As I wander through my house...
« Reply #11 on: October 27, 2013, 02:32:42 PM »
I know that feel