If you’re interested in offloading some of your unwanted household goods, eBay can help you declutter your home, and bring in some extra cash. The Anywired blog today lists five reasons why it’s a good time to try out selling on eBay – and the standout reason for me was being able to take advantage of the Aussie dollar’s current strength against the greenback (the US dollar currently buys around $AU1.07).
“The positive in the devaluation of the US dollar is that prices have not yet adjusted upwards, so buying cheaply in the United States and selling at a 50% – 100% markup worldwide is a viable option. Many buyers haven’t yet cottoned on to this and will only search for items in their local listings. It’s possible to buy certain items in the US, mark up the price by 80%, and still come under RRP in Australia, for example.“
While eBay’s been criticised for increasing charges and changing its feedback system, it remains one of the largest auction sites online. If you have any tips for being a successful eBay seller, please share in comments.
5 Good Reasons to Start Dabbling in eBay [Anywired] More »
Got half an hour to kill? Attack that clutter with Better Housekeeping’s 30 Minute Clutter Solution web tool. First use the drop down menu to choose the room you want to work on, then choose which part of the room you want to focus on. It’ll come back with tips like how to set up a “mail station” by the front door so you have somewhere to park incoming mail and your keys, or how to store toys in the kid’s room. More »
If you’re a big reader and a big collector, you know that eventually your home runs out of shelf space and you need to reduce the number of books you own!43Folders linked to a great discussion on Ask Metafilter on ways to reduce your literary clutter. It’s an interesting and worthwhile read which talks about different ways to categorise and cull your book collection, but here’s two tips I found particularly helpful:
“If it’s a “classic” or similar work of worthy literature, and it’s guaranteed never to go out of print, and it’s just a crummy paperback… get rid of it. It can always be replaced.”The other suggestion was creating a Book Exchange at your workplace. All you need is an unused book shelf in a common area. Once you’ve dropped off a few of your unwanted books, you can send an email to your colleagues inviting them to “take a book, leave a book”. Bam – instant hub for getting rid of books or finding some new reading material.So are you drowning in a sea of unread books or sentimental favourites you can’t part with? How do you keep your book collection under control?
Ask MeFi on sane solutions for book clutter [43Folders] More »
The Zen Habits blog has put together an interesting list of uncluttering resources, which range from URLs, Flickr groups, blogs and books. Check out their 10 resources and inspirations for decluttering your home and see what works for you. More »
The Zen Habits blog wrote up a great list of decluttering tips today. I particularly liked the “don’t allow stuff in the house in the first place” rule and “one in, two out” – ie if you bring home one new ‘thing’ make sure you get rid of two.
As someone who’s about to move house, I’m in the process of doing a big cull of stuff I don’t need. Here’s a couple of my tips for decluttering.
1. Put a big cardboard box near your front door, and when you find good/useful stuff in the house that you don’t need but don’t want to throw out, put it in the box. When your friends come over, invite them to check out what’s in the box and take whatever they’d use. Explain that they’re doing you a favour by helping you get rid of stuff, then they won’t feel shy about helping themselves. If after a while the box of stuff is still sitting there, donate it to a charity shop.
2. If you have a personal blog, post a list of the items you want to get rid of, and invite your friends to come by and take them away. You could also email this kind of list to your friends. This works really well when culling a book collection!
3. One big decluttering challenge is when you live with a packrat. You know, the “I might need this someday” or “it’s too good to get rid of” types. (I have these tendencies myself, so I know!). My advice for helping a packrat declutter is make sure they feel in control of the process. If you lay down an ultimatum, you can make them feel like you don’t respect or value their possessions, and make them defensive about getting rid of stuff. That doesn’t help. Try suggesting positive ideas, and leading by example – ie, saying “I’m going to go through my clothes and get rid of the things that are old or don’t fit anymore. If you’re interested I’ll help you do your wardrobe too.” Or suggest charities or friends you know would appreciate and use their old items - so they feel that the items they’re getting rid of are going to be useful to someone.
Do you have any tips on how to declutter? Leave them in comments please!
15 Great Decluttering Tips [Zen Habits]
