Ok, the bug hit me kinda late this year. But, honestly, what better time is there to clear things out than right before the holidays when the house is about to get loaded with a bunch of new crap. Part of the reson for this is, also, because the boy has started kindergarten. That means I now have 2 free days during the week to finally get stuff done around the house.
Now, I’m not gonna lie. Since August, when school started, a lot of naps have been had. Self-care, right? That’s what I’ll keep telling myself. Anyways, the other thing that spured this on was that the husband mentioned that his work will be having a comminuty garage sale. That kicked me into high gear. I suddenly got really excited to clear stuff out.
My first main task was to clean out the garage. Kinda needed a walkway in there. No joke. A good chunk of this mess was the collection of just about every piece of clothing my kids have ever worn. I never really wanted to just throw them out. As any parent knows, they are all mostly in great condition. Worn once, then the kid grew out of it. Especially for the girl. It’s so easy for people to buy girls clothes. They’re so much cuter. She had to have costume changes around the holidays cause she would receive multiple Christmas outfits. Had to give each one their due.
I mean, come on…
That’s all from the same month. Pretty sure there’s one more outfit in there that I’m missing.
So, of course, I have a supply of clothes that look pretty good. I was able to pawn off a lot of the girl clothes to friends and family, all of who had girls. No one had any boys so I still have a bunch of that. I’ve been thinking about getting rid of them for awhile but this garage sale is a good start. I’m looking into other options, also. I’ve tried Ebay but can’t seem to get the right eyes on those. I tried Mercari. That was fine but maybe for bigger things. It cost me more to ship out the one tutu than I made off of the sale. I have signed up for a Facebook group in the Las Vegas area. Specifically, the Green Valley/Henderson area. I’ve heard great things and this helps to eliminate the need to spend on pricey shipping.
I have never really wanted to do the meet n’ greet thing. Craig’s List kinda ruined that. You never know who you’re gonna get. Recently, the local police station posted something interesting. They offered up a couple of their locations as a safe place to meet people you are selling to online. A fantastic idea!
My next step is to check out some local consignment centers. They, famously, do not give much when buying your stuff. They got a business to run. We’ll see what happens. I’m going to visit one near Summerlin called Me ‘n Mommy To Be. They get great reviews on Yelp. The one I’ve always wanted to do is called As They Grow. They compile interested persons into a location, kinda like a swap meet. They organize it and make it a weekend thing. You get an inventory together and get to keep most of what you make. The organization keeps a certain percentage but you get the rest. So shoppers get a one-stop-shop in a weekend that makes it feel like an event and you get to unload. It’s brilliant! The only problem is that I can never get to those weekends. Having to work retail hours means that I have to pick and choose what weekends I take off. Whatever weekends I take is usually devoted to special scout events or family trips.
After all that, whatever I have left, will be donated to local shelters. In town, we have the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, Safe Nest and Opportunity Village, to name a few. I tried reading some reviews to get a good idea of a worthy organization. That got a little depressing to see people complain about how hard they make it to donate. People not picking up the stuff in time. It struck me as a little selfish so I’ll have to just pick one or maybe split it up among different places and hope it is being used in the spirit it is intended.
In any case, the amount of relief and clarity of mind I will have once I have lightened the load around my house will feel amazing. I like feeling productive. And all of this effort is going to lead to some much needed repairs. The house is starting to feel it’s age. Need to start taking care of it. So, hopefully, more home updates to come. I highly anticiapte being able to get some before and after pics.
Wonderful Randomness 