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Sixteen months into my declutter mission and thirteen months blogging about it and I still have the odd stumbling block when it comes to decluttering.

It isn’t staying away from shopping I mastered that discipline very quickly but then again I was always a bit thrifty.

It isn’t obligation clutter because I feel no compulsion to keep things just because someone else thinks I should.

It isn’t bringing stuff back into the house that I had already decluttered to its departure point. I don’t think in all this time that I have ever done that.

It isn’t I might need it some day clutter. I think I knew from the get go that this is often what gets most people into this mess in the first place so I don’t play that game any more.

In isn’t guilt clutter because I have certainly gotten rid of plenty of that.

And yet in a way it is guilt clutter. Not clutter I can’t make a decision on because guilt makes me feel I should keep it. Or like obligation clutter I would feel guilty getting rid of something someone gave me. Not even straight ~ I can’t get rid of this because I paid good money for it and I haven’t used it to it’s full potential. What it is is this..

I spent good money on this item and I would like to recoup some of that money by selling it. Sounds easy and it is, that’s the point. All I have to do is retrive the item from its hiding place take a few photos, write a blurb, choose a selling price or starting bid depending on how I intend to sell it and leave it in the lap of the Gods to decide whether I am successful of not.

I have written similar posts about this at least twice already over the last fifteen months and I still can’t convince myself that this is as easy as it sounds. There are items in my house that have had every intension of decluttering right from the very start that I have done nothing about them simply because I don’t want to deal with the selling process and all that that entails. I think as much as anything else it is the fact that once I have dragged these items out of hiding I have to put up with having them in plain sight until the sales has reached completion and I can send the item on its merry way.

Here are some of the items in question

Daughter’s ski jacket ~ I somehow missed this one when I sold all the other ski gear and now is the best selling time again because we are about to go into ski season in Australia. It is just a case of listing it on eBay and even though I am sure it will sell well I am still unenthused. I have actually taken it our of the cupboard and taken the photos already but haven’t listed it yet.

~ I somehow missed this one when I sold all the other ski gear and now is the best selling time again because we are about to go into ski season in Australia. It is just a case of listing it on eBay and even though I am sure it will sell well I am still unenthused. I have actually taken it our of the cupboard and taken the photos already but haven’t listed it yet. Paper craft supplies ~ Granted this one is a little trickier because my intention is to have a sales table at the Air Force base craft group gathering. This happens once a month, I think, and I have never attended so it requires me to get in contact with the people running the group to get the OK to do this. I have to weed out all the items I want to sell, price it all, travel forty minutes to get there, have someone meet me to get me through base security… blah blah blah. But oh the benefits of having an interested captured audience and the freedom of getting rid of the over abundance of supplies cluttering up my office/craft space. I really do need to use the excitement of the end result to spur me on with this task.

~ Granted this one is a little trickier because my intention is to have a sales table at the Air Force base craft group gathering. This happens once a month, I think, and I have never attended so it requires me to get in contact with the people running the group to get the OK to do this. I have to weed out all the items I want to sell, price it all, travel forty minutes to get there, have someone meet me to get me through base security… blah blah blah. But oh the benefits of having an interested captured audience and the freedom of getting rid of the over abundance of supplies cluttering up my office/craft space. I really do need to use the excitement of the end result to spur me on with this task. Daughter’s keyboard ~ I have only just asked her if she wants to keep this even though I have had my eye on it from the very beginning. She has now told me she no longer wants and is keen to reep the extra cash at my inconvenience. It is a bit inconvenient (shipping cost) to sell on eBay but I have other local options which I think would be successful. My only hold up here is the effort dragging it out of her bedroom cupboard and photographing it and come up with a selling price.

~ I have only just asked her if she wants to keep this even though I have had my eye on it from the very beginning. She has now told me she no longer wants and is keen to reep the extra cash at my inconvenience. It is a bit inconvenient (shipping cost) to sell on eBay but I have other local options which I think would be successful. My only hold up here is the effort dragging it out of her bedroom cupboard and photographing it and come up with a selling price. Son’s Coka Cola collection. Awkward to list, lots of photos involved (already taken, mind you, but I still haven’t done anything about it). Awkward to ship (I think this is my actual stumbling block here) and not sure how well received it will be on eBay. Not sure whether to sell items separately or one job lot… What I really want out of this is a few dollars back in my boy’s pocket which is why this box of items haven’t just been given away already.

As you can see there is more to this than meets the eye but you know what, I have no shortage of stubborn determination. I have hit this wall before and I dare say I will hit it again but in the end my determination wins out and I sell sell sell. Just like when I sold my iRobot cleaners, shelf unit, Kiss dolls and much more. You are probably thinking why not just do yourself a favour and donate these things. Why not indeed? Because like I said every now and again an item comes along that I just want to recoup a little money back on or a want to make a few dollars for the kids and for that I find the will.

What is your decluttering stumbling block or Achilles’ heal when it comes to decluttering? Share it with us by leaving a comment maybe myself or someone out there will have the perfect solution for you or at least some much needed encouragement.

Today’s Declutter Item

If I could just work out why I keep getting holes in my t-shirts I wouldn’t be forced to declutter them. I wouldn’t mind so much if they were old but I only bought this one last August. Not happy. I think it is one of two things ~ my laptop or the seat belts in the car rubbing the t-shirt against the fly of my pants. Either way the solution is simple and I have to ask myself why I haven’t done anything to fix the situation. The think the word I am looking for is Apathy. 😳

Holey T-shirt

My Gratitude List

Something that made be laugh ~ My neighbour was telling me he has his chicken well trained but they only speak Macedonian. We laughed together.

Something Awesome ~ Greek Yoghurt ~ there are so many ways you can use it. My hubby has it on his cereal, it is great in and along side a curry, it is delicious mixed with honey with a sprinkling of muesli (granola) on top, as a raising agent in Naan bread, for making tzatziki sauce to have with crumbled fetta and Greek fries…

Something to be grateful for ~ That Liam’s motorbike started OK this morning. He had a slight problem in the morning yesterday then flattened the battery in the evening to end the day on a low note. He would have been a very cranky boy had the bike not started this morning as he has a lot on his plate at the moment.

Something that made me happy ~ Oddly enough getting to the bottom of a box of tumble dryer sheets made me happy. I don’t believe they make a significant improvement to the softness of my towels and they are most likely bad for the environment on many levels so to me they were wasting space in my laundry cupboard. I am not counting them as a declutter item but I am nevertheless glad to see the back of them.

Something I found fascinating ~ My neighbour left Macedonia when he was nineteen be must be in his sixties now but he still speaks Macedonian to the chickens. I thought that was cute. He also told me he has been tempted to put bells around a few of the chicken necks to remind him of the sounds of the home country when he used to herd sheep. He told me it was very hard for him to leave his country and come to Australia all alone so long ago. It makes me wonder about the affect leaving America has had on my children. Even though we moved as a family they still miss what to them had become their home country and I know they miss it greatly. If my neighbour can still feel the pain forty plus years later (though his situation was very different) I imagine the memories will never fade for my children either. Funny how something that made me laugh at first has now made me equally sad but it is fascinating to me to make this comparison which didn’t even occur to me at the time when I was speaking to Jack.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow