Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

5 Reasons Why You Should Declutter Your Home Once a Year

By 3 Comments

When we moved from Chicago to Tucson 18 months ago, packing was a nightmare.  We hadn’t had a good decluttering session in nearly 3.5 years, since our last move, which was local.  We spent weeks, yes, literally weeks, giving away and selling junk that we just didn’t use anymore before we could even start packing our possessions.

When we moved to Tucson, I vowed to keep on top of the clutter and the household messes.  However, when we prepared to go on vacation recently and knew that our tidy neighbors would be coming in and out of our house for two weeks to cat sit, we realized we had a problem.  The clutter, and the messes, had returned since the move.

I spent several weeks decluttering again.  Several bags of items went to the local kids’ resale shop; several boxes went in the garage earmarked for a garage sale later this year, and a lot of crap just got tossed in the garbage.

Now that we’re decluttered once again, I can’t believe how much better I feel.  From here on out, we’re decluttering once a year.  Here’s why:

Make Additional Money

I made nearly $100 at the kids’ resale shop.  I opted for store credit to get 30% more money.  I’ll use that over the next few months to get my kids clothes and birthday presents.  (Yep, the store sells NEW toys at a fraction of retail.)

I also made another $150 selling items on eBay.

We haven’t had our garage sale yet, but based on what we have to sell, I think we’ll easily make at least another $100.

Sure, these amounts aren’t going to even buy us a month’s worth of groceries, but we now have several hundred more dollars than we had a few short weeks ago, AND our house is much tidier.

5 reasons to declutter your house
Original IMG credit: Dafne Cholet on Flickr.

Save Money

There were several items like my son’s arm shield for archery, our headphones for the computer, to name a few, that we were planning to replace because we couldn’t find them.  Surprise, surprise, once we decluttered and cleaned up, we found these and many more things.  We saved ourselves from buying duplicates.  These small savings add up!

Kids Outgrow Things

Kids grow. . .A LOT!  Pants that fit last winter may be two inches too short this winter.  Games that they loved to play with last summer may be too babyish this summer.  Why keep all these relics of previous phases of childhood?  Clear them out so you have more room.

More Satisfaction With Being At Home

My youngest two children and I had a particularly painful decluttering session when we tackled all the papers, toys, and little pieces that were littering the floor in front of their toy area.  But how much better we all felt when we could see clean, empty floor in front of the toy shelves.  In fact, my children started playing immediately in that space and had a great time.

I notice now that the master bedroom is cleaner, I feel lighter and happier when I walk into the suddenly much more open space.

It’s Easier To Maintain Your Home

We hope to stay in our home for many years, but the reality is that my husband may not have a job here in another year or two.  Until he secures a permanent position, we feel like our home is ours temporarily, so it’s important to keep up a maintenance and cleaning routine in case we have to put it on the market some time.  Having a clutter free home makes this much easier.

What benefits do you get from a less cluttered home?

 

Declutter Your House Like You’re Moving and Make Some Cash

By 10 Comments

It’s been a long, hard winter.  In Chicago, this winter ranks as the third snowiest on record, and the temperatures have been bitterly cold.  Of course, we’re not alone; much of the country has felt the same pain.

Finally getting some warm, sunny days and watching all the snow melt has put me in the mood to spring clean.  I’m not someone who cleans just for the sake of cleaning.  No, I clean for two main reasons–to feel better about our home and how we feel in it and to make some cash.

To me, spring cleaning and decluttering mean raking in some extra cash selling the crap stuff we no longer use, love, or need.

A New Way to Think about Decluttering

But this year, I’m looking at decluttering and spring cleaning in a different light.  My husband’s mentor has accepted a job in Florida, and he asked my husband to come with him.  For a few weeks, we thought about going before we decided it wasn’t the best move for our family.

Still, during those few weeks a move was on the table, I panicked a bit looking at all the stuff we would need to either move, sell, or donate before moving 1,000 miles.  Suddenly decluttering became less about the mantra, “Only keep what you love and use”, and more about, “Would I pay to move this item 16 hours away?”  It wasn’t a pretty picture.

Declutter your house
Declutter your house and make some CASH!

How Much Money Can You Make Decluttering?

You make think of decluttering primarily as tossing or donating, but there’s also good money to be made in decluttering.

Things to Trash

Of course, we have our fair share of trash.  One of our daughter’s is a prolific artist.  She’s only 5, but she creates artistic masterpieces every day.  I’m perfectly okay with just keeping a few of these and trashing the rest, but my husband can’t yet bear to let them go.  We have three shelves filled with her work.  Seriously!  Almost none of those drawings would make a 1,000 mile move, so it’s time to purge.

Things to Donate

Right away, I saw plenty of stuff that we just don’t need and that have no resale value.  Clothes that we don’t wear, clothes that the kids have outgrown, baby blankets we no longer use, books and more books that we no longer read.  The list goes on and on.  Those items would easily make the donate pile.  (Remember if you itemize on your tax return to get a receipt for your donations so you can get a tax deduction.)

Things to Sell

But then I looked with a keen eye at the dollars we’re sitting on.

  • My husband has a jigsaw tool that he used once and never used again that could be sold for perhaps $50.
  • I have a good stash of canning jars, many of which I will never use and would not want to move 1,000 miles which could be sold for another $40 or so.
  • We have a foreign language program that we bought for homeschooling that was never opened because we were able to get a different program for free.  That is worth another $250 to $300.

The more I looked around, the more I realized I was just holding on to stuff that easily tallied $1,000 or more!

Is decluttering worth it?  For a cleaner house and an extra $1,000, I’d say yes!

What’s the most you’ve made when decluttering?

12 Tricks to Declutter Your Life and Your Future

By 15 Comments

Have you anchored yourself to a pile of belongings – most of which hold no meaning beyond once being something you didn’t own? It’s no secret most Americans own way too much stuff. We’re lured in by the newest technology and we buy gadgets that are outdated often within months of their purchase. We cave to our desire to own the newest and the best of everything.

In February, Melissa addressed this in her post, Do You Really Need that Stuff? Think Twice Before You Spend. We aren’t just sabotaging our monthly budgets. We are weighing ourselves down, stressing ourselves out and limiting our ability to take advantage of new opportunities.

If you have a stash of broken items that you’re convinced might come in handy, a closet full of clothes that no longer fit or collections of “valuable” things stored in every nook and corner; it is time to take action. New opportunities won’t wait while you clean out your house.

Use These Tricks to Declutter Your Life and Keep Your Accumulation Habits in Check.

12 Tricks to DeclutterFirst, curb your spending. It will be difficult to get your belongings in order if there is a constant flow of stuff coming into the house. Make shopping lists to avoid impulse buys and stay off of sites like Ebay, Etsy and Fab. When your paycheck arrives, sweep what you don’t need for survival into a savings account. If you still need some help, follow these 11 Tips on Smarter Spending.

Next, it is time to get rid of the clutter. A good place to start is your bedroom. Tackle the rooms where you spend the most time because if they are free from clutter you will feel better and be more inclined to take on the rooms that are a bit more of a challenge.

Tricks to Declutter: Use these guidelines to stay on track

  • Go through your clothes. If something doesn’t fit or you haven’t worn it in a year, get rid of it. Go through your jewelry, shoes, pocketbooks, hats, belts and other personal items and get rid of everything that is broken, worn, torn or too small/too large.
  • As the bags fill with your donations, take them directly to your car. Once your car is full, take a trip to your charity of choice. The important thing is to get it out of your house or apartment.
  • Get an accordion file folder or file box to carry from room to room. Sort papers, bills, receipts and other documents into files that mirror your main filing system. As the files fill up, carry them to your home office or wherever you keep your files and transfer the papers to the correct file. Go room by room and in no time your filing is up to date.
  • Get rid of instruction manuals for appliances you no longer own. Throw away receipts you do not need. Do not shove them in a junk drawer.
  • Books can be donated to libraries, community centers or nursing homes / assisted living facilities. Video games, CDs and DVDs can be sold or traded to certain stores for credit.
  • As you complete the decluttering of each room, take inventory. Video and photo inventories are excellent for insurance claims.
  • Tackle storage rooms, the attic and the basement last. These areas tend to be overwhelming, so it is best to get the rest of the house in good shape first.
  • Be brutal. You do not want to take those boxes back up the attic stairs. Don’t save 6 boxes of your children’s school work, just save a few important items from each year. Don’t save every baby outfit they looked cute in, save their Christening gown or the outfit they wore home from the hospital. Make good use of your scanner and digital camera. Sometimes it is easier to get rid of something with sentimental value if we know we have a photograph of it stored on our computer. (Next we declutter the hard drive!)
  • Enlist your children’s help to go through their old toys and mementos. They should have a say in what stays and goes. I’ve found it easier to go through their things every few years. Each time they seem to get rid of more stuff as it loses its sentimental meaning.
  • When you are ready to put things back in the attic or storage room, make sure to store them properly. Cardboard boxes attract silverfish and cockroaches. Now that you have so little stuff to store in the attic you can afford to buy storage bins that will seal out the bugs and moisture. These are also much easier to move or store when you get that exciting job offer or other new opportunity in another state or country.
  • Make sure each box has an inventory list placed inside the box and a list taped to the outside of the box. This is another step that makes it easier to pack up and go.
  • If you plan to have a garage sale or to sell anything on eBay, do it as quickly as possible. Set a deadline so if the items haven’t sold you know it is time to get them out of the house.

Some of us have more of a problem than others simply because we’ve been accumulating for decades instead of years. Take the time now to stop the flow of new stuff and get rid of all the old stuff. Next time opportunity knocks, make sure it isn’t buried under an avalanche when you open the door.