You’ve had a big de-clutter over the weekend and now you’re left with a pile of stuff – what do you do with it! Throw it out, sell it – what!?
R-realistic – is the golden rule!
We have the “R” method which will help you focus on the long term goal of living clutter free.
R – Repair
A lot of people hang onto broken items because it cost a lot of money to originally purchase. Is it really is worth getting repaired, for example a watch (which you may have since replaced), electrical appliances and so on. Be realistic about the cost of getting the items repaired versus replacement. Do you know where to take it? Do you have time to get it done? Also consider if you do repair the item, will it fit into your new de-cluttered life?
R – Recycle
Give it to charity or to friends and family. When donating to Charity, consider if you would ask a friend to pay $5 for that particular item, if no, then that item is not suitable for charity. Please don’t use charity bins as a garbage bin – did you know it cost the Salvation Army about $5m a year to get rid of rubbish, don’t you think that money would be better spent on other services?
If you have lots of clothes to get rid of and you are de-cluttering with friends, why not have a swap night where everyone brings the same number of clothing items and you all swap – a new wardrobe for free and lots of fun!
R – Re-Sell
If you are up for a garage sale or perhaps you want to have a go at eBay or Gumtree, there is money to be made in re-selling your unwanted items. We are no longer surprised by what people will pay good money for! If you don’t know how to sell on ebay, find an ebay Trading Assistant (they are listed on the ebay website).
R – Return
During your de-clutter you may have come across items that belong to someone else, like library books, shoes you borrowed from your sister or the power tool from your mate next door. Return these items asap, complete with an apology note (or carton of beer) if you’ve had the item for a very long time!
R – Rubbish
If your items don’t fit into any of the above categories, then it really has to go. Don’t keep the rubbish hanging around your garage waiting to fill your bin each week – this is fraught with disaster. More often than not, the unwanted items end up back in your home and you are back at square one. There are plenty of rubbish removal companies that will take away absolutely everything for a very small amount of money or coincide your next round of decluttering to your Council Pick up Day.