Dejunk Your House to Save Money
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One of the best ways to save money is to realize how stupid you’ve been about money and then to make some changes in your habits. Last weekend I shared with you how we are “staging for living” and rearranging, cleaning, and dejunking to make life be more of what we want and less of what it will be someday. We want to enjoy the now — and so downsizing is necessary.
Over the last week I’ve touched every school book and supply we own — it was like cryptonite. It took me four days to complete the job. And I’ve carried box after box of “stuff” out to the van so that we can donate it. I’ve sold over 20 books online and donated another 20.
And I’ve paid a stupid tax. Major. big. time.
Not only have I realized how I’ve become a slave to stuff, but I’ve also had to come face to face with the fact that I wasted money to buy that stuff in the first place.
Will I do it again? Probably. But, I think, hope, pray, that I will get better at saying no to superfluous stuff.
Notice that I say superfluous stuff. Stuff, in and of itself, is not bad. But owning and maintaining things that you don’t use or need is not the best way to live your life.
I’m going to be 40…. someday.
Actually, next year. I even have my first mammogram next week. And I don’t want extra junk to waste my time and money. Amen?
Here’s my office, shown off for no other reason than for you to know that I am not a fictional person, but rather a very messy, distracted one. Please note that all those boxes of stuff have been sold or donated! (And I did clean my room this week, too.)
So, let’s make a deal, K? Next time one of us wants to go shopping, let’s first fill a box full of stuff to get rid of. Either we will:
- Make room for new purchases and maybe earn some cash to pay for them.
- Realize that we’ve wasted money on past purchases and we can probably live without the X, Y, or Z that we are so desperate to go buy.
I’ve been donating old books lately…my husband’s college books etc. Some in nice shape go to half price books.
Yep, you’ll be 40 someday and even 50+. Take it from me.
I’ve enjoyed your blog. Blessings, Amelia
My mother was a teacher and still subs and tutors. She insists on giving me all her papers that she’s printed off and so they pile up and I want to just throw them away because I don’t have any way of knowing what’s there. It’s not organized and I find that in our homeschool, I just don’t have time for ‘busy’ worksheets like those. I say all this to ask for help! What do you ladies out there recommend I do? She remembers everything she gives me, so if I get rid of stuff, she’ll ask and then I feel guilty when I tell her I got rid of it. I sometimes think she takes that as I don’t love her because I don’t want her stuff. I’m not big on clutter. I mean, my office area is horrendous right now, but I’m a less is more kind of person. I’m not very sentimental about ‘things’. I have my memories and photographs and that’s good for me. I need suggestions, please! I’m tired of not being able to walk through my office area and being so embarrassed when someone goes in there. What should I do?
This is clearly fodder for an entire post. 😉 However, since I feel your pain, I want to answer now.
I was a teacher – older teachers pawned off this kind of stuff on me all the time, massive piles of worksheets. My dad was a teacher — and in his effort to help me, has given me a lot of his old stuff, some of it 40 years old that sat in his garage all this time. And my mom seems to find all sorts of treasures that might be useful.
BUT, if you don’t have a use for it, it’s not useful. It’s just dragging you down. If it were a family heirloom, I’d say think carefully. If it’s just paper, I’d recycle it.
You can say to your mom, “As much as I appreciate it, please hold off on giving me more until I get a handle on my paper load. I’ll have to dump whatever you give me until then, because I am at overload.”
Take the burden on yourself. Be thankful. And then don’t be a slave to someone else’s “stuff.”
Thanks for the help! I’m going to go in there, set my timer and work a bit and not feel guilty at all. I need peace in my home! 🙂
Maybe you could just get ONE Rubbermaid Tote and have that be the designated place for all donated papers…when the tote is too full, you cannot possibly take any more. You can let your mom know, “I so appreciate all the wonderful info you’ve given me, but the Tote is full..I have to either decline the papers or give away one of the kids. There’s not room for both…you choose!” By making it a funny response while also acknowledging that maybe you are not the most organized gal (which your mom probably already knows) she can get an idea that more papers do not mean more peace for you, they actually cause more stress–but without putting any BLAME on her (perceived on her part). Make sense? I hope so. 😉
Jessica, love love love this post. I am constantly amazed at the STUFF we own, and we don’t even have as much as the normal married for almost 20 years, two kid family has. Moving alot has helped us go through our things more than the average bear, but still….it’s alot of stuff.
Where do you sell your books at? I have several I need to sell as well. Thank you!
I really like CKY Books and Cash4Books. I send the books (free shipping) to whichever of the two book buyers offers the better deal. I used to do it on ebay, but that is too time consuming and there’s no guarantee that it will sell.
Thank you! I appreciate this post so much! Do you know of any places to sell CD’s as well? Thank you, again!
I am totally on board with your deal. This summer we got rid of soooo much stuff. I brought 4 huge bins of my kids clothing to a consignment shop so hopefully I will make some cash from that. But everything else we got rid of we just donated. It really makes you think of your spending habits when hauling out bags of what is now junk to the goodwill.
Deal! We have a non-functional toilet in a stall in the basement (Don’t ask, it’s not all that uncommon for our area) and I’ve made that my catch all for stuff to donate. I haven’t done a Salvation Army run in awhile and just yesterday I realized things are piling up in there again. Thanks for kicking my butt with the reminder.
The place where I accumulate Stuff is with clothing. With fall coming I’m itching to buy new things but I’m working hard to remember my wardrobe is just fine as is. A few new peices and church clothes are all I “need”. Sharing a closet with my husband for the first time in our marriage helps too, let me tell you!
Stuff has been sucking so much of my energy and peace in the past five years. I cannot wade to finish wading through it and purging. I have gotten rid of, literally, over a thousand items – donating, selling, freecyling, tossing – and there is still more to go!
Isn’t that the TRUTH?! I’ve got a box ready to be donated sitting by my back door – and I keep finding stuff to throw in it. I’ve got a post coming up on Monday about how I shopped my own closet and I was agast at what I found. Target is like a magnet to me, but after cleaning out and looking at piles of stuff all over the house, I actually drove right in front of the doors to Target this week and felt no desire to stop and go in. I’m so sick of all the excess STUFF and I don’t NEED anything else – not even a roll of paper towels (which is always a good excuse to go into Target). It almost makes me feel sick when I think about all the money we’ve wasted over the years on STUFF that was shortly loved and is now long gone. But like you, I am a work in progress. 🙂 Love your two rules!!
Amen! Jessica!
Thanks for the reminders of purging, donating, and selling what we don’t use.
“STUFF” can get very overwhelming and controlling. Your office looks great!
such a nice post! i LOVE to declutter my house when i get the time (i am not such a big fan when I don’t have the time LOL) i thought you were gonna say the big price you paid was your back hurting at the end of the day :0) Thats the price i pay after lugging my two kids and boxes around!