7ToF: too much stuff, part 2

I'm pretty good at going through and culling things that I no longer want or need. The dilemma is: what do you do with the stuff you're ready to jettison? That's where I stall out. So this is to help me figure out how I'm going to handle my current round of clutter clearing.

Here are the options I can think of, with their pros and cons.

Free Space in "What to Do With Your Stuff" Bingo: Don't do anything. But eventually you end up buried under piles of unwanted junk. I've never watched the extreme hoarders TV show, but I've seen the ads. It's ugly.

1. Garage Sale/Yard Sale.

Pros: You make some money off stuff you no longer want. You can be pretty sure that your stuff is going to people who want/need it, because otherwise why would they buy it?

Cons: Around here, people are looking for stuff dirt cheap. If it's over $2, they're not interested. You put a bargain price on something and they're still going to want to talk you down. Also, yard sales are lots of work. LOTS. OF. WORK. You may or may not make enough money to make it worth the effort. 

2. Donate to someone else's yard sale/rummage sale/fundraiser.

Pros: presumably you're donating to someone or some cause you care about, so you get to help them raise money. Also, they do all the work of sorting, pricing, running the sale, and getting rid of the leftovers.

Cons: There may not be a rummage sale at the time you need to dump your stuff.

3. Goodwill and other charitable secondhand shops:

Pros: You help a good cause raise money. You drop the stuff off, and they deal with it. You get a tax break if you remember to get a receipt. Your stuff eventually finds its way to someone who needs it.

Cons: if you don't do your research carefully, you may end up supporting a cause that you don't agree with. Also, these places get so much stuff, it may be a long time before yours gets processed and makes it way into the retail area.

4. Consignment shops:

Pros: You get some money back for your stuff if/when it sells, like a yard sale, but you don't have to mess with advertising, pricing, organizing, or selling. If you have nice stuff, you'll get more money this way than from a yard sale.

Cons: some consignments shops are really picky about what they'll take. You only get a small percentage of the price. If it doesn't sell in a specified period of time (90 days?), they have the right to drop the price, offer your stuff as part of a 2-for-1 deal, or dispose of it as they see fit.

5. Participate in freecycling, which is a fancy name for giving your junk to someone else who needs/wants it. In some communities, this is done informally by leaving your stuff out at the curb, a known signal that people can help themselves. There is also freecycle.org, an informal network that helps you find people who want the things you don't want anymore.

Pros: You don't want it, someone else does, problem solved.

Cons: finding someone who needs your stuff can be a chore and the logistics of getting it to them can be a hassle. As with almost everything in life, your good intentions can result in strange or unintended consequences. I guess that is true of just about all of these, come to think of it.

6. Throw it out.

Pros: It's easy. Temptingly easy, if you've tried any of #1-5. Sometimes it's unavoidable.

Cons: It's going in a landfill, and ours is already overflowing. Our county landfill is nearly full, and no one wants a new landfill to go anywhere near where they live. Space for trash is an increasing problem everywhere. I mean, there's a huge island of trash in the Pacific Ocean, and people have come up with ever-crazier ideas, like sending it into space.

I cleaned out my closet this week. I highly recommend this, not only do you find things to get rid of, but you find things you forgot you had. I ended up with several "new" outfits from my very own closet--double win.

Aside: My advice for closet cleaning: start by taking everything out of one section at a time. Then don't put anything back unless you're sure you still want it. This results in way more clutter-clearing than just riffling through and hoping to find a few things to pass along.

And in spite of the "cons" list for charity secondhand shops (#3), I will be taking the stuff from my closet to one of them this afternoon. It's got to go somewhere, and our church rummage sale doesn't take clothing.

Aside #2: Here's my other bit of advice: As soon as you're done with one closet or shelf or cabinet, get rid of the results. Because if you save it all up to take at the same time, it ends up just becoming more piles of stuff.

Which brings us to:

#7, the Philosophical Thing On Friday, which threatened to take over the entire post but my brain just isn't big enough to handle it. I mean, why do we need so much stuff? and I'm not being holier-than-thou here, I'm as bad as anyone.

I love my things. I have many beloved possessions--my great grandmother's Haviland china, Dean's coin collection, kitchen gadgets I could do without but that I appreciate when I use them, old scanners and printers and cameras. Shelves of photo albums. Stacks of books. Hunting equipment, fly tying equipment, skis and bicycles and hiking gear. And camping equipment. Oh my word.

What is it with Americans and stuff? If we lived in a third world country, we'd somehow manage to get by without all this stuff. In fact, from a global perspective, there is no definition of the word "need" that covers a third pair of pumps or exactly the right knick-knack for the top of the dresser in the guest room.

And yet still I buy things. It's not a good thing, but neither is it bad or evil. I'm learning to be careful--in the sense of taking care-- to not buy things thoughtlessly, just because something catches my eye or it's a good price or it's something I don't have. But you know, even though I have an entire drawer full of T-shirts, sometimes a new T-shirt makes me inexplicably happy. It doesn't make sense. As with most things, this is a work in progress.

edited to add: Our very own LondonMabel works at a second hand shop and wrote out some great advice in a comment to the first "too much stuff" post-- the link is here.