by Vourneen | ThePlainSimpleLife. Why you shouldn’t sell your stuff.

Why You Shouldn’t Sell Your Stuff After Decluttering

by Vourneen | ThePlainSimpleLife

We love a good declutter around here, don’t we? I’ve decluttered often, and I’m here today to tell you why you shouldn’t sell your stuff after decluttering.

The last time I did an excellent big decluttering a couple of years ago, I let go of around 70% of my belongings.

You might wonder if I have anything left in my house after getting rid of so much stuff. But, yes! Before my giant decluttering session, I had things stuffed in the back of my wardrobe in different cupboards (never to be seen again). Now, everything has an easily reachable place, and everything gets used.

What to do with all that clutter?

Most of us have taken advantage of websites like eBay, Craigslist, or Facebook at some point in our lives to sell items that we no longer need or want.

While finding buyers for nearly anything on these sites is possible, is there any real benefit?

This question has many answers, but today, let’s examine why resale might not be the best option post-decluttering.

Why you shouldn’t sell your stuff after decluttering:

Your money is long gone.

I’ve said it once, and I’ll repeat it. Your money is long gone. That’s right, and you spent it on all this stuff ages ago. So, there’s no place for it in your budget anymore.

You might think, ‘I spent good money on this, so I deserve something back.’ Not to sound harsh at all, but do you?

We all spend our money on things we don’t need but on what we might want. Nobody buys something and thinks, ‘when I get rid of this because I never wore it, I’ll make my money back.’

If nothing else, I look at this as a lesson for myself. This will teach me to only buy stuff after thinking about it first!

Time is money

Don’t get me wrong; I have tried to sell things online. But this is one of the main reasons I won’t be doing it again.

Have you ever posted something on Facebook to sell, and someone replied (Person 1) asking if you’ll take a reduced price? You think about it and eventually decide to take less for this item. So you let them know and ask when they’re coming to pick it up.

In the meantime, while you’re waiting for a response, someone else (Person 2) replies and says they’ll take it for the original price. But you have to decline as you already promised it to Person 1. But Person 1 never replies, and you’re now back at square one.

So you go back to Person 2 to say it’s still available if they want it, but they’ve moved on to bigger and better things. Eventually, you get another message, and she (Person 3) decides they want it, and before you know it, you have made $15 for a dress that took 3 hours to sell! I don’t know about you, but I am worth over $5 an hour. I could be doing something much more productive and worthwhile with my time – even if it’s not earning money (because we know that money isn’t everything in life)

It’s nice to be excellent.

It is! If you have everything you already need, wouldn’t it be nice to donate this stuff to someone who doesn’t have the means to get what they need?

I hate vacuuming, and last year I was the proud new owner of a robot vacuum cleaner! My old vacuum was sitting in the downstairs storage cupboard, gathering dust.

I had no interest in selling it. I had this particular vacuum for almost six years, and it didn’t owe me anything. So I posted it online for free.

Many responded, but it went to the first person who responded.

He couldn’t believe I was giving this away when he came to the door. He asked, ‘Are you sure you don’t want anything for it?’. So I said, ‘Actually, you can do one thing for me. Do something nice for someone else, buy them a coffee, donate to a charity, and pay it forward. He smiled and said, ‘I’m going to do exactly that’ before he left.

I think I’ve started a chain of people paying it forward!

It can become addictive.

As addictive as it was gathering all that clutter, to begin with, selling it can be just as addictive. Once you get the hang of it and feel like you’re earning money from all this stuff, it can become an obsession.

Before you know it, you’re picking out things that don’t need to be decluttered so you can sell them and make a quick buck! But we know this doesn’t make sense because we need that spatula for baking, and if we sell this one, we’ll need to buy another… for three times as much as you sold that one for!

People often become so addicted to selling things online that it can come between family members. Things like family heirlooms get sold, which should have been kept hand down.

The easiest way to not get into this habit is not to start it in the first place.

5) It leads to more clutter

Picture this; you’ve spent hours, maybe even days, decluttering your whole house. There’s a home for every item, and you feel a calm roll over the place.

But you have a bunch of stuff to get rid of. So what do you think you could do?

You can immediately head off to the charity shop and donate your stuff to the less fortunate.

Or you can hang onto them while you try to sell them. But some things might take time to sell, and what do you do with them in the meantime?

By holding onto things to see if you can sell them, you risk throwing them right back into your wardrobe or that kitchen cabinet until they sell. And then they’re forgotten about.

And you end up back at square one!

So you can just head off to the charity shop when you finish the chore and eliminate all your clutter.