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Ken J · 09-20-2005, 11:27 AM

Similar to Uwe - I can't stand a bunch of junk around - so I have a rule - if I've not used it in a while, I pitch it. I've thrown away a lot of good stuff, so it keeps me from buying more.....

Ken J

summerkid · 09-20-2005, 01:11 PM

This HAS been great. So eBay works the OTHER way too? I'll have to figure that out.

And so far no one has weighed in with regrets about getting rid of, say, that dinner service for 24 (but it's so beautiful & so impressive at Thanksgiving & New Year's).

Yesterday, armed with forum courage, I whipped through the kitchen, bedroom, the 2nd bedroom I use as a massive closet, the bathroom, office & hallways. Granted, everything got thrown in cupboards, boxes or in the other rooms, but at least I can breathe in the key living spaces. That Man I Used to Date took me out for sushi & a few games of pool afterward, and when we got back to the house he was so thrilled with this unseen side of me that he wrote a check that will subsidize my unemployment for a few more months. So hey, eBay or not, my decluttering is already paying off!

Unfortunately, I have not unearthed one of my 3 cameras yet, so no before&after photos, but maybe soon!

Paula, that's a good idea about the collections. I think the Haitian art would be at the top because some of it deserves to be in a museum, the really old quilts that are irreplaceable would be next, and then probably my massive amount of Christmas stuff (I usually put up 2 real trees & 3 fake because the Waterford ornaments don't really show up on the real thing) ... and Christmas stuff is OK, I think, because it comes out once a year for a gloriously gorgeous month & then gets safely packed away in the crawl space where I don't give it another thought.

But after that, sitting here at the computer where nothing else is in my direct line of vision, I really can't think of anything else! That's kind of what you meant, right?

infinite LUX · 09-20-2005, 02:45 PM

I'm in the process of cleaning out my storage unit, and selling ALL that superfluous JUNK on eBay.

And I'm making GOOD money doing it.

There are people who do it for a living. All I want is to get rid of it, and make a couple bucks along the way.

eBay ROCKS!!!

summerkid · 09-20-2005, 04:06 PM

... but my conscience might be sore afraid at enabling other people's acquisitiveness.

anybody want to post their favorite (EASIEST) ways to tackle the ebay thing?

norbert · 09-20-2005, 04:09 PM

doncha wanta buy my richard harris love album?
norby

summerkid · 09-20-2005, 04:24 PM

Richard Harris? The guy from "The Thornbirds"????

norbert · 09-20-2005, 04:39 PM

no.....a man called horse.....

InsideOut · 09-20-2005, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by summerkid

anybody want to post their favorite (EASIEST) ways to tackle the ebay thing?

Ebay has step-by-step instructions to listing items for sale on their website. Much more thorough than anybody should get into here, after all...this is an Airstream Forum! Take a look...it really is E-A-S-Y...they even have a forum & online help toasist if you run into a problem.

Good luck!

Shari

infinite LUX · 09-20-2005, 07:41 PM

it reminds me of the guy, who was featured on a NPR show recently, who decided to sell EVERY single thing in his life, on eBay, and DID.

People will buy anything, I assure you.

My storage unit is the final bastion of my reality. I'm almost down to the boxes and boxes of books.

I'll pick thru them, and save a box or two, to chew on, when I'm older.

overlander63 · 09-20-2005, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by norbert

doncha wanta buy my richard harris love album?
norby

Isn't he the "MacArthur's Park" guy?

norbert · 09-20-2005, 08:12 PM

BINGO! you get a pat on the back and a hearty handshake...
norby

RivetED · 09-21-2005, 07:37 AM

I was & am still inclined to 'gather'. We have just sold our home of over 15 years & moved into a 'villa' in the North Texas Airstream Community northtexasairstreamcommunity.org It took over 10 trips to the dump with a 5 X 8 trailer filled to prepare for the move. My epiphany over the importance of 'stuff vs. life' came after a diagnosis of renal cell carcenoma, kidney cancer. After surgery & during 1 yr. of chemo (experimental) very little of my 'stuff' offered any solice. My family & the ability to travel in the trailer offered the most rewarding experiences. Now we have really changed to a life-style that will give us more of what really counts, travel - to see places, family, & friends. The villa we are in is too small for much more!!! BTW: I do plan to clear out the storage shed we rented during the move....

**Stefrobrts** · 09-21-2005, 09:25 AM

RivetED, that is the wisest thing I've heard yet. The voice of experience! I hope you get pleanty more years to enjoy 'what really counts'!

Hit'nMiss · 09-29-2005, 03:47 PM

RivetEd, God..speed with your new direction.

Now to one of my bad habits, I save boxes. Cardboard mostly, just can't pass up a good one. I have a storage barn almost half full of the things. I used to spray em before I put them away with a strong pest control product. Then I found that the silverfish still enjoyed them. Last week when the Rita came calling, I used many of them for packing things that were then left to be blown away anyway. Nothing did fortunately, but I am now rethinking the need for so much that I consider valuable but not essential.
BTW I spent one afternoon padding the windows of the AS.
My main worry was other folks junk being misseled up against the trailer. But we were lucky and all escaped unharmed.
Actually I was always bouyed with the knowledge that the summer kid could swing by and lend me supplies on her southward trek to Katrina land if I had been so unfortunate to take a hit. I anxiously await a report on her goodwill trip has it happened yet?.

One idea for all of her clutter stuff is to give it to the Louisiana refugees. After all they are only gonna get 250 BILLION from us fools aka taxpayers.
I know they will be grateful.

Anyway I am going to swear off the box saving habit and finish downloading all the 1000s of photos I have from 4 families, and maybe get around to converting much of a music collection to MP3. Now if I could just decide what to do with the old home movies and my Bar-B-Que grills and the guns guns guns and the Zenith Trans Oceanic, the Lionels , my grown son's baseball card collections and that damm Steinway Baby Grand.
Guess I might have to sell it all just to pay the taxes to subsidize those dear refugees. Or I can just leave it as is and wait for the next (inevitable) storm to dash it all to spinters and mush to be gleaned over by passersby and then to be bulldozed into a windrow and used for landfill somewhere.
From dust to dust....so very true.

Flicka

**Action** · 09-29-2005, 05:34 PM

Summerkid,

After a dramatic event in my life about 10 years ago, I have a personal goal of making sure the trash can is full to the brim every week. Most weeks I make it.

I figure what comes in this house via the mail and my doing, something has to go out that is going to be displaced. So based on this little exercise I have maintained at least status quo on stuff in my home.

Ebay has helped. I sell a little too. And a periodic donation run just before the end of the year, for tax purposes is another trip I make.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Action

summerkid · 09-30-2005, 09:49 PM

Flicka ... don't spray the carboard with pesty stuff! Use it as mulch. cover it with ground-up leaves or something else attractive & you will NOT have a weed next spring. i've applied it to virgin meadow for my vegetable garden & it worked like a charm.

my trip south got shunted aside by hurricane rita but i am not yet deterred. somebody DID mention to me recently that "You have ASTHMA, are you nuts?????" but still ... i will help somehow. Flicka, ya need stuff?

Also, I finally located my digital camera after 3 years of wondering where it was & have now sold $500 worth of stuff on ebay & am uploading more all the time. i'll take "before pix" of this miserable hovel tomorrow & then you can follow my progress if you're really, really bored. a house comparable to mine but on a teeny lot & only a half-block from the train went up for sale yesterday for FIVE HUNDRED FORTY THOUSAND, so we're scurrying around to jump on that bandwagon.

selling this joint also is important because i've finally found my home: the inn of the white salmon, in white salmon, wash., and i am trying to scrounge up pennies, nickels & dimes to come anywhere near making the purchase place.

so now my antique fireman's jacket has a price on its head for the Kane County flea market tomorrow & my favorite Tiffany bud vase is headed for ebay but it WAS a gift for a marriage that didn't take, so it's probably worth more dead than alive to me. so far i haven't actually burst into tears watching my favorites head out the door but i've come close twice!

wish me luck! pay high prices for my trailers & parting-out projects as they iinevitably come to light!

love,
sk

Cedars · 10-01-2005, 04:46 AM

With the exception of the kimonos, your house sounds like mine. And my spouse of some forty plus years is very tolerant!
So, for those of us that are real 'junkies' what is your ebay seller name? So we can look it up and bid on your stuff?

Elizabeth in Iowa
(I ALMOST cleaned house once..... but the feeling passed!)

norbert · 10-01-2005, 05:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by summerkid

so now my antique fireman's jacket has a price on its head for the Kane County flea market tomorrow is headed for ebay but it WAS a gift for a marriage that didn't take,

some friends....they at least could have given you a crockpot.....

norby

59toaster · 10-01-2005, 08:20 AM

hehehehe I feel the pain and not yet 40!

I'm in the clear it out stage again. I keep finding things I want. Most trucks and cars and trailers. I Keep finding Toyota FJ40 for the right price that would make good projects. I keep having to talk myself out of them for lack of time and place and a BUNCH of projects not finished.

Here is a picture of my Garage. The guts of our 59 is piled on top of another project. A 1970 LeMans Sport convertible. I have a engine for this car but the garage is so packed in that I cant get the engine in the car little lone in the garage. The engine is sitting in my Cargo trailer.

So I went to one project at a time will full force. The Airstream is in the way of all else so its top priority. Then the car and some home improvement stuff once I can get my garage back.

This was just before I cleaned it last go around. You can actually walk around the car now. Its on the other side of the garage now as well.