Well, well, so here it is November and my self imposed deadline of October 31 and having every declutter item either sold or donated has come and gone. I still have stuff here, poor me, because of one of these two reasons: 1) My listing price was too high and the item did not get any bids or  2) I didn't list it and it's still sitting here. So the bad news is I missed my deadline, but the good news is I'm going to allow myself some grace and give it two more weeks. My new, amended promise to me is if I can't sell by the week before Thanksgiving, I will donate it. There's not too much left save a few small things that need price reductions and two big ticket items that needed a shipping cost readjustment (a potential buyer alerted me to that) and now fingers crossed they will sell.

You might be wondering how I did and if it was worth the work. I'm going to be honest with you because you might be on the fence about selling your items.

For us it was definitely worth the trouble. Many declutter experts will tell you to just donate everything and get it out of the house ASAP. That would have been foolish for us because with a little bit of effort, we sold over $5,000 worth of things, unbelievable I know, but we had several very big ticket items such as an inherited vintage fly rod kit, never used, still in it's gorgeous wood box. It is now in it's new home in Colorado. We also had some vintage coins given to me 60 years ago by my grandfather, and since I'm not a coin collector we took them to a rare coin dealer in the next town over and got a good price for those too. I also sold some gold jewelry; several necklaces, two bracelets and earrings singles, even rings with the stones pried out. Since they had been sitting in a safe deposit box for at least a decade and I had no plans to ever wear or repair any of it again, we took the lot to a gold dealer. Gold is high right now and the pieces were no longer in style and we made more money selling for weight value rather than their value as jewelry. With gold at $2700 an ounce, it doesn't take much to get a good return, just an FYI if you have some broken or unloved jewelry hanging around.

I also had great success with eBay. To make it easy on me, rather than list items individually, I sold in lots, such as 4 Christmas ornaments together. The ornament lots were all from the same maker and I tried to make a theme. For each lot I put a very low price of $20 to get the bidding started. One lot sold for $280 and another for $90 and another for $20. Apparently some of them were valuable and some were not, and since I am not an ornament collector and was unsure about the values, I trusted the eBay bidding system to tell me what things are worth, because the true monetary value is what someone is actually willing to pay. When an item sells, I download and print the label from eBay (remember the buyer pays for shipping), box them up and head to the post office for a quick drop off. Done and gone! I sold Madame Alexander dolls and sets of Hummels (these two items go for cheap as they are no longer popular), also large lots of cookie cutters, Lalique water glasses and a set of 6 Arte Italica soup bowls. EBay was my place to sell items that needed a big audience reach and items that were easy to ship. Some things sold for way over my expectations, some for way under. Still, I trusted the eBay bidders to know what has value and what doesn't and I was satisfied with every sale. On FaceBook Marketplace we sold the less expensive items or bulky items such as a high chair, a set of 8 heavy cookbooks, a heavy set of poker chips, more collectible dolls for super cheap, more Christmas decorative items, and each time I made the sale I put the item on my front porch, gave the buyer my address and asked them to put cash under the mat, which they did, and all is well. Things I did not want to sell I donated to the local charity shop or offered for free on FB Marketplace or Offer Up. One last trick for antiques or vintage pieces, take pictures and email them to your local antiques dealers. One responded and we drove the half hour to show him what we had to offer. He gave us cash, for I think half of what I remember paying 35 years ago. We were both happy; he loved his purchase, I loved releasing it and of course loved cash. Win win!

While I loved getting a chunk of money for my unused items, it was work, and only you can decide if selling is the right move for you. Still, my main goal was to remove things from my home that I was no longer using. Now I love my house more than ever because it feels lighter and although it's difficult for me to explain, I feel rescued from the weight of an overwhelming amount of stuff that made me feel anxious. My endeavors left such an impression on my husband, and although he is one who struggles to let go, he decided to go through his closet. I said I would help, and in one afternoon he tried on every sport coat he owned, every pant, and every shirt and I'm not kidding. It took hours and we were both exhausted! I was the taker-outer and folder-upper and he was the tryer-oner and mirror-looker-iner. He kept 5 sport coats even though he probably needs only 2 or 3, but still, good job babe! We donated his tuxedo! We don't go to fancy dos anymore so what was the point? It also didn't fit so there was that little detail. About 1/3 of the pants went bye bye and the same amount of shirts. So two giant boxes of his excess clothes, plus the tuxedo, one suit, two coats and I think at least five sport coats are out of the house, but for us the most important thing is everything is his closet fits and is liked, and there is real beauty in that.

I got very ambitious in my closet too and moved my winter to the front and my summer to the back. I washed and ironed all my linen pants and shirts and put them away so they will be ready come spring. I may be the last one standing who is still ironing, but I also ironed all my good table linens and everything else and for the first time ever I saw the actual bottom of my ironing basket. A big attagirl to me because this is maybe a once in a lifetime thing.

Segue to the day after Halloween in which we babysat our grandson as they cancel school the day after and probably for good reason. Anyway, this little 7 year old fella made a comment which really stuck. "Grammy, since you like to organize, lets organize my candy!" Then before I could blink, dump, all the candy was on the floor! Organize we did--chocolates go here, sours go there, etc. Turns out he knows me pretty well and also turns out that we both love organizing candy. So since I just maneuvered this post towards the always fascinating organizing subject, let me tell you what I did with my paints and with Carter's Legos. The problem: my acrylic paints were not organized by color making them impossible to find easily. Quelle horreur! The solution: these nifty two-tier drawers. I like them because you can see the contents and pull out the entire drawer if needed. Now my paints are arranged by color! So pretty!

These are in the closet in my sewing room.

Grammy saves the day.

Yesterday was beautiful and my husband offered to take me to town in the Corvette to drop off some eBay sales. The minute Halloween is over, bam, they (whoever they is) begin to decorate the town with lights and red bows because the first Christmas event was last night, our Holiday Stroll. All the shops are open late and offer drinks and snacks and you run into friends and there's music everywhere with carolers, an oompah band and a barbershop quartet and several rock bands and people are dancing and it's just fun. Look at the trees! Even though the same color change happens every fall, it still takes my breath away. The Chinese Pistasche that line the town, and there are hundreds, are ablaze with red and orange.

That's it for today. I will be back soon with some knitting. Be good! Kristen

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