Lounge Lesson

Selling this couch reminded me of another benefit of selling. My ebook is called Less Clutter More Cash, but sometimes there's also a more heart-warming aspect.

This couch was given to my friend. He no longer needs it and was thinking of dumping it.

As you might imagine I stepped in, suggesting he sell it online. Apart from making some cash and avoiding landfill, the buyer will does the transporting. (That's reason 4 of my 4 Reasons to Sell Unwanted Items.)

As it turned out, I listed it for him. After all, I've got a bit of experience at it now, having sold 370+ items of ours.

How did it go?

Within hours we had a number of people asking about it - and someone picked it up the next day.

I met my friend shortly after and he was very happy about the experience. The pick-up was quick and easy but mostly he was pleased about the family it went to. He reckons they were not very well off at all. They also had at least five kids - so lots of need for seating. And they were so appreciative of getting something so big for such a low price.

In my friend's words "It's a much nicer story than taking it to the dump".

It was an uplifting reminder of the heart-warming side of selling possessions; seeing them go to someone who'll use them and really appreciate them.

Some more tips

My wife and I have sold more than 370 items as we've downsized. I've put some of our learnings into a free ebook Less Clutter More Cash. If you're downsizing or decluttering you may find it helpful.

Comments

Ethical Investing for Australians

I write about investing, because it's a key part of life. Spending less and investing means an automatic income. An automatic income means we can work less (if we choose) and definitely stress less. But where to invest? What to invest in? Many people expect their money to be invested responsibly and ethically - rather than making money through things like cigarettes, weapons, casinos, adult entertainment, environmental destruction, and pollution from fossil fuels. Those are all things we could probably do with less of. So how do we invest to get good returns - and to have a positive effect on the world? Here are some sources I've seen: Ethical Investing in Australia At Frugality and Freedom , Michelle has done a fair bit of research into Ethical Investing in Australia . For herself, she's chosen Bank Australia for banking, Australian Ethical for superannuation, and two exchange-traded funds ( FAIR and ETHI ) for her share investing outside of super. She also gives detail...

How to waste a year's wages

A friend recently asked me why it is that so many people (on good incomes) are struggling to save. Often the big three money areas are housing, transport and food. In one sense these are necessary items. But what we spend on them is often way more than necessary. I crunched some numbers on how much extra my wife and I could spend on these things - if for some reason we wanted to burn our money. 1. Housing Our apartment is fairly nice, but also cost-effective. I've mentioned how choosing it saves us $1,800 per year , compared to a similar one we saw. The high end of 2-bedroom apartments in our suburb is $305 per week more than our apartment. Not $305 per week. $305 per week more than ours is. I cannot get over that. Sure it's new and modern-looking, but that's a lot of money. It's an extra $15,860 per year above what we pay. 2. Transport The Australian Automobile Association lists the costs of owning and running a car. It includes many often-overlooked c...

Don't dump on charities

Netflix causes mass dumping. Here's an alternative. January is usually a big month for physical donations to charity. In 2019 it's been over-the-top (literally) as charity donation bins have been overflowing with items. The Netflix series "Tidying Up" by famous declutterer Marie Kondo (see her book ) has inspired many to declutter their homes. But in the process they've cluttered the streets. What's so bad about donating? When the bins overflow the extra items are thrown away. Having been in the weather, the rain and on the ground, they are classified as contaminated and cannot be sold. To make it worse, much of what fills the bins is not good enough to sell, and is also dumped. Bad donations hurt charities 13 million dollars. That's how much it costs charities to deal with all the junk we dump on them - 60,000 tonnes a year. Lifeline says half its stores have stopped accepting donations. We might think we're helping, but that's a lot ...

But wait... there's less!

Search This Blog