Table of Contents

-Introduction
-Did you know?
-Monthly Mission – Calendars and Meal Planning
-Check Out These Pages! – Relevant pages and new site additions
-Thoughts from My Garage Sale

Introduction

I hope everyone is doing well. Over here, things have sort of been turned upside down. First was the storage closet project, that also doubles as the computer closet in which we removed everything, painted, reorganized and decluttered. That inspired us to have a garage sale which we haven’t done in a few years, but despite my regular drop-offs to Goodwill, we suddenly had a lot of things to get rid of. So, more house mess sorting, purging, etc. to get ready for the garage sale. I’m now working on getting things back into normal mode. I have to say though, I’m enjoying some of our newfound space. It’s nice to be able to open the door to my car without banging into the bicycles that were there!

Did you know…

About garage sales:

• 165,000 – the number of garage sales each week in the U.S.
• 7:00 am – best time of day to start a garage sale
• Saturday – best day to hold a garage sale
• 462% - average profit margin when items purchased are resold on eBay.

That last one… makes me think “if only I had the time to sell all this stuff on ebay, I would be rich!” I know I let go of a lot of things far far below their eBay value last weekend. But my goal was to get rid of stuff quickly!

(Source: http://statisticbrain.com/garage-sale-statistics/ )

The kids are home from school, but they’re just as busy as usual. Keeping the family (and yourself) organized in a central area is key to keeping your time organized. Meal planning also helps save a lot of time and money. Learn more about the monthly mission for June by clicking here.

Here are some pertinent pages on the website you may have missed along with any new pages.

Kitchen Organization - Suggestions to get your kitchen organized and running more efficiently.

Before and After Photos - If you enjoy seeing before and after photos of organizing projects, you can find them all right here.

Living Room Storage Make-over - See how we recently re-organized our living room (play room) with a new Ikea wall unit that's great for storing lots of stuff.

Kitchen Spice Rack - How do you store your spices in the kitchen? See how my new spice organizer helps me save room in my kitchen cabinets.

Home Filing System - Keep all your paperwork in order so you can find what you need at a moments notice, and learn what to keep and what to toss.

Garage Makeover - before and after photos of my personal garage makeover. See how we tackled the problems and ended up with a functional garage.

Streamline Your Morning Routine - Ideas to help you get out the door in the morning and be on time for work or school.

Bathroom Drawer Make Over - How to organize a bathroom drawer, an example with before and after photos.

Stop Clutter - Quick simple tips on how to stop the clutter from coming into your home in the first place.

I haven’t had a garage sale in quite a while because I make it a pretty regular routine to donate things to the local charity. However, we suddenly seemed to have a lot more stuff than I was willing to donate without trying to sell first. Bikes, tricycles, kids furniture, large toys, etc. eBay works for smaller items I can ship. And my track record with Craigslist is just a bunch of time wasters and no-shows. So, we decided to go ahead and have a garage sale. And it was quite successful too. We got rid of every large item except for one, and cleared out quite a bit of smaller things too.

The hard part is knowing how much we paid for something, and knowing it’s in perfect condition still and worth more than 50 cents! I also know that if I chose to put it on ebay, there is a good chance I could get more for it.

But I had to keep in mind my goal… to unload a large amount of items in a very short span of time. The goal was to gain space in my home and let go of items that were no longer serving a purpose to me. What I lost in profit I gained in space. Here are some thoughts that helped me let go of things:

• It may be worth something, but it’s not worth anything to anyone if it’s sitting in my closet being unused.

• Some people actually need these things more than me and they simply don’t have the money to go out and buy all new stuff.

• There is nothing that makes me happier than to see a little kid totally happy and excited to get a new bike or a new toy. For that, I can let an item go at a rock bottom price.

• The space sometimes means more than the item. What we didn’t sell, I took to Goodwill. My garage has more space so I can open my car door more easily. There is space in the play room and there are empty spots on the shelves of the wall unit.

• It just feels good to let things go. There are things I’ve held on to for too long, thinking about them and wondering if I should keep it, where should I keep it, how should I get rid of it, etc. But just letting something go frees up that extra space in my mind! No more thinking about it.

So, whether you’re having a garage sale, or just decluttering and letting things go, try not to focus too much on how much you paid for something or how much it might be worth if you take the extra time to sell it, someday. Think about how it’ll benefit someone else who could really use it, and it will once again serve its purpose instead of hiding away in a box in your basement.

Until next time, happy organizing!

Tracy Greene
Plan-and-Organize-Life.com