johnbernstravelblog

Packing for a trip makes me realize just how much stuff I have—and how little of it I use.

I have a lot of things I have been dragging around for years because “I might use it” or “it’s too valuable to throw out.” It piles up. I ended up with a huge pile of things that were too good to throw out and too much effort and expense to keep.

So, being hell-bent of simplifying my life I undertook a major effort to purge all these unnecessary things.

I made four huge piles of things I didn’t really need:

1. Stuff that was just trash: the value of it or demand for it was too low to bother selling it at all.
2. Garage sale stuff: There was limited value, but not enough to sell items individually. It will be sold at a garage sale or donated to Goodwill.
3. Craig’s List stuff: things that had broad enough appeal that there would e buyers locally and I could deliver it in person, saving on eBay sales fees and shipping charges.
4. ebay Stuff: items that had narrow appeal and enough value to justify the costs of shipping and selling it.

In a matter of two weeks I turned a pile of stuff into about $1200 in travel funds. That provides a dual benefit: not only do I not have to store it, I get money to spend on travel.

Unburdening yourself of excess belongings is a great pre-travel task, it simplifies your life and it can add to travel funds.

Additional Notes:

If don’t know about Craig’s List,
do yourself a favor and check it out. It is free, local classified ads online. It gets enough views that it’s a reliable outlet for most items that you would sell in newspaper classifieds and you pay nothing to advertise your stuff there.

I was rather disappointed in how clunky eBay was for selling items. They have integrated it with Paypal and UPS shipping, but done so in a painfully awkward manner. It could–and should–be a lot easier than it currentlyis. I guess they are the dominant player and have decided that usability for the common man is not a high priority. Pity.