Sell Things and Declutter for Spring

I was reading some blogs that belong to members of Yakezie, a finance blogger's network that I am a member of, and came across a simple post by a young Australian blogger named Kylie Ofiu, that gave me a good kick in the butt.

Her post, Sell 1000 Things, was set up as a challenge to herself. She started the challenge when her husband lost his job, but has continued months later, decluttering her house and donating bags of things to charity as well. She even set up a Facebook page separate from her own personal page to sell off her things. Pretty crafty. Wonder if I could get her to ship me those blue willow plates in her photo? Hmmm....

Really a very simple premise. I have sold things before, but never totally committed to it--and I think that is about to change. Now that the husband and I are right at that half-century mark, our goal is to get ready to live simply in Florida. All of the "stuff" we have in our 2,400 square foot house, and the two (yes, two--and one is 26 X 40) garage needs to go. Amazing how much bigger the house and the garages were when we moved in. No point in spending thousands to move it all south--I would rather put the money aside and buy things that suit our new purpose better once we are there.

So, thanks to Kylie, I am starting my own challenge. So, the decluttering and listing starts today. Kylie originally expected to get an average of $1 for each item she sold, and is at $8 instead. Who knows, I might be able to add a few thousand to the house fund as well.