Too small, need more space

I decide against the 300 sq. ft. apartment.  It was cute, I went to look at it and really liked it.  The fact that it had windows on the south and west walls was awesome!  Unfortunately, it just seemed like it wouldn't be enough room for me...and my stuff.  

My mom mentioned that when I move out, she'll need the extra room I'm using to be emptied to rent it out.  That means I need to find a place that is much larger.  A few days ago I looked at a basement apartment that was approximately 600 sq. ft. and even that seemed small!  Maybe it would be possible, but it would be tight.

I'm thinking I need something more along the lines of 800-900 sq. ft. so I can run my eBay business out of it.  Either that or work really hard at selling the massive amount of stuff I have now so I don't have so much to move.  That would probably be best.  Unfortunately, by doing that, I will be living here longer, but on the upside, I won't have so much stuff!

School starts soon and I'll have less time to do these things.  *Sigh*

Progress

It has been a slow process, but there is progress. I has to temporarily give up on cleaning my stuff out of the basement and have been focusing on my bedroom.  The house in which I live is a bad environment for me.  I know I'm long overdue of moving out, and I'm actively searching for my own place.  Since I won't have as much extra space for storage, what I own needs to become less. 

I don't think anyone reads my nearly abandoned blog, but I still wonder how many square feet people live in.  My bedroom with closet is approximately 168 sq ft. My bathroom is small, but attached to the room. Yes, I have taken over a separate room for my workshop, and this will stay there. Unless I find an 800-900 sq ft place, I won't have room.  If I take the cute 300 sq ft place from a local ad, I have lots more work to do!!

Things have been given away to friends, donated, thrown in the trash, and listed for sale on eBay.  Surprisingly, some of these items have even sold!  I'm not making tons of money, that's ok though, the space is more important.  I've been working on letting go of the price I paid for things, otherwise I will hold on to them forever. 

The key is to have what you love, and love what you have.  I'm working on it. 

I did it!

About one month ago I listed my extra car for sale. It had been sitting for a very long time, in hopes that I would one day, yes, one day get it fixed and get it running. That day never came, and I changed my mind on the car. My emotional attachment to it has somewhat diminished, and I had grown tired of looking at the car, although I really did love it. It was time to let it go.

The car has been listed as mentioned for about one month, and it I'm not joking, it got 1,618 views online locally. Today I got a phone call from someone once again who came to look in the car. I let him take it for a test drive and he came back and said, "What's the lowest you'll go?" My response was, "What do you offer?" I told him $200 less than my asking price. We agreed in the middle which means I got $100 more than I thought I could get realistically.

So it's Friday late afternoon when this was happening and he said we could go to the bank and get the money. Now, you need to understand that most people didn't have all the cash, so I agreed. We went to the bank he got a Cashier's Check and deposit it into my bank account and I gave him the title. We did all the other fine detail paperwork and he was happy to have the car.

He's happy, I'm happy, and there's an extra space in the driveway and I don't have to dread looking at the car every single day. That clutter is gone. What a relief! I started thinking that I was never going to get rid of it.

Dust = sneezing, or does it?

One of the reasons I shouldn't collect clutter is because clutter collects dust.  Dust makes me ill.  All day yesterday and today I've been sneezing so much and my nose won't stop running.  The truth is, I don't know if it is the dust, or if I've been wearing myself out and I have a slight cold.

The good news is that I made so much progress in my inventory room that I feel a lot better about it.  I found items I didn't know I had, that will hopefully be profitable.  On the other hand, I have to throw some things out because they are past their dates and I can no longer sell them.

I plan to spend some time working on getting items listed on eBay and Amazon so I can clear some space.  Well, I've already cleared enough space so I can actually SIT in my office/inventory room, and that's not all, there are A FEW PLACES where I can sit!  Now that's progress!

I won't be working on this room tonight because I have plans to be with my lovely BF.  Is it bad that I almost like him to work more so I have time to get things done?

Inventory

My room exploded!!  In a good way though.  Not my bedroom, but the room I use for my ecommerce inventory.

Being that it is a new year, I have to know where my inventory stands for tax purposes.  Let's be honest here, my inventory room is out of order, cluttered, and shared with my mother's belongings.  Therefore, if you can imagine, it's quite full and I'm not able to take a proper inventory, let alone walk!

The last two nights after work, I have spent several hours working on emptying the room so that I can start almost from scratch.  Although this sounded like a good idea, I ran out of room a short while after starting.  The hallway was overflowing with product, my bedroom is hardly walkable, and I had to climb over things and try not to knock things off the shelves!

What I decided to do was to empty one bookcase I use for shelves, clean it, and start putting things back on it.  What have I learned the hard way?  Liquids on the bottom!  When I restocked the shelves, all light and non liquid items are on the top shelves.  They aren't organized by category, but at least they are on the shelves grouped together.

Still...I don't have enough room!  What was the solution?  Remove many of my mother's belongings from the room to free up the space.  She wasn't too keen on this because that means more work for her to try and figure out where to put this extra stuff that she hasn't seen in several years.  Where did she put it?  Right by all the stuff I was trying to organize and get rid of in the basement!  Ugh!!  I told her that she is causing more work this way, but, what to do?

Last night I worked about 5 hours, and got quite a bit done, actually I'm pretty close to being finished, at least with the organization part of it.  So many of my mother's things were taken out and this gave me more room to organize and see what I have so I can sell it!

After this tiring project, I will have to go in and type out what I have and figure the cost of it all.  Not fun, but it's the cost of doing business and running it alone.

Clutter, clutter...oh how you make me shudder!

Bike be gone!

I realize it has been a while since I posted, but honestly, I haven't done much decluttering.  I've been very busy with many things and trying to enjoy the summer.

Recently, a cousin of mine posted a need on Facebook for a bike because she wanted to start riding and getting in shape.  She asked where she could find a good bike or if anyone had one they didn't want.  Well guess what??  I had one that was going to be donated (I have another one which I use), I just hadn't gotten around to it.  It's an older bike that needs a bit of work, minor work such as new inner tubes and oiling the chain or buying a new one and a good washing.

I sent her a picture of what I had and she liked it.  Along with the bike, I sent her the flashing red light under the seat and a slime inner tube I had but never put in.

I haven't spoken to her since she picked it up almost a month ago, but I sure hope it has gone to good use and that she's enjoying it.

Besides getting rid of the bike, I worked on my online business and got rid of a big chunk of inventory and hope to arrange my workspace a bit better.

The little things I've discarded were old makeup that I no longer use.

Picture Frames

I used to make craft things with picture frames...and I would still like to, BUT...

1. I don't have the time.
2. What will I do with the things I make?
3. Where will I store the supplies?

Therefore, while going through items, I decided to get rid of 15 picture frames.  Ten of them can be used as is for pictures, 5 of them are straight from the craft store and ready for a project.

I probably won't use them anytime soon, if ever, and I would rather have the space right now.  While going through them I thought of FlyLady when she says that if an item can be easily replaced at a later time when you need it, get rid of it.  So, that's what I did.  I didn't need them, use them or love them; they are in my car ready to be dropped off today.  That makes me feel good :)

Here they are!