I am good at decluttering but my ebay/carboot pile has taken over my life

[WearingGreen]

Please slap me.

My car boot pile has filled its corner of the garage and is encroaching on the house. I am not going to do a car boot sale. I am too busy and it is cold and rainy. So I'll just charity shop the lot, but I can't because its worth money, there is some good stuff in there and the sheer volume of it means that it is worth a fair bit. So I'll sort it, put the decent kids clothes and a few other choice items on ebay and charity shop whats left over. Except I won't. I have had a carpet cleaner next to my bed for 2 months because there is no room for it in the garage.

Please slap me again.

And now kick my arse.

Are you living in my house???!!!

You aren't good at decluttering, you are simply good my moving stuff from one place to another which is out of sight :) I am an expert in this.

It is only worth money if you actually sell it, if you are never going to get round to it you might as well charity shop it and think of the good the money could do for a worth while cause.

This the approach I am taking, unexpected house move at 28 weeks has made my realise that sometimes it's better just to get rid of stuff!

Your right. I am only good a moving stuff. I'm going to end up like one of those people you see on American television who rent a row of garages to keep their junk in.

I know I need to get rid of it, I am quite rational in other areas.

If I drive it all down to the charity shop tomorrow I might mourn the loss of the £££ for a few days but at least I won't have a carpet cleaner next to my bed.

DH will be thrilled.

I will be able to get to my bike.

I won't have to go to B&Q for sandpaper as I will have unfettered access to the sandpaper department of the garage.

I am the same. I am going to give myself a time limit. If it's not been ebayed the charity shop will get it.

It's difficult because I feel like I'm giving money away but collection dust in my bedroom it's not worth anything.

I could have written your post!

I keep thinking if there is a value to an item I have an obligation to obtain it, but I never actually do. A friend recently advised me that there is also value in giving something to the charity shop -it's not monetary to me but the value is in getting it out of my house and the shop is raising funds. That cheered me up!

Can you do 3 items a night on eBay maybe?

Have you ever sold anything on eBay?

It does take a bit of time, but feels good to get money for something that otherwise would be given away.

Why not try ebaying a few choice items and giving the rest away this time, then if the ebaying goes well it might be more of an incentive to do the same with other things in the future.

I would ebay or sell on Gumtree anything which you think could go for £10-15 plus and give the rest away and be glad that it will make money for a good cause.
(WIsh I could take my own adive!)

I am the same. Loads of things to ebay but I can't face it, not after the rigmarole that was last time.

Someone bought a chair and it was all a disaster regarding courier collection and patronising emails and Oh it was hideous. All for a manky old chair!

In the end we took it to bits with a mallet and dumped it.

I hate selling on ebay.

Call a trading assistant and they will sort it all out

i get fed up with ebay. you do sell the odd thing but some of it doesn't get sold and then i think what other posters are saying is a good idea.

whip it down the charity shop or into one of those clothes collection bins then it is out of sight and mind.

sometimes people pay a low bid for my stuff and i think for the aggro of posting etc i wish i had given it away.

How much would you realistically get for it? What's the value of your time per hour? How long does it take to ebay each item? How many items do you have? How much money would you like to give to charity this Christmas?

If a - bcd < e => put it all in a big bag and take it to Oxfam

Facebook local sales pages can be fab - no selling fees and they see it they pay for it and no faff with returns etc

One of my friends works as a trading assistant, I'd happily put you in touch with her if you like.

Trading assistants sound a good idea - has anyone used one?

We recently charity shopped/tipped 12 years worth of stuff I'd saved to car boot, eBay or gumtree. It took 3 days to sort and take to the relevant places and while we were doing it we really had to keep telling ourselves that it was time to let go and just be rid of all the clutter. Tough and we must have given away hundreds of pounds worth but can honestly say now it feels so much better to know its gone and we have a clean slate now. My house is much tidier and every time I come across something we no longer need I take it straight to the charity shop so no piles of junk anywhere.

Oh, respect.

I gave up with selling and just bung stuff on Freecycle or give outgrown clothes to friends with appropriately sized children. Realistically, I was never going to make enough selling the stuff to cover the amount of effort.

If you factor in the cost of your time, it often isn't worth the effort.

That's why these trading assistants as such a good idea.

My friend has sold things for other friends and they've been very happy with the amount of money that they've made, even with the extra sellers fees.

Why don't you ebay the whole lot as a 'carboot sale job lot' or something similar? People do this and it means you won't have to bother sorting it all out. Just put a few pictures of the different boxes/piles of stuff and list the major items that are worth something. You'll be surprised by how many people do this on Ebay!

www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=car+boot+sale+job+lot&_sacat=0&_from=R40

OP, I am exactly the same, except my pile is in the loft, which is unfortunately (a) massive and (b) walk-in, so adding to the pile is just tooooo easy.

I have phases of eBaying, but run out of steam after a few weeks while the pile does not seem to shrink.

There are some good eBay support threads on MN ("make £300 by Christmas" or similar), and I did find those quite motivating. My mum also forced me to do a car boot (she wanted to sell some stuff but not on her own), so maybe joining forces with another hoarder might help?

How much are you likely to get for it? And how much do you need the money? I've just taken a load of stuff to the charity shop (evening dresses etc) and women's refuge (jeans, t-shirts & other basics but decent brands) as I decided the amount of money I would get really wasn't worth the effort and that they needed the items/money more than I did and am now feeling all warm & fuzzy which is probably a better feeling than the money.

Right, I'm slinging/charity shopping it.

The ebay trading assistant ting looks good if your stuff is worth more but I have a million cheap things and a zillion things which are more car boot than ebay.

I'm going to ebay my dcs boden clothes, 2 v naice dresses of mine (karen millen little black dresses, tis the season) and the pram and a small amount of playmobil. Everything else can go to charity.

I probably would make a decent amount at a car boot sale but I don't want to do it, I'm busy, DH is busier, we've got hundreds of kids (it seems like)

I looked at the ebay job lots and if you go on completed listings then it looks like they don't really sell unless they are new stuff or a big pile of all one thing, like dvds or something.

I also have loads in the loft

We don't need the money but obviously it would be nice but tbh I think the space would be nicer and more realistically achievable. I literally look at crap and think "Oooo, I could get £1.50 for that at car boot" and then I can't get rid of it because its worth £1.50 and to toss it out i to throw money away. Then I'll stroll down the road and get a cup of coffee and an overpriced piece of cake and unthinkingly hand over a fiver. I'm not right in the head.

Lavender when I grow up I want to be like you.