Sell All the Things!

Dave Ramsey is all about selling items in order to make some quick cash to throw at debt.  (As this is a debt-reducing blog, you must have known that Dave Ramsey would be a big part of it.)  This is his number one recommended way of creating a $1,000 cushion and getting the snowball process started.  His line of thinking is really so simple yet few follow the principle: if you sell items you own now for half of what they are worth to pay off debt, then when you buy them back at full price when you are debt-free, you'll still be financially better off.  And he's right.

So of course, I want to jump right into selling everything.  But I think I run in to a couple of unique problems compared to the average person.

1.  I'm a minimalist.  This can be a good thing and a bad thing.  When it comes to getting rid of stuff, I barely hesitate.  While I see many cling to their items with emotion, struggling to part with even a book, I'm ready to eliminate everything in our house.  But I have always been this way, and thus, we don't have a lot of extras to sell.  Ask anyone who has ever been in our house.  We have nice things, but we have few things.  We have some DVDs and books but they won't amount to much.  We have some clothes, both child and adult but again, only a few dollars.  The bigger one is furniture.  We have a few nice items that I could easily part with so part with we shall.  I'm hoping they can at least get us $100 or more.

2.  I have little patience.  Post it online, wait....wait....wait....be contacted by a couple of no-shows, wait....wait....wait....finally sell the item, or never sell it at all.  It drives me crazy.  Once I have decided I want to get rid of an item, I want it gone yesterday.  But there it sits, in a box or a corner, taunting me.  Taking up valuable space in the house.  Disrupting the Feng Shui.  And essentially driving me crazy.  While most have a difficult emotional time choosing to part with items, I struggle emotionally with waiting until they are gone.  I would rather just throw them in the trash.

Being aware of both of these issues makes a big difference, however.  We know in our planning to not bank too much on selling items.  While it would be nice to have a quick $1,000, it's just not realistic for us.  Recognizing my impatience also helps me plan accordingly.  My husband has been tasked with most of the selling process while I pray often asking for patience and lesser anxiety until all items are gone.

Hopefully we can get through this step quickly and profitably but even if we do not, I have all ready set up my mindset to not become discouraged.  There are certainly many other ways in finding more money and I would be best served to use my time hunting them down instead of worrying impatiently.