This is really a feel good post. I feel good when I de-clutter, it’s my new favourite past-time. I like having less things. The only thing I like more than de-cluttering (family related activities put aside of course), is making money. Now if you put those two together, it’s heaven for me! Mr.C, on the other hand, might prefer the marriage between investing + making money. I think. Who would want to invest and lose? Does Mr.C get the same joy de-cluttering and making money off it? I think the same amount of joy I get out of it, Mr.C gets just merely out of de-cluttering. [Mr.C: Eventually the goal is to not purchase things, so we don’t have to de-clutter!]
Is this a gender thing though? My closet is still very much packed with outfits whereas his consistently has so much space available. I’m mostly in charge of CocoJr #1’s wardrobe as well so that’s almost carbon image of my wardrobe. Almost. I exercised more self control there and enlisted Mr.C many an occasion to help me declutter. Anyway I digress.
I used to just give away my stuff, whatever it was that I didn’t want. Give it away, chuck it somewhere I didn’t see it anymore or throw it away. Oh all that wasted money. Now am constantly motivated to find avenues to let it off, and usually price it to sell. Even if I make $10 off the item, that’s $10 more that I can use towards whatever I want. That could be 2 weekday lunch meals, that could be 3 types of fruit, that could be CocoJr #1’s milk for a week, that could be countless number of consumables we use on a need basis vs. a want basis.
I did not start tracking this list from the very beginning, I wish I did! I love trackers! On to my random list of small-but-cranking-the-happiness-scale-to-the-max income:
| # | Item | $ | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 VW Toy Cars | 40 | This is the only item that is not 2nd hand per se. My in-laws purchased this 3 set VW Beetle toy cars for CocoJr #1 as he loves the car. These toy cars looked like collector items! I knew I could sell it on the Singapore classifieds. While I was still in Malaysia, I put it up for sale ( I bought a new set of course!) and sold it within the day. Most 2nd hand items, I sell at a loss because, well, it’s 2nd hand. This, I sold at a profit. It’s new, I bought it in MYR, I sold it at a reasonable price in SGD. Am quite tempted to go back to that crafts shop and pick up some quirky items to sell. |
| 2 | Office Swivel Chair | 30 | I had a home office for 2 years. When we moved here, there was no space for a study table let alone a swivel chair! Managed to sell this very easily! I bought it at $89, used it for 2 years. So I did sell it at a bit of a steal, but I needed space in my home pronto! |
| 3 | Yoga Ball | 5 | Bought this for $14.30 and got rid of it for $5 after 2 years. Same rationale as above, it just didn’t not have a home in the new house. Shame, as I really did like it as a spare chair and Jr was constantly playing with it. |
| 4 | Umbrellas | 20 | This is a funny one! Mr.C and I went for a corporate family day event. We had vouchers to collect the freebies (including big black umbrellas) and ended by with 5 big black umbrellas with no logo on it. Did we need 5 big black umbrellas? No. Somewhere, someone, had a need for it and I priced it at $20 for all 5. Deal! Mr.C was flabbergasted. I sold umbrellas. I can sell anything 😉 |
| 5 | Mixer | 30 | Get your popcorn for this one - I bought 2 of the very same mixer, forgetting I had purchased 1 a few months before the 2nd. The very same brand and model. Testament to my buying strategy. Even in making the sale, buyers do ask “Why are you selling it?” Well, it’s a funny story, sit tight! Haha! |
| 6 | Ergobaby Carrier | 70 | I used to own and operate an e-commerce store selling baby products, which I sold when I returned to full time work in May 2016. One of the perks, the baby items I used were at cost price for Jr. Well we certainly did not need both a Classic Ergobaby and an Ergobaby360 when we had, at that point, just 1 baby! Did we want it? Yes. Did we need it? No. |
| 7 | Zoku Popsicle Maker | 35 | This was a silly purchase. I had a voucher to spend at Tangs and decided to buy a ‘want’ item vs. a ‘need’ item. So it turned out, as it usually does with a ‘want’ item, that we didn’t use it much. We hardly ate ice-cream to begin with, and we Asians have a cheap alternative to actually making popsicles that I recall my momma having when we were young. Why did I buy a $35 gadget when I could get this for less than $10 at the local shop. Took me time but I refused to sell it below the cost I got it for as I did not want to ‘waste’ the voucher I used. I did eventually sell the Zoku. Pat on back. Life is perfect again. |
| 8 | Slow Cooker | 20 | This was free money. I went for a free pre-natal massage from a pre-pregnancy booklet I received at my gynae’s clinic. After the massage, I had to sit in an listen to the hard-sell for a good 40 minutes. I didn’t mind for no one can make me buy something I didn’t actually want to begin with. Anyway, I received the free slow cooker after the hard-sell. It was much too small for my family so I sold it. Ka-ching!! |
| 9 | Toddler Dinner Set | 15 | This was a gift for Jr. It would be fun for the child am sure and it would encourage him to eat, however Jr had no issue eating his meal in a bowl. I did some research and found of the cost of the gift and sold it. The $15 we received, I put it in Jr's savings. I am fair! |
| 10 | Guitar Set | 150 | Oh my Mr.C -our budding guitarist. Rarely spent time with his guitar though. I loved when he did and Jr and I would sit and listen. When we moved to our new place, we again had the decision - keep or sell. It was a gorgeous red guitar (I’d give you more specifics but that’s about all I know!). Long story short, we didn’t use it enough to keep it and so we sold it. A decent price, a slight loss but it’s gone on to make a 11 year old very happy I hear. |
| 11 | Luggages (2 big, 1 small) | 130 | This was from our credit card maximization spree. Free luggages that we were not using personally we decided to monetize. Ka-chingggg!!! |
| 12 | Paint set | 50 | Sad sale story alert - I quite excitedly bought a whole paint set to prepare for Jr arriving. I wanted his room to be a gorgeous blue topaz. However we were renting for the longest time, and continued renting. We did not want to paint the rented house then have to re-paint it white when we move out. So I kept the paint, and finally decided to put it up for sale. And less than half of what I paid for it. I rather it be used than to go to waste completely! 2 months after the sale, we've decided to move to our own place! I could totally paint the room now! |
| 13 | Bread maker | 100 | A birthday present I requested from my brothers that I did use for a good 2 years, although sparingly. I realised it wasn’t my core competency, to say the least. I made $100 of it, which is good value considering it was 2 years old. |
| 14 | Cheese Knife Set | 15 | This is by far the fastest sale I’ve done. Within 3 minutes of posting it up, I had interest pouring in and within 45 minutes the buyer turned up to pick it up. Probably could have sold it for $20, but of well. It was a 2 free stainless steel cheese knife sets that we got from buying cheese that we consumed. They were gorgeous knives but we certainly had no use for them. We’re fuss-free that way, a butter knife will do to cut the cheese. Tastes the same. |
| 15 | 2 packs of Diapers | 22 | Sold at cost. Jr was potty trained and we had unopened diapers. |
| 16 | Philips Hairdryer | 10 | Won this at a lucky draw and well, have no real use for 2 hairdryers so off it went, priced to sell at $10. |
| 17 | Sofa Set | 100 | I don’t quite recall how much I purchased the sofa set for but we made good use of it for a good 2-3 years and it still had a lot of good life in it. I was amazed I sold it for $100 only because the residual value was much higher than I expected. Normally, we would have just left the sofa below our block and called up the Town Council to pick it up or the Salvation Army. Not sell it! Glad I did! |
| 18 | Children’s rocking horse | 50 | I feel bad about this one. One of the gifts Jr got for his 1st birthday but we seriously did not have enough space in our new home! He loved it, it was beautiful but I talked him around ( I negotiated with our then 2 year old). He’s still got plenty even after the sale. The proceeds of this sale went to his savings, needless to say. |
| 19 | Stroller | 120 | We purchased a bulky but good stroller set in Malaysia however practically we found it to be cumbersome to dismantle to take on-board public transport in Singapore, especially when I was alone. I was quite sad to sell this piece as it was a good set. I think we sold it slightly less than our purchase price (given we bought it in MYR and sold it in SGD), but for a used item it was a good price. |
| 20 | Children's Car | 50 | Jr's bday gift when he was 1. We had to make room for the move to the new house. Of course, with Jr's agreement and the proceeds in his bank account. |
| 21 | 6 dresses + 2 Accessories | 40 | Priced to sell, as detailed out at Restlessly Rightsizing |
| 22 | IKEA Ribba Frame | 10 | Had this frame for at least 7 years unused! Bye bye frame! |
| 23 | Pie Face Game | 20 | Jr's 2 year old birthday gift. Played it once, it's so messy! He didn't quite it anyway, better off with the money in his bank! |
| 24 | Chest of Drawers | 80 | This was a gorgeous piece I got 2nd hand for $30. Such a steal when I got it, sold it quite easily at $80. |
| 25 | IKEA Wardrobe | 75 | I got this off my brother for free. We've had it in the family for at least 7 years. In great condition! |
| 26 | IKEA Sofabed | 50 | I bought this 2nd hand at $80 so a bit of a loss since I was just selling it a short 4 months later. Oh well, we win some, we lose some! |
| 27 | 3 Home Cameras (Wifi / Web enabled) | 120 | Had this when Jr was an infant and we had a helper for 6 months to care for him. We wanted to keep an eye whilst we were out of the house. 3 years later, I sold it at 50% it's value. SOld like hot cakes. Totally could have sold it for a higher price! |
| 28 | IKEA Queen Sized Bedframe | 30 | Been in the family for at least 10 years. Plenty of life still, believe it or not. Priced for a quick sale and bam! Hello $30! |
| Total | 1,487 |
Look how that added up! Over a grand! From stuff that would have just been idle around the house, and worse yet – taking up space! It’s at least now being used (fulfilling their purpose if you want to look at it that way) and it’s given us a nice sum too. I’ve developed a bit of an itch to sell, always on the lookout of what is no longer of value to us and that I can turn into value. When I was in the thick of it a year ago, I recall CocoJr #1 telling me on more than 1 occasion “Mummy, please don’t sell this ok?” It’s cute, also slightly scary. I may have threatened to sell his toys if he didn’t clean up his mess. Perfectly reasonable, no?
Are you motivated now to take a look around your place and see what value you can find? I’d be curious to hear back! One man’s junk is another man’s treasure, after all. Good luck!
Author: Ms.K
Ms.K is everything that Mr.C is, without the natural interest in investing and company financials! The activity planner for the family, the driver of random ideas and soon to be ‘retiring’ in to full time motherhood – Ms.K has no idea what she’s in for but remains super excited!