Day 64: One Man’s Trash, That’s Another Man’s Come-Up

You never know what’s in your garage, basement, and attic. The thing is that you will move more between the ages of 20-30 than you ever will in your life. And moving doesn’t happen overnight. When you “move” into a new apartment or house it will take you about three months to unpack everything. Then there will be the boxes you have in the house that will never be unpacked. They will sit and collect dust over time and be forgotten about. This stuff is clearly not important to you or your new place. This stuff is your trash. This trash, however, could be someone else’s treasure.

Garage sales are the best way to get rid of your old crap that you will never use again. If you add a “b” between the “r” and the second “a” in garage sale, you’ll see what a garage sale really is (garbage sale for those of you who are bit slow). Nonetheless there will be someone interested in your old stuff I promise. So this past weekend my roommates and I decided to have our own garbage, oh sorry I mean garage sale. I woke up at 7:00AM on a Saturday to start getting everything ready for the day. By 7:45 I had my first visitor. Clearly I had started too late. Without even having anything set up yet I made my first sale at 8:00AM.

I was amazed at what they were buying. Literally our crap that was just going to go into the trash at the end of the day. Not only that but trying to negotiate with us on prices. I offered a lady $2 for an old dress of mine from Forever21 which I probably bought for $20. She was like you think I am going to pay that price for that dress. I was like ummmm its $2. This continued on all day. We had a lot of furniture that people were interested in, asked the price about, but never bought it. But our small stuff like throw pillows, old sports equipment, pictures, etc. sold like hot cakes. It was honestly kind of fun and I loved earning that fast cash. At the end of the day we made $400 just buy selling old stuff that we were going to donate at the end of the day anyways. I took my cut ($100) and put it right into my Australia fund. Since most of the furniture was mine and it didn’t really end up selling, I am going to try my luck on Craigslist and see how that works out. I have a potential to make at least another $100 so keep your fingers crossed.

Before winter comes, which will probably be next week, clean out your basement and garage and take those boxes out. Don’t even go through them and be like “ohhh I’m saving this for when I get my first house” or “I’ll use this to decorate my guest bedroom” or whatever you are saying to convince yourself you will use this stuff again. Just stop. You won’t. It’s been there for a reason and it needs to go. Drink a couple of beers, sell some shit, and watch the money roll in. #Australia2014 #beaDINC #Day64