Boxes for ebay

Here I sit in my office with a stack of about 10 boxes, filled to the brim with things to go on ebay. The challenge here is that I’ve had this stack in my office for months. I want to go through it; I need to go through it. I’ve pulled out the “easy” auctions to list. But what about those that may not sell? Are they worth my time?

Today I plan to go through this stack and get rid of anything that I can’t put on ebay this week. Let’s face it: We all have good intentions, but boxes become eyesores and stress-producers. If I can’t put this stuff on ebay, it’s going to Goodwill, plain and simple. No, it won’t help us get out of debt then, but it will help us simplify our lives, and that’s what this is all about!

The Power of Less by Leo Babauta

I recently heard about author Leo Babauta and have really enjoyed his posts and materials on simplifying. I downloaded his FREE Thriving on Less ebook and found it extraordinary. I’ve marked it up throughout. Especially great was Chapter 2 where he suggests making a short list of what matters to you–and he gives examples. This is a wonderful exercise and really helps you look at your life and “weed out” those things that don’t link to what matters.

Anyway, download the ebook and while you’re at it, head on over to Amazon and grab The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential…in Business and in Life before January 1, 2009, and Leo will send you some bonus giveaways for your quick purchase. While mine isn’t in my hands yet, it’s sure to be great stuff.

Meanwhile, we’ve begun what I’d call “Phase 1″ of our goals, which pretty much amounts to Spring Cleaning. If you’ve been following, you’ve seen that I’ve put about 30 items on ebay, brought 7 boxes to Goodwill and a box of books to Half Price Books (made $16. Yay.). This is progress, but it’s easy stuff. We haven’t felt much self-sacrifice yet in getting rid of old McDonald’s toys and books we never cracked. We know more is coming. We’re amazed that we can get rid of 7 boxes of stuff from about 3 rooms and then wonder how it looks any different. We, like our culture, have collected stuff for YEARS. We’ve gotten caught in the collection trap and just have “stuff” to get rid of.

But it’s going! And our lives are simplifying every day.

Comic Book Nation by Bradford W. Wright

Today I posted our first eBay listing since starting on our new track for life. I put up two books on comic book writing. Both are great, but some of those things we have on our shelves and haven’t looked at again since reading them the first time.

Honestly, I don’t know if they’ll bring much, nor do I care. As far as I’m concerned, I just need to do what I can do. If someone gets the book they wanted super-cheap, so be it–I count it as a ministry to them. If it goes up for more than I expected, hey that’s great too as it’s all going toward debt.

That said, if you’re looking for some great deals, keep an eye on our auctions. I plan to start about everything at 99 cents.

In recording our journey, I have a hefty To Do List of what I want to create here. Hopefully they’ll all show up soon!

• Finish the About Us page
• Reorder the sidebars
• Put the categories in the right order
• Include a PayPal “Contribute” Link
• Research any other WordPress plug-ins that might help keep the site simple and user-friendly
• Include a list of our favorite Simplifying books from Amazon.com
• Provide more ways to subscribe (Feedburner?)
• Provide a visitor map
• Subscribe to Google Analytics
• Include a travel map of places traveled
• Include a debt pay-off graph
• Include an ebay widget

If you have any hot tips on any of these things, please let me know!

EDIT: All done!

In January and February, I started cutting our “complicated expenses.” Upon examination, I discovered we were spending hundreds of dollars monthly just like everyone else: on things we don’t really need. We only use a combined 300 minutes on our cell phones, so I cut Verizon off and went with Prepaid Wireless–that’s $115/month to $10/month for both cell phones because of the way we use them.

I cancelled our landline and went with the phone package our cable company had. At the same time, I cut our extended cable. We have a TiVo with lifetime service and generally get more than enough viewing on our local channels anyway. This changed our cable and phone bills from $90 and $30 to a total of $75/month. That’s another $45/monh savings.

We cut our critter control and I went to Home Depot, got the best self-pest control solution. That changed our bill from $20/month to $20/year…an annual $220 savings. I also cut a few other services we didn’t use much. Some online multiplayer game subscriptions and other online site subscriptions. I even switched banks from Wells Fargo with their hefty account fees for using Microsoft Money and online banking to Charles Schwab which gives me all that and more for free. All in all, our total savings amounted to nearly $200/month.

But it wasn’t enough. It’s amazing how complicated life can seem. It’s not just about getting out of debt or slashing expenses. It’s about a lifestyle change. And this is why Gena and I have created this web site. It’s a way to record our journey simplifying our lives–and our children’s lives–forever. I hope you subscribe and join us for the journey! I believe as you do, you’ll be encouraged to make some changes as you rebel against suburbia yourself.