Declutter Project - #1

In preparation for my future van dwelling life, I decided last month that I was going to take the whole month of July and get rid of the boxes in the bedroom. I just can't see me moving forward with my life until it's done and that room is somewhat cleared. That didn't start out well, due to health issues, doctor's appointments and treatments that took up time and put me in pain for a few days, but I started on the fifth and am carrying forward daily. In this series, I'll talk about my progress and my plans.

First, I have over 100 boxes to go through. The picture above shows a majority of them, but there are more in other parts of the room. That alone is time consuming, but here are some of the problems I'm running up against.

1. I've gone through some of these boxes several times already and this stack represents things I was not ready to part with. This is the cream-of-the-crop of my junk. Not all of it is junk, and my present quest is to separate the junk from the valuable items. Unfortunately, I tend to find value in a lot of things others do not, so that makes it harder. 
2. I spent a lot of money on these things, and it's hard to just give them away, so I'm putting things I want to sell on a shelf in the living room and will list them on Craigslist. I know some people say this is stupid, and too much trouble, but I simply cannot just give things away that are valuable, some of them still in their original packaging. I'm going to lose money on them anyway, but the way I feel is "better something than nothing." Since I work at home, and barely ever leave, this is worth the time and effort to me, and will get me started on my savings toward my van life.
3. Selling so many things slows me down. I have to take time to take pictures, list the items on Craigslist, and deal with buyers. My plan is to put up a blog with an online yard sale with all the items linked back to Craigslist ads, which will take even more time. To me, it's worth it. To some, it wouldn't be. I see it as akin to selling on eBay, but not having to ship anything. Since I don't have a car, shipping is hard. Then I have to deal with returns and complaints, etc. With Craigslist, everything is sold "as is" and there is no hassle once it's gone.
4. I have very little free space available to work with the items, so it's hard to keep the apartment clean. As I get rid of things, it will be easier, as I'll have more free space, but right now, it's just moving things from one place to another, and my living room is filling up.

Solving the Problems

For the space problem with for sale items, I am selling off the larger items first, and making up "grab bag" boxes of related items to sell really cheaply. For example, I'm now making up a box of kitchen things that will be valuable to a student just getting their own place. I'll sell that really cheaply, depending on what's inside. Those go for $5 to $20, mostly $5 to $10, and they go fast. I've done this before.

As for the sentimental items, that's a bit harder, but  since I'm putting things in storage for a year anyway, in case van living doesn't agree with me, I'll probably just repack the most sentimental things and go through those boxes one more time before I put things into storage. There are a lot of things I can take pictures of and let go, but that is time I don't have right now, because my objective this time around is to clear the room of as much as possible.

So that's where I am now. I'm going to be listing the bicycle, microwave and a few other larger  items on Craigslist today, so hopefully, I'll have more space to work soon. It's a real challenge, and as much as I want to get it done this month, I have faced the fact that my health may prevent that. I remember packing to move, and how it killed my back, so I'm trying to do this a bit more carefully. If it isn't done by the end of the month, at least appreciable progress will have been made.

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