Speaker 1: Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt
Speaker 1: and today we're talking about spring cleaning your life. Joel.
Speaker 1: So what's up, man? So before before we get started
Speaker 1: on our topic today, I want to tell you I'm
Speaker 1: keeping it a secret because I wanted to tell you
Speaker 1: once we hit record. Here you're bursting at the scenes
Speaker 1: about I want to know, all right, So listen. Last night,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there on Facebook kind of catching up, seeing
Speaker 1: what's going on out there in the world, and I
Speaker 1: see a buddy of mine. He's a photographer friend who
Speaker 1: also likes scotch, which is nice and uh, because we're
Speaker 1: not only beer drinkers, we like some scotch on occasion.
Speaker 1: You in particular, man, Yeah, I enjoy in particularly a
Speaker 1: nice smoky Pete scotch. Anyway, his wife posted a picture
Speaker 1: of him with a case of one of my favorite scotches, Talisker.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you love that one. Not only Talisker, but
Speaker 1: it's a special version of it. I guess it's called
Speaker 1: Talisker Storm. And this is one that I've had before
Speaker 1: and it's really good. So I was like, you gotta
Speaker 1: be kidding me. Why are they picking up a case
Speaker 1: of this stuff. Uh. They picked it up at the
Speaker 1: liquor store right up the street from us, the corner there.
Speaker 1: That's under thirty dollars a bottle. Do you had to
Speaker 1: buy a case or do they decide it's under thirty
Speaker 1: bucks a bottle? I'm Kate. Yeah, Basically it's like, this
Speaker 1: is such a good deal that you need to get
Speaker 1: that much. I'm loading up to get enough Talisker that
Speaker 1: will last me like the next twelve years or you know,
Speaker 1: next six. But this, I mean, this is a dude,
Speaker 1: This is a Scotch that goes anywhere between like sixty
Speaker 1: and fifty I don't know about six, like fifty to
Speaker 1: seventy bucks maybe though. And I was, I mean I
Speaker 1: was sitting there, look you know per bottle. Uh listen
Speaker 1: that twenty something nine or whatever. And so it was
Speaker 1: like ten almost ten thirty at night. Kate was out.
Speaker 1: But as soon as she got home, I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: by the way, I got ago, you put your pants on? Yeah,
Speaker 1: my pants are still on. I went ready forbid yet,
Speaker 1: hopped in the car and drove up there and bought
Speaker 1: me a case. Man. Yeah, when you see a deal,
Speaker 1: you pounce. It's true. And that's a great thing. Like
Speaker 1: you know when you saved money and the deal comes
Speaker 1: along and you're like, this is my jam, that's when
Speaker 1: you make the move. Yeah, it was such a good deal.
Speaker 1: So now basically you need me to come over a
Speaker 1: lot more and help you drink the scotch. And do
Speaker 1: we actually need to change this podcasting to be in
Speaker 1: a scotch drinking podcast or I don't know, we could
Speaker 1: do a maybe like one week we might do a
Speaker 1: little scotch poor instead of beer, all right, or do
Speaker 1: a little nightcap at the end. You know what, we
Speaker 1: are poor, not poor. It doesn't say that we're poring
Speaker 1: a beer exactly. Man, we left the doors open. Those
Speaker 1: people don't remember be the wiser. Oh man. You know
Speaker 1: something else. I think I was influenced to you by
Speaker 1: my buddy. He he just sent me a picture of
Speaker 1: his beer seller and he had just like bottles and
Speaker 1: bottles of stuff too, And I think that was sort
Speaker 1: of on my mind, and I thought, you know what,
Speaker 1: Scotch is definitely something that never goes bad. And I
Speaker 1: was like, if Tyler's got a shelf full of a
Speaker 1: bunch of a dog fish head worldwide stouts, maybe I
Speaker 1: can have some scotch. And how did your wife feel
Speaker 1: about you purchasing a case of scotch? She supportive or
Speaker 1: now she was supportive, Okay, Yeah, she wasn't sure how
Speaker 1: much I should get because she was like, well, that's
Speaker 1: just a you know, that's up to you to decide.
Speaker 1: But given the budget, that's your money. So it's exactly well,
Speaker 1: so in the end she was just like, you know,
Speaker 1: it's up to you. And the way I was thinking
Speaker 1: about it though, is that I might give one of
Speaker 1: those bottles away as like a gift. You know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my brother in law's got a birthday coming up, and
Speaker 1: so we were kind of thinking. I was like, you
Speaker 1: know what, I think he might like to have a
Speaker 1: bottle of this, and and he's gonna be like, Matt's
Speaker 1: a big spending exactly basically, look good, he's got it,
Speaker 1: got himself an awesome scotch sitting there. And so once
Speaker 1: we do that, I get to just transfer it from
Speaker 1: our giving category back over to credit my account. Nice
Speaker 1: like it super nerdy. Well, dude, I'm all about scoring
Speaker 1: a deal, and a deal on Booze is even better.
Speaker 1: It's the best kind of deal you can come, all right,
Speaker 1: I wanted to tell you real quick. I read this
Speaker 1: article today and I thought it was fascinating because I've
Speaker 1: never thought about this before. You and I were both
Speaker 1: into real estate. You can hear about that listeners. You
Speaker 1: can go back a few episodes and listen to our
Speaker 1: Rental Property Basics show where um, Matt and I are
Speaker 1: kind of amateur landlords and super into it. But I've
Speaker 1: never thought about this apparently, So apparently people that are
Speaker 1: selling their homes are using their smart cameras and their
Speaker 1: Nest thermostats and they're listening devices in order to kind
Speaker 1: of get some inside information. They're kind of spying on
Speaker 1: potential homebuyers and their agents to kind of figure out
Speaker 1: what people are saying about the home. Isn't that amazing?
Speaker 1: Like are they listening to them? Say? So? Let me
Speaker 1: read this this This couple lines from the article tis.
Speaker 1: As homes become smarter, real estate agents and homebuyers are
Speaker 1: increasingly finding there's an extra set of eyes and ears
Speaker 1: on them as the tour properties for sale. Real Estors
Speaker 1: describe everything from old fashioned security cameras to newer contraptions
Speaker 1: like Nest thermostats tracking their conversations and actions. Fascinating, right.
Speaker 1: There's all sorts of ways. Like let's say you're walking
Speaker 1: through a house. You're talking to your agent and you're like,
Speaker 1: I'm in love. This is the greatest house I've ever
Speaker 1: seen in my life, and we will demand this much
Speaker 1: even though it's listened to this much, and the sellers
Speaker 1: like awesome. That's an upper hand in the negotiations. They
Speaker 1: put in a low ball offer and I just say, no,
Speaker 1: I'm sticking to my price because I know how much
Speaker 1: they like it. Um. And that's so as the potential seller,
Speaker 1: I'm like totally on board with that because I'm kind
Speaker 1: of sneaky. Yeah you are, but it's a but if
Speaker 1: I put myself in the buyer's shoes, it's tough. What
Speaker 1: do you think? I don't think it's cool. And I
Speaker 1: think if I were a buyer and I found out
Speaker 1: that that happened, I would certainly feel like I was tricked, um,
Speaker 1: And I wouldn't want to do that to somebody. I mean,
Speaker 1: I understand the desire for that, but it seems unfair
Speaker 1: and so I think that should probably be off the table.
Speaker 1: Using nestcams and whatever, like all these different nanny cams,
Speaker 1: all these other things in order to spy on people
Speaker 1: essentially walking through your house. Well, it's not Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: less spying. I don't know, maybe it's spying. Definitely keeps
Speaker 1: dropping at the at minimum. But I feel like these
Speaker 1: these technologies are so ubiquitous now that you kind of
Speaker 1: have to assume that, right sure, especially, I mean you
Speaker 1: come into a house and they've got the smart doorbell,
Speaker 1: and you you see other sort of smart home appliances,
Speaker 1: and you gotta think, all right, you know there might
Speaker 1: be some of that going on here. Yeah. Um. I
Speaker 1: think the biggest takeaway is for anybody who's potentially buying
Speaker 1: a house and walking through with her agent or a
Speaker 1: friend or something, that could be really careful what you're saying,
Speaker 1: because there's a chance that you know that they might
Speaker 1: not even be doing it on purpose, but they might.
Speaker 1: You know, they might be in the next room and
Speaker 1: hear you. So just be careful about what you're saying.
Speaker 1: Wait till you're talking price and how much you actually
Speaker 1: love the property until you're off the premises, yeah, or
Speaker 1: wait till you get in your car. Don't even wait
Speaker 1: on the like the front step or anything like that.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's how we were anytime, Like when we
Speaker 1: first bought our house, Kate and I feel like we
Speaker 1: were always super tight lips, you know, like zip zip it.
Speaker 1: You feel free to point out the minor flaws in
Speaker 1: a place or something like that, but like, you know,
Speaker 1: don't don't talk about how it's perfect for you and
Speaker 1: your family until you're out the door with your agent
Speaker 1: on a on you know, somewhere else to talk about,
Speaker 1: you know, that potential. I'm so torn though, because one
Speaker 1: one part of me wants to think, oh no, that's
Speaker 1: that's just part of the game now, it's just part
Speaker 1: of listening at home, and but the other part of
Speaker 1: me thinks that is pretty messed up. You know, I
Speaker 1: think I'm just fascinated that's the thing. It's like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: I guess that makes a complete sense of that's a
Speaker 1: thing now. But along for the days when you had to,
Speaker 1: like he's dropping person, Joel, if you wanted to to
Speaker 1: listen what your potential buying buyers were saying about your house. Actually,
Speaker 1: so that told reminds me of a story some friends
Speaker 1: of ours. They went across to their neighbor's house, like
Speaker 1: across the street or maybe like Caddy Corner while an
Speaker 1: agent was showing their house, so you know, they had
Speaker 1: to get out of there while while the agent was
Speaker 1: showing their house. And so they're sitting there on the
Speaker 1: front porch though, like trying to play it super cool,
Speaker 1: and they noticed that they can't get get into the
Speaker 1: house like they could the realtor couldn't get the key
Speaker 1: thing to work, and and he was like, should we
Speaker 1: should we like text him or like columns so they
Speaker 1: can get inside of the house. And she's like, no,
Speaker 1: like they're gonna know that we can see them if
Speaker 1: you like say something about not you know, getting the house.
Speaker 1: It's like old school leaves dropping. Yeah, gona those days. Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Now it's newfangled and there's all sorts of ways that
Speaker 1: you can can spy on people. So don't start lauding
Speaker 1: the house, you know, and singing its praises while you're
Speaker 1: walking around inside of it, because you know, the homeowner
Speaker 1: could just old school hear you or be recording you
Speaker 1: on one of their cameras. So yeah, beware. So our
Speaker 1: topic today is going to be spring cleaning your life,
Speaker 1: and specifically, we're not talking about cleaning your house of dirt.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be talking about getting rid of junk, decluttering
Speaker 1: your house, and kind of making a buck, Yeah, making
Speaker 1: a buck on the side while you're doing it, because
Speaker 1: this is the time of year that people are tossing things,
Speaker 1: wanting to clear up the clutter, wanting their house to
Speaker 1: be fresh, and hopefully this episode will help you kind
Speaker 1: of figure some of those things out and make the
Speaker 1: most for some of your possessions that you're not just
Speaker 1: just tossing them away, um, throwing them in a landfill,
Speaker 1: but that you're actually able to make a little bit
Speaker 1: of money and bring some sanity back in your life
Speaker 1: by clearing things out. But first, real quick, onto the
Speaker 1: beer matt today. You pick this one up, Cascade Brewing
Speaker 1: Blueberry Ale. Tell me about it, Yeah, Joel. This is
Speaker 1: a two thousand fifteen Cascade blueberry Ale. These guys are
Speaker 1: out of Portland, Oregon, and right here on the bottle
Speaker 1: it says this Northwest style sour ale. It's a blend
Speaker 1: of wheat and blonde ales aged in oak barrels for
Speaker 1: up to twelve months with fresh blueberries. Yeah, Joel. So,
Speaker 1: one of the reasons I think I love these these
Speaker 1: guys specifically is that they're making at least Traditionally, they've
Speaker 1: made their their sours from wheat and blonde Ale's and
Speaker 1: that is one of the things I love about sours
Speaker 1: is uh are the brighter ones. It's corking caged, which
Speaker 1: means there's a fancy cork inside that we gotta pop.
Speaker 1: So so Joel's pourning that right now. It's pouring a
Speaker 1: like a reddish purple. So it's obviously got the color
Speaker 1: from the blueberries. I can smell that sour, man, and
Speaker 1: I can smell what the rock is cooking, you, GIBROTI
Speaker 1: so this smells exactly the way I remember. I haven't
Speaker 1: I haven't sipped it yet, but I can smell that oak.
Speaker 1: It smells right, dude. It hits you like right on
Speaker 1: the side of your cheeks and just you start salivating instantly.
Speaker 1: It's like a like a blueberry sweetheart almost. It's really
Speaker 1: really good. This is still one of my favorites, and
Speaker 1: I completely agree with you. I would recommend Cascade to anybody,
Speaker 1: and specifically if you're looking at sours. Yeah, I would
Speaker 1: recommend Cascade to anybody who likes sours. We've had over
Speaker 1: the years, Matt, you and I have shared some really
Speaker 1: good ones from them. And I do say shared because
Speaker 1: this is in a seven and fifty milliliter bottle, So
Speaker 1: you're really talking about a great bottle to share with somebody.
Speaker 1: Drink that on your own at your own peril. So
Speaker 1: if you happen to be able to get your hands
Speaker 1: on one of those, snatch it up with something like this,
Speaker 1: you can drink it three years from now. You can
Speaker 1: just have it on your shelf, look at it and
Speaker 1: smile every time you see it, and then decide randomly
Speaker 1: one day to start sticking in the fridge so you
Speaker 1: can crack it open. You know that the following night,
Speaker 1: if only I can see you, you know, look at
Speaker 1: your beers and smile. I think my wife gets jealous.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, she's like, yeah, what are you
Speaker 1: what are you doing just smiling at my beer, saying
Speaker 1: they're looking at your beers, smiling, just looking at my
Speaker 1: my malt hop Barley children. All right, onto the topic
Speaker 1: at hand, Matt. We're talking about spring cleaning your life.
Speaker 1: How to get rid of some of the stuff that
Speaker 1: you have in your house that you don't need, and
Speaker 1: how to make a quick buck from it while at
Speaker 1: the same time decluttering and actually improving your life. And
Speaker 1: the first thing that we need to note, almost all
Speaker 1: of us we have too much stuff in our homes
Speaker 1: and it begins to take up space, not only physically
Speaker 1: but in our minds. And so I know every time
Speaker 1: that I go through a period of decluttering, a time
Speaker 1: of decluttering, it is like therapeutic for not only my
Speaker 1: pocketbook and my house in the space space there, but
Speaker 1: for my mind as well. Yeah, it doesn't. It just
Speaker 1: feel good when, like you know that there's something that's
Speaker 1: kind of been sitting there piled up like with a
Speaker 1: bunch of other junk, and you can finally clear it out.
Speaker 1: Like you said, I feel like that sort of mental
Speaker 1: or emotional part of it is almost even better than
Speaker 1: just clearing out the space in your house, because you
Speaker 1: can it's easy to throw stuff in the attic or
Speaker 1: kind of tossed it down on the cross base, you know,
Speaker 1: with the basement and just kind of never see it again,
Speaker 1: or or pull one of those like you know what
Speaker 1: what like a kid. I don't know, I'm thinking like
Speaker 1: Bart Simpson probably, you know, stuffing everything in the closet
Speaker 1: and then you like literally shut the closet door so
Speaker 1: that like things don't like fall out on you you
Speaker 1: have like a closet like that, a closet that things
Speaker 1: just go to disappear basically not anymore. But you know,
Speaker 1: I think we we do. We have had that at times.
Speaker 1: And so every time you you do this too, or
Speaker 1: you clear out one room or you clear out you know,
Speaker 1: let's s your wardrobe or something like that, man, you
Speaker 1: kind of get jones and move onto the next thing.
Speaker 1: And so recently Emily and I did kind of have
Speaker 1: like a mini purging and we get rid of just
Speaker 1: kind of a few things, and we're kind using the
Speaker 1: local Facebook yard sales site to get rid of some stuff.
Speaker 1: It was really nice, man Like, it just felt like
Speaker 1: we could walk around our own room a little bit
Speaker 1: better and the house in general. And uh it just man,
Speaker 1: it feels good to you know, make a couple of
Speaker 1: hundred bucks hand get rid of stuffs at the same
Speaker 1: time that you will never miss you not to mention,
Speaker 1: it's just less stuff to clean, right, more stuff you
Speaker 1: kind of have out that you have to like dust.
Speaker 1: I mean, let's lose all that. I guess the question
Speaker 1: that we have to probably answer that the people are
Speaker 1: wondering right off the bat, is are we minimalists, because
Speaker 1: that's kind of been a trend that's that we've seen,
Speaker 1: you know, across the internet, like people like to claim
Speaker 1: that they're minimalists and like to try to inspire other
Speaker 1: people to live in that way. Uh, And we are
Speaker 1: not minimalists. And I don't necessarily think I don't think
Speaker 1: it's a bad thing to try to to try to
Speaker 1: strive for that if you feel like that's best for
Speaker 1: your life. But it's also especially with kids and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. Oh yeah, it's it's it's something that we're
Speaker 1: not going to strive for at this one in time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: with kids, it's it's especially hard having kids at different
Speaker 1: ages because there's stuff you want to keep that you're
Speaker 1: gonna you know, you're gonna use for say, you know,
Speaker 1: the younger kid, and you're just basically waiting for them
Speaker 1: to age up. And you don't want to toss something
Speaker 1: just because you know your older child has grown out
Speaker 1: of it and you've got a cup more in my case,
Speaker 1: two more children below that are also going to use
Speaker 1: that thing. So it makes a ton of sense to
Speaker 1: hang onto things. Uh So, yeah, getting rid of everything
Speaker 1: as soon as you're done using it isn't something that
Speaker 1: is financially smart for us, and it's just nice to
Speaker 1: have it kind of on hand just in case you
Speaker 1: do need it. That being said, I feel like you
Speaker 1: can fall on a spectrum when it comes to being
Speaker 1: a minimalist. I do think that we are slightly more
Speaker 1: minimalists than you and Emily, I would definitely agree with
Speaker 1: that you have. I try to live a more spartan existence,
Speaker 1: try to not allow myself to have the nice things. Uh,
Speaker 1: but we do the luxuries I do like, and I've
Speaker 1: I've grown to to stop shopping for these things. By
Speaker 1: do kind of like quirky knickknacks and so you know,
Speaker 1: a little decorative thing here there that kind of adds
Speaker 1: to the spice of the room. And your house is
Speaker 1: like white and black and gray essentially. Gear stuff is
Speaker 1: are like stark, very clean, and we like pops of
Speaker 1: color and bright stuff and crazy stuff and so our
Speaker 1: houses paintings and all over the place fake animal heads.
Speaker 1: We have very different tastes. But also on the other hand,
Speaker 1: we live in square feet with with one bathroom with
Speaker 1: the four of us, and so we do try to
Speaker 1: on purpose aim to live in a smaller space. Um
Speaker 1: we think it's good for us as a family, for
Speaker 1: our girls to share a room, for us to have
Speaker 1: a smaller space. There's less to clean, there's less to decorate,
Speaker 1: there's less to keep up with, and ultimately we interact more.
Speaker 1: When when you have a giant house, someone's in one
Speaker 1: wing of the house and you know other persons in
Speaker 1: the other and you probably don't see each other nearly
Speaker 1: as much, and kids can lock themselves away in their rooms,
Speaker 1: but if they're kind of forced to interact with the
Speaker 1: family in this way, we just thought that was important.
Speaker 1: And that's an intentional choice on our part to live
Speaker 1: in square feet and to share this space together. That's
Speaker 1: that's just something we feel is important for our family. Cool.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize you guys were only living in square feet,
Speaker 1: so Joel and we've we've talked about this on a
Speaker 1: previous episode two. But the back part of your house
Speaker 1: you have set up as a as a rental, You've
Speaker 1: got at least out uh when year or you know, year,
Speaker 1: long long term rental, I should say least um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that's pretty awesome, man, I didn't realize you guys were
Speaker 1: rocking up front. Yeah, so the house overalls about two
Speaker 1: thousand square feet. We ran out roughly this the back
Speaker 1: seven d square feet to a friend. She's awesome. In
Speaker 1: my family, we live in the front half of the house,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, it works out perfectly for a lot
Speaker 1: of reasons. I mentioned that in the Rental Property podcast.
Speaker 1: But to truly to on purpose to try to live
Speaker 1: in a smaller space, there's like so many benefits that
Speaker 1: come from it. There's less furniture to buy, and I
Speaker 1: think to like that's part of the American dream that
Speaker 1: people bought into. It's like and there's people don't think
Speaker 1: about all the costs associated with a bigger house. Not
Speaker 1: only is there a bigger mortgage payment, not only do
Speaker 1: you have higher utility bills, but you also have more
Speaker 1: furniture that you need to buy for the space. And
Speaker 1: so just all these things start creeping up. And I
Speaker 1: think one of the best things that you can do
Speaker 1: from the get go spring cleaning your life live in
Speaker 1: a smaller space. Living in that smaller space is going
Speaker 1: to ultimately make it a lot easier for you to
Speaker 1: take some of these steps that we're going to recommend
Speaker 1: here to you in this in this show. Uh, so
Speaker 1: that you can sprinklean your life, do the big thing.
Speaker 1: The big thing is to live in a smaller space. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and having less possessions is one part of like minimalism
Speaker 1: that I kind of aspire towards. And hopefully by the
Speaker 1: end of this episode, you guys will have some some tips,
Speaker 1: some pointers, uh, and some sort of guidelines that you
Speaker 1: maybe you can follow that will help you and ultimately
Speaker 1: encourage you guys to to downsize, to get rid of
Speaker 1: some stuff. And honestly, dude, I think this is gonna
Speaker 1: encourage me to get up in the attic and pull
Speaker 1: some stuff down. I think my favorite feeling in doing
Speaker 1: this is getting rid of things that I use kind
Speaker 1: of sparingly or almost never, that really don't add much
Speaker 1: value to my life. And it almost makes it easier
Speaker 1: then for me to find those things that do add
Speaker 1: value to my life that I forget that I forget,
Speaker 1: like a book that I read a lot, and I
Speaker 1: go back to his reference. You know, if I keep
Speaker 1: that on my nightstand, but I don't have four other
Speaker 1: books there to compete with it. You know, if I
Speaker 1: if I have like this well curated selection right there
Speaker 1: of things that I go too often, whatever it is
Speaker 1: in my life if I make it easy to find
Speaker 1: those things that I use often and get rid of
Speaker 1: the things that I really don't need. It just kind
Speaker 1: of everywhere I look at my house, I'm like, I
Speaker 1: like that, I need that. I use that as opposed
Speaker 1: to like, what is all this stuff taking up space?
Speaker 1: War on account, it just brings focus to your life
Speaker 1: exactly truly enjoy the things that you have, and man,
Speaker 1: we're gonna need it. We we gotta do it. A
Speaker 1: full episode on that too, write like kind of quality
Speaker 1: over quantity sort of sort of thing. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: our approach to beers. Right, We're not sitting here a
Speaker 1: question six Coors lights, But I mean that that that
Speaker 1: does fit with us and sort of our our sort
Speaker 1: of philosophy on on what we like to talk about
Speaker 1: here and what we like to live. So so yeah, Joel,
Speaker 1: I think that's a great rule of kind of focus
Speaker 1: on the things that you truly find enjoyment in and
Speaker 1: the things that you know you want to pursue and
Speaker 1: just kind of kind of cut the rest, go through
Speaker 1: your life and consider some of the things that aren't
Speaker 1: adding value to your life. So on that note, let's
Speaker 1: talk about kind of the rules for how to figure
Speaker 1: out what you should get rid of. Yes, one of
Speaker 1: those things, I think, Joel, is if it's still in
Speaker 1: a box from say when you moved into your house,
Speaker 1: Like if you have some stuff that you have not
Speaker 1: unpacked because you think, oh, we don't really need that
Speaker 1: now will you ever really need it? Let's be honest
Speaker 1: with yourself. If there's something that you have, whether it's
Speaker 1: in a closet or in an attic, and it's still
Speaker 1: in a box from a previous move, it's time to
Speaker 1: get rid of that. Yeah, I gotta be honest. I
Speaker 1: I've probably got a few things that hit that rule
Speaker 1: that I need to go home and get rid of it.
Speaker 1: Not necessarily in a box, but I remember one of
Speaker 1: our friends gave us one of these baby carriers like
Speaker 1: backpacks for hiking. Oh yeah, and I'm always like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't wait to take the girls hiking and put
Speaker 1: them in this awesome backpack baby carrier. And the girls
Speaker 1: are getting big, and I've never used it, and so
Speaker 1: I just need to like pass the love on and
Speaker 1: give that somebody that's going to use it. So we
Speaker 1: we've got that's so funny that you got one of
Speaker 1: them we were giving one of those as well, and
Speaker 1: except we've used ours a couple of times, not a ton,
Speaker 1: but we definitely have thrown glover in there a couple
Speaker 1: of times now and definitely dotty. But those are the
Speaker 1: kind of things too that unless you're an avid hiker,
Speaker 1: don't even get one because it's such a limited stage.
Speaker 1: We're gonna use something like that. Be cognizant before you
Speaker 1: purchase something. Hey, is this limited stage juice item? If
Speaker 1: it is, and I'm actually really going to use it,
Speaker 1: try to buy it used right, But just no, Hey,
Speaker 1: unless I'm like super into this activity, it's really only
Speaker 1: you know, six months to a year that I can
Speaker 1: actually use this item. So if I'm gonna use it
Speaker 1: once or twice, is it worth the money? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: consider just borrowing it from a friend. With a lot
Speaker 1: of folks we know that kind of do the things
Speaker 1: that we like to do, check in with them. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I mean, honestly, I think that's such a good
Speaker 1: rule of thumb for so many things, and something that
Speaker 1: our culture doesn't really lend itself to borrowing things from
Speaker 1: people like we all have a law more and we
Speaker 1: all have a weed eater, and you know, some of
Speaker 1: those things. You know, I use those things all the time,
Speaker 1: especially as a landlord. I'm cutting a lot of lawn,
Speaker 1: so I think it's okay to have my own. But
Speaker 1: there are a lot of things in life we should
Speaker 1: be a little more thoughtful about. You know, hey, do
Speaker 1: I need to purchase his baby carrier? Or my friend
Speaker 1: whose kid is a little bit bigger now she's probably
Speaker 1: got one. I could borrow four, you know, six months
Speaker 1: until my baby's grown out of it too. And you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of importance to community in this and
Speaker 1: developing community where you can borrow things like that that
Speaker 1: you'll only need for a limited time. So that works
Speaker 1: on stuff in boxes, right, things you know, things you
Speaker 1: have up in the attic. What how do you approach clothes? Like,
Speaker 1: what do you think about, you know, say, items that
Speaker 1: you have in your closet that maybe you hardly ever wear,
Speaker 1: like your tucks. You mentioned that the other the other week.
Speaker 1: Well I wore it, didn't I I don't know? Did
Speaker 1: you was that? It was like, come on, well, I'm
Speaker 1: not looking you up and down, man. Sorry. A tux
Speaker 1: is one of those rare you didn't have. You didn't
Speaker 1: have the tie on you didn't have your bow tie, right,
Speaker 1: you have the jack in the pants? Yep, Okay, got it.
Speaker 1: So no, that's something I'll get enough use out of.
Speaker 1: That's a really good point, though, you know, that's one
Speaker 1: of those things where it's it's a rare necessity. You
Speaker 1: don't really need a tux, And for me, it was
Speaker 1: just kind of a more of a fun thing to
Speaker 1: wear that night just because I had it, just kind
Speaker 1: of trying to get some use out of it. But
Speaker 1: my rule of thumb when it comes to clothing is
Speaker 1: that if I haven't worn it in the past year,
Speaker 1: that's when it's time to get rid of it. I
Speaker 1: can rationalize all day about how I'm gonna wear it,
Speaker 1: or like I really do like this article of clothing,
Speaker 1: but if you've gone through all four seasons and you
Speaker 1: haven't worn it once, didn't go on your body, you
Speaker 1: don't need it, it might be time to get rid
Speaker 1: of it. We talked about this in a recent episode too,
Speaker 1: how like in reality, there's like a uniform that we
Speaker 1: each have and not like a actual like work uniform
Speaker 1: or anything like that, but like there's clothes that we wear.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure if you're listening to this too. You're
Speaker 1: the same way. There's a few items that you really
Speaker 1: really like and you wear those all the time, and
Speaker 1: maybe instead you should just buy one more of those
Speaker 1: and get rid of like the five that's in other
Speaker 1: articles of clothing that you have that you don't you
Speaker 1: never wear, or when you do, where you're kind of
Speaker 1: like it doesn't really fit me that well, I'll just
Speaker 1: kind of wear it because you know, it's the laundry day. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think over time to you, when you
Speaker 1: figure out your style and exactly what you like to wear,
Speaker 1: you stop buying things that you're not into, or things
Speaker 1: that you buy maybe just because it was on sale,
Speaker 1: and you start to buy clothes that maybe or a
Speaker 1: touch nicer, but that last for a long long time.
Speaker 1: And so now I've got shirts that like the shirt
Speaker 1: I'm wearing right now, I will probably wear this like
Speaker 1: a hundred times. Is that Pendleton or Levi's It looks
Speaker 1: like it looks like a wool shirt. Yeah, man, so
Speaker 1: like it's it's a nice shirt that cost a little
Speaker 1: bit more than most shirts cost. But I'm going to
Speaker 1: wear this shirt a lot and it's a staple. It's
Speaker 1: to go to. So have your clothes and the clothes
Speaker 1: that you have, enjoy them more and get rid of
Speaker 1: the things, give them away or sell them that the
Speaker 1: items that you haven't used haven't worn in the last year.
Speaker 1: Another category to consider getting rid of two jewel is
Speaker 1: our electronics. With technology and the way things are advancing,
Speaker 1: Like there's never a cool piece of old electronics that
Speaker 1: you're wanting to keep around because you think it's gonna
Speaker 1: become useful. It's like, no, it's only getting less and
Speaker 1: less use useful. That the longer you have it, and
Speaker 1: if you stuck it in the closet at some point
Speaker 1: to not use because you didn't need it, it's only
Speaker 1: gonna become less and less useful. It's never gonna like
Speaker 1: come around full circle where you're like, oh, finally kind
Speaker 1: of pull pull up the cassette player. Now I can
Speaker 1: use that motorola razor again. I've been waiting waiting for
Speaker 1: that that old no key of brick phone things are
Speaker 1: so cool. Although I think those actually are coming back.
Speaker 1: They have like a new fangled smartphone version of the
Speaker 1: yeah it, yeah no. I completely agree. I think when
Speaker 1: I have gotten a new smartphone at times in the past,
Speaker 1: i've held onto my old one, thinking you know what
Speaker 1: I need. I need a backup phone. But ultimately that
Speaker 1: phone is more valuable today than it is any day
Speaker 1: in the future. And so what you should do instead
Speaker 1: of putting that phone in a drawer and holding it
Speaker 1: as a backup is you should sell it if you can.
Speaker 1: And if you can't sell it, it's a complete piece
Speaker 1: of trash that you need to recycle. Yeah, that should
Speaker 1: be a very clear indicator as to the value. If
Speaker 1: you're trying to listen something and you're like, well, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna be able to get anything for it, cool,
Speaker 1: it sounds like it's something that you should get rid of.
Speaker 1: To ye, if no one else is willing to pay
Speaker 1: you for it, then just unload it. So if you
Speaker 1: upgrade your phone, I think, or your computer or something
Speaker 1: like that, think about a couple of things. Maybeither you
Speaker 1: can sell it on eBay or Craigslist or something like that,
Speaker 1: or on your neighborhood yard sales site. And if you
Speaker 1: can't do that, consider donating it. Consider donating it to
Speaker 1: a place like best Buy. Best Buy has got one
Speaker 1: of the i think the biggest electronics recycling program in
Speaker 1: the nation. So take it to your best buy. If not,
Speaker 1: there's a great website called call to Recycle dot org.
Speaker 1: Call the number two recycled dot org. Check that out.
Speaker 1: And there's lots of places you can find a place
Speaker 1: nearby you where you can donate your electronics. You can
Speaker 1: recycle those things because when you buy that new phone,
Speaker 1: your old phone is likely worth something, so sell it,
Speaker 1: get rid of it. There's also eco a t M
Speaker 1: s where you can go, and they're in lots of stores,
Speaker 1: Kroger stuff like that, and that a t M will
Speaker 1: tell you exactly how much your phone is worth, and
Speaker 1: we'll give you twenty five bucks or thirty bucks or whatever. Um,
Speaker 1: it's better than nothing. And ultimately, when your phone dies,
Speaker 1: there's no way you're gonna go back to the old technology.
Speaker 1: Like I mean, that just sounds awful. If you rocking
Speaker 1: an iPhone eight now and you have to go back
Speaker 1: to your like iPhone four s or whatever that is,
Speaker 1: I don't know. If you're sc like I've got, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna No one wants to do that. No
Speaker 1: nobody wants to do that. So sell it or and
Speaker 1: bank that money towards you know, another phone in the future,
Speaker 1: or recycle that thing. And al So, those are some
Speaker 1: good spots to uh as far as where you can
Speaker 1: take some of your electronics. Uh, now's a good time
Speaker 1: then to go ahead and segue into some of the
Speaker 1: other places where you can sell things that you have
Speaker 1: that you need to get rid of. Yeah, and I think,
Speaker 1: like you said, some of the stuff is junk like.
Speaker 1: Some of the stuff that you've got is probably trash like.
Speaker 1: And so as you're as you're waiting through your drawers,
Speaker 1: your miscellaneous strawer, whatever it is, like, some of that
Speaker 1: stuff probably just belongs straight in the garbage. But let's
Speaker 1: talk about the valuable stuff, because you know, some of it,
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's the table, a chair, uh, a
Speaker 1: lawnmower that you haven't used in a long time, whatever
Speaker 1: it is, Like, that kind of stuff is actually going
Speaker 1: to sell and be valuable to other people, some of
Speaker 1: it for actual use, some of it for parts maybe even.
Speaker 1: But one of my favorite places, and I think probably
Speaker 1: the place that people sell the most stuff these days,
Speaker 1: is Facebook yard sale sites. Yeah, you guys have been
Speaker 1: unloading a bunch of stuff on there recently, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I sold a record player and a microwave recently on
Speaker 1: there and Facebook yard sale is great because it is
Speaker 1: made up of your neighbors essentially. I've joined different yard
Speaker 1: sale groups reflect different communities that are, you know, right
Speaker 1: by me. Yeah, they're like kind of neighborhood specific. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so you ultimately, I mean, you quickly know whether
Speaker 1: this person is a part of your neighborhood or not.
Speaker 1: And it makes the transaction feel a lot more friendly
Speaker 1: and less frightening than a potential the other ones will
Speaker 1: talk about. Yeah, and then some of the other ones. Uh.
Speaker 1: So I like the Facebook yard sale groups. And by
Speaker 1: the way, that is different than the Facebook marketplace, So
Speaker 1: be a little careful if you're looking at the Facebook
Speaker 1: marketplace and there's actually like a little icon on the
Speaker 1: Facebook gap for that, uh that. I've seen more scams
Speaker 1: on the Facebook marketplace site, and people like selling stuff
Speaker 1: that looks kind of fake or like a really nice
Speaker 1: iPhone for like a hundred bucks and all these kind
Speaker 1: of Yeah. So the actual yard sales sites, find one
Speaker 1: in your community, join that, and that's gonna be a
Speaker 1: good place to sell some of the stuff to people
Speaker 1: that live close to you. It's gonna make the transaction
Speaker 1: easier and just a lot more above board. YEA and
Speaker 1: those are the specific Facebook yard sale groups that you
Speaker 1: want to look at, So look for the groups. I
Speaker 1: guess the biggest downside to using Facebook yard sale is
Speaker 1: that you're really only hitting thousands of people, maybe even
Speaker 1: only hundreds of people depending on where you live, as
Speaker 1: opposed to listening something on eBay, which we can talk
Speaker 1: about next. You're reaching a limited segment of people. But
Speaker 1: it works especially well for larger items like furniture and
Speaker 1: yeahs like that that you definitely don't want to have
Speaker 1: to worry about shipping exactly. So it's like positives and negatives.
Speaker 1: Know that, you know, bigger stuff, stuff that's harder, harder
Speaker 1: to sell, stuff that's harder to ship. You know. Facebook
Speaker 1: yard sale sites work great for stuff like that, but
Speaker 1: you're reaching a more limited audience. Yeah. But one of
Speaker 1: the advantages to that though, are that you probably already
Speaker 1: have a Facebook account. It's not like you need to
Speaker 1: go on to say eBay and create a you know,
Speaker 1: a brand new profile. Pretty much everyone is already on Facebook.
Speaker 1: It's just whether or not they're in that group, and
Speaker 1: it just makes it really easy to hop on there
Speaker 1: and start selling the things that you want to get
Speaker 1: rid of. Yeah, the barrier to entry is nil pretty much,
Speaker 1: and creating the actual post, especially if you have the
Speaker 1: Facebook app on your smartphone, takes literally like a minute.
Speaker 1: It's really easy to take the pictures with your phone,
Speaker 1: upload them, create the listing, and be done with it
Speaker 1: and wait for people to contact you. So I think
Speaker 1: these has of groups are a vast improvement upon Craigslist,
Speaker 1: which is, you know, kind of like maybe more the
Speaker 1: traditional route that people have taken when they, you know,
Speaker 1: wanted to sell stuff. We actually sold our car, but
Speaker 1: traditional for the last fifteen years, maybe because before that
Speaker 1: you were like listing stuff in newspapers and the actual
Speaker 1: actual classified yea, and more and more, I feel like
Speaker 1: Craigslist is sort of getting kind of phased out. There's
Speaker 1: not there's less. I feel like there's less stuff on
Speaker 1: there that I'm looking for. I'll still go on there
Speaker 1: if if I'm looking at getting something new before I
Speaker 1: before I by purchase something new, I'll still look on ebaying,
Speaker 1: you know, and Craigslist for sure. Uh, just partly too
Speaker 1: because it's local so to be able to go there
Speaker 1: immediately potentially and get what it is that I'm looking for,
Speaker 1: to get a second hand instead of brand new. That's
Speaker 1: something I'm always gonna do. Yeah, I think Craigslist is
Speaker 1: really good for a few things and not great at
Speaker 1: a lot of things. What Craigslist is particularly good for
Speaker 1: if you're looking to get a good deal on an automobile,
Speaker 1: a used car, a motor home. Let's say, if you
Speaker 1: are looking to buy a bicycle or something like that's
Speaker 1: a specific kind. You're able to search by keyword. Even
Speaker 1: like specialty furniture can be really good. There are a
Speaker 1: lot of people all the keywords. Yeah, a lot of
Speaker 1: people list that and so it's easier to search by keyword.
Speaker 1: So if I'm looking for Danish modern furniture, mid century modern,
Speaker 1: m yeah, I'll find I'll find a good selection on Craigslist.
Speaker 1: And there again, Facebook is great for this to their
Speaker 1: specific sites, but there's such a wide variety on Craigslist
Speaker 1: that I think for items like that, it's great. Facebook.
Speaker 1: You might stumble across that, right, somebody might be posting
Speaker 1: it randomly. But Craigslist, it's it's super searchable, it's super
Speaker 1: easy to find and just broad too. I mean typically
Speaker 1: you're you're searching in either an entire city or an
Speaker 1: entire region. Yeah, Well, One of the biggest pains that
Speaker 1: comes along with that, though, is you might have to
Speaker 1: drive forty five minutes or an hour to pick up
Speaker 1: the bed. I mean, I I always keep my parameters
Speaker 1: really close, and I'm not willing to travel very far
Speaker 1: unless I'm like searching for something even bigg like a car.
Speaker 1: If I was buying a car, I would be willing
Speaker 1: to open up my parameter's got probably be willing to
Speaker 1: drive an hour to buy the right car, certainly, But
Speaker 1: I'm you know, talking about a two chair or whatever,
Speaker 1: a hundred dollar chair. I'm not going to drive an
Speaker 1: hour to pick that up. Yeah. I used to sell
Speaker 1: a good bit of um, like my old photography gear
Speaker 1: on Craigslist, but then, man, I just got sick of
Speaker 1: it because you'd meet up with somebody and then with
Speaker 1: you know, with the gear, they kind of want to
Speaker 1: try it out, and so you're kind of sitting there
Speaker 1: while they're like playing with your camera and just kind
Speaker 1: of sucks, kind of weird feeling. It's just weird. And
Speaker 1: then they're like a lot of times they don't know
Speaker 1: what they're doing, and so they're kind of like trying
Speaker 1: to figure out how to use it. I'm just like, dude,
Speaker 1: I'm not here to like teach you how to use
Speaker 1: the camera. To me, that was one of the downsides
Speaker 1: I guess to to selling some of that stuff on Craigslist,
Speaker 1: and and and the other The biggest, one of the
Speaker 1: biggest downsides to Craigslist on top of that is potential theft.
Speaker 1: Potential robbery. Yeah, like someone somebody could have just like
Speaker 1: run off with Mike. Yeah exactly, I can run far,
Speaker 1: but I'm not like really fast. So the biggest tip
Speaker 1: is if you're actually going to do a transaction, if
Speaker 1: you're going to list something on Craigslist, if you're gonna
Speaker 1: buy something on Craigslist, make sure you meet that person
Speaker 1: in a well lit public area and preferably at your
Speaker 1: local police station. Because police stations are totally cool with
Speaker 1: that now, especially because of all the crimes that they've
Speaker 1: had to chase down, all the all the purpose they've
Speaker 1: had a laugh away because of Craigslist crimes. They're all
Speaker 1: about you meeting in their parking lot and doing the
Speaker 1: transaction there, or or if you can't do that, just
Speaker 1: bring along a buddy. Yep, that helps too. So then
Speaker 1: let's talk about eBay, because instead of selling all my
Speaker 1: kind of camera gear on Craigslist. I started putting it
Speaker 1: all up on eBay, which is great because there's you know,
Speaker 1: people all across the country and even the world. But
Speaker 1: I don't do international shipping because it starts getting kind
Speaker 1: of I don't know, it spends Ebo. Yeah, it's expensive
Speaker 1: and I just don't like messing with that. Man. I
Speaker 1: just I say no international shipping shipp it. I'll reba,
Speaker 1: I'll reba and so I'll do domestic. But for items
Speaker 1: that are more specialty and so for for instance, some
Speaker 1: of the camera bodies I'm selling or lenses, folks that
Speaker 1: are looking for those know exactly what they're looking for.
Speaker 1: They're not just like happen to stumble upon a nice
Speaker 1: you know, nice lens or a nice camera body that,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, let me drop a thousand bucks on this. No,
Speaker 1: it's probably not gonna happen. There's a much better marketplace
Speaker 1: and a much better environment for that to occur. On eBay,
Speaker 1: you know, when you can have all the stats up there,
Speaker 1: you can kind of have leaking link to reviews and
Speaker 1: what other folks have to say about them. Eba is
Speaker 1: my go to site for these items that are more
Speaker 1: expensive that folks are looking for and they're smaller, so
Speaker 1: I can ship it and then just be done with it.
Speaker 1: Do you have an eBay coundrel? So I got a
Speaker 1: deal on something around Christmas time, Black Friday deal, so
Speaker 1: essentially I bought a phone and it came with uh
Speaker 1: free Bluetooth headphones. And but then another deal came up
Speaker 1: on a phone that was even better, So I got
Speaker 1: a new phone. That was my new phone. My phone
Speaker 1: that I've gotten now was a twenty bucks brand new.
Speaker 1: It's it's a really nice phone. So I saw that
Speaker 1: after the fact and I was like, crap, that was
Speaker 1: even cheaper and a little bit better. And so what
Speaker 1: I did. The first phone came in that I bought
Speaker 1: before I found this secondary deal, and I relisted it
Speaker 1: on eBay nice, and I kept the headphones listed the
Speaker 1: cell phone, just the phone, and I made money nice. Basically,
Speaker 1: you made money and you got some free headphones, not
Speaker 1: some free headphones. So yeah, I don't use eBay a
Speaker 1: whole lot because there's not usually high end stuff that
Speaker 1: I'm selling very often. But if I was, that's the
Speaker 1: perfect marketplace for it, and interestingly enough to depending on
Speaker 1: what kind of clothes you're selling. That can become a
Speaker 1: great marketplace for selling used clothing, like nicer clothes. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: like nicer, specialty, vintage whatever. There's a huge market for
Speaker 1: clothing on eBay if you know how to list it
Speaker 1: and you know what you've got. Yeah, there's folks that
Speaker 1: do it, hire businesses on eBay and they've got like
Speaker 1: their eBay stores and they kind of specialize in clothes only. Yea.
Speaker 1: So eventually I want to have my friend Josh on
Speaker 1: the podcast who had a vintage clothing store on eBay.
Speaker 1: That's what he did, yeah, like full time. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: his job was hit up the thrift stores and by
Speaker 1: clothing by the pound, and he just had an eye
Speaker 1: for the stuff he knew it would sell and then
Speaker 1: flip it on eBay. Is this furniture, Josh and so okay? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so now he flips mid century modern furniture. So
Speaker 1: he's got another business that he started basically buying one
Speaker 1: man's junk and turning it in it's somebody else's treasure.
Speaker 1: So I love that idea behind a business. So I'd
Speaker 1: love to talk to him since he's done two of
Speaker 1: these kind of businesses. I'd love to have him on
Speaker 1: the show kind of help people learn from some of
Speaker 1: the lessons he's learned and how he's been successful doing it.
Speaker 1: So then if you don't have a bunch of like
Speaker 1: high dollar items, it sounds like what you need to
Speaker 1: do is a yard sale, Yeah, old school or garge sale,
Speaker 1: depending on where what do you call it, you call
Speaker 1: like rage shale, yard sale, yard sale? Really yeah, I
Speaker 1: feel and it isn't in a regional thing they say that,
Speaker 1: like if you call yard sailor from this part of
Speaker 1: the United States, if you call it a gradge sale,
Speaker 1: you're from here. Probably I could see that. Rummage sale,
Speaker 1: I think is another one. Alright, I like that too,
Speaker 1: Like rummage sale, Yeah, that's nice. I like yard sale though,
Speaker 1: I think and uh, I like that idea. And by
Speaker 1: the way, if you are going to do one, posting
Speaker 1: Craigslist and let people know what's happening, that helps like
Speaker 1: bring people out. So just say, hey, upcoming yard sale,
Speaker 1: here's the address, and kind of here's a few of
Speaker 1: the things that I've got that I'll be selling that day,
Speaker 1: and then do the same thing. Post a few signs
Speaker 1: around your neighborhood letting people know that it's happening and
Speaker 1: telling them, you know, here, here's a few pieces that
Speaker 1: will be that will have. But an old school Saturday
Speaker 1: yard sale, you know, from tend to four or nine
Speaker 1: to six or whatever, that's gonna go a long way
Speaker 1: and helping you kind of clear out some of your clutter.
Speaker 1: Nine to six, dude, what kind of long freaking yard sale?
Speaker 1: I don't know. Are you running nine to six? So
Speaker 1: I'm out of there, man. I just have a work
Speaker 1: ethic that like none other. It would be like the
Speaker 1: longest yard sale, like history of yards, the yard sales
Speaker 1: till I dropped. Know, some people do two days, man.
Speaker 1: They spread it out over Saturdays and Sunday and know
Speaker 1: if it's still there at like one thirty, I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, everything's on the curb. Curb alert. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: what I would do. You just slashing the prices on everything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like what do you want to give me one dollar?
Speaker 1: It's yours? Yeah, But an old school yard sale is
Speaker 1: kind of the best way to get rid of stuff
Speaker 1: that doesn't really have It's just kind of stuff you
Speaker 1: want to clear out and make a few bucks for
Speaker 1: and hopefully find some life with somebody else. Consider that
Speaker 1: right after that the next thing to do, donate it.
Speaker 1: If you can't sell to the yard sale, donate it.
Speaker 1: And so maybe you have the yard sale first, and
Speaker 1: you you know, think, maybe you know what, I can
Speaker 1: make fifty bucks hunter bucks today by selling some of
Speaker 1: my old stuff. If it doesn't work out, or you know,
Speaker 1: you're only able to sell a few items, that means
Speaker 1: that stuff is probably worth next to nothing. And so
Speaker 1: that stuff, just donate it, get your tax receipt, write
Speaker 1: it off on your taxes, or I guess with a
Speaker 1: new tax law, you're probably still not You're probably not
Speaker 1: writing it off, but get rid of it. About that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: give it somewhere though. That's it's gonna have a good home.
Speaker 1: That is better than holding onto it. Yeah, alright, Matt.
Speaker 1: So you're the photographer. You're great at listing things and
Speaker 1: making them look extra special. Yeah. Man, the picture, I
Speaker 1: feel like that is so important. Obviously I'm biased, but
Speaker 1: you can do so much with a good picture to
Speaker 1: make your listing look good. Yeah, and the the I
Speaker 1: I see so many listings where I'm like, I might
Speaker 1: be interested in that item, but I can't tell the
Speaker 1: picture is so bad. And when the picture is not
Speaker 1: clear or not well lit. I just move on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: folks definitely aren't gonna be nearly as drawn to your
Speaker 1: listing if you've just got this kind of crummy, dusty
Speaker 1: looking photo. But that's awesome. I mean, that's actually a
Speaker 1: way to get a potential deal. This dining room said
Speaker 1: that we're sitting at. We got up in uh, you know,
Speaker 1: about forty five minutes from where we were, because Kay
Speaker 1: kept watching it and it kept sitting there on Craigslist
Speaker 1: with this literally like in the photo, the flash one
Speaker 1: off and you can see just like dust kind of
Speaker 1: like in the air, and like you can barely you
Speaker 1: can't even see the other end of the table. And
Speaker 1: she's just like, I'm pretty sure this is a sweet,
Speaker 1: sweet table, and she kept watching and they just kept
Speaker 1: dropping the price because nobody was coming to look at it.
Speaker 1: So if you're in the market, look out for those
Speaker 1: kind of listings because you might be able to get
Speaker 1: a deal. But you know, we're talking about selling, and
Speaker 1: folks are going to be more apt to come purchase
Speaker 1: something from you if your home's kind of bright and
Speaker 1: clean looking versus like dark and dingy. Yeah, and on
Speaker 1: that note, take thirty seconds to clean up your item,
Speaker 1: you know, wipe it down, make sure it's got that
Speaker 1: kind of gleam, that new look gleam. Yeah, you don't
Speaker 1: wanna whether it's a bike you're selling or a table
Speaker 1: or a chair, wipe it down. Make sure everything looks
Speaker 1: good as new. I swear people just don't take the
Speaker 1: time to wipe something down, and that can be the
Speaker 1: difference between selling an item or not. Did you clean
Speaker 1: your microwave that you still you said you sold a microwave? Hey, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: you gotta clean the inside and take a picture of
Speaker 1: it to show people like, hey, this isn't like some
Speaker 1: nastified like microwave with like spaghetti's bladdered up on the
Speaker 1: exactly like fish guts all over the place, something like that.
Speaker 1: Jill's Norwegians, so he microwaves his fish all the time
Speaker 1: and it's just all over the inside of his his
Speaker 1: normal microwave, but not the one he sells. And now
Speaker 1: we're hall a bit cologne. So that's when I'm into
Speaker 1: And also with the photos, the more expensive the item,
Speaker 1: consider taking more photos right when you can't. I listed
Speaker 1: our Volkswagen. We had a Volkswagon and pissat wagon that
Speaker 1: we actually sold on Craigslist, And when we sold that thing,
Speaker 1: I took a lot of photos because if someone's gonna
Speaker 1: drop a few thousand dollars on it, they want to
Speaker 1: be able to see every every sort of blemish or
Speaker 1: you know, anywhere where there's a scratch. I took a
Speaker 1: picture of it because that's the kind of thing that
Speaker 1: they're definitely gonna see when they show up and look
Speaker 1: at us, Amy as we'll kind of go ahead and
Speaker 1: get that out there. Obviously, we shined it up and
Speaker 1: make sure the car looked as best as it possibly could.
Speaker 1: But but like again, you're talking about the cure microwave oven.
Speaker 1: You only need to post like one or two photos
Speaker 1: of that, you know, pictures probably outside inside, done right,
Speaker 1: someone's gonna come pick it up. Twenty bucks, thirty bucks,
Speaker 1: done deal, a couch, probably four pictures, and Matt saying,
Speaker 1: take good pictures. You don't need a fancy camera. You
Speaker 1: probably just your average smartphone at this point, most smartphones
Speaker 1: have pretty good cameras. Just hold it steady, make sure
Speaker 1: you're you're getting a shot of the entire item, and
Speaker 1: and make sure the room is well it And if
Speaker 1: you do those things, you're gonna take a picture that's
Speaker 1: better than the pictures out there. If you think about
Speaker 1: it at all, it'll be better than pictures. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: but it's like really important if you want top dollar
Speaker 1: or even just to sell your item, take enough pictures
Speaker 1: of that item and make sure they're decent shots. So
Speaker 1: when you're taking photos to do consider the background. Right.
Speaker 1: It's so, if you've got a microwave, it should probably
Speaker 1: belong on your kitchen counter, Like that's a great place
Speaker 1: to take a picture of your microwave, or like your
Speaker 1: dining room table or something like that. Don't put it
Speaker 1: like on the floor in the corner somewhere, or put
Speaker 1: it on your couch and take a picture of it.
Speaker 1: That's weird. It's out of context, you know, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: Context is important. Nothing should ever be photographed in your bathroom,
Speaker 1: like on the toilet, Like that would be weird, Like
Speaker 1: why is that sitting on the back of the toilet.
Speaker 1: That's that's bizarre. If you're taking pictures of your car,
Speaker 1: take it to like an empty parking lot maybe something
Speaker 1: like that. Or you you know, if your house looks
Speaker 1: decent on the outside, take pictures in front of your
Speaker 1: house maybe, but just make sure that it's in context
Speaker 1: and that you're taking these like good clear pictures. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Something else to do is to price compare. Even if
Speaker 1: you're gonna post on Craigslist, say we're talking about the car,
Speaker 1: look around on some other sites that deal specifically with
Speaker 1: cars and make sure you know what your your car
Speaker 1: can go for. Obviously you're gonna want to look like
Speaker 1: Kelly Blue Book and sites like that for for a vehicle.
Speaker 1: But say, like I we're talking earlier about camera, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get on eBay and see what cameras like that
Speaker 1: are going for. That way, when I do decide to
Speaker 1: list it, say even locally on Craigslist or on eBay,
Speaker 1: I know, or to price it. Obviously, eBay has got
Speaker 1: different mechanisms built in where they say, oh, something like
Speaker 1: this goes for this range and this kind of condition. Um,
Speaker 1: But you just want to do a little bit of research.
Speaker 1: Obviously you're gonna do more of that with a more
Speaker 1: expensive item, but take that into account. Yeah, be realistic
Speaker 1: about the price you're asking for, especially if you want
Speaker 1: to move it quickly. If you're serious about decluttering and
Speaker 1: you're listing a bunch of items, don't ask too much
Speaker 1: because if you if you start listening to your stuff
Speaker 1: and overpricing it, there's just more work involved. There's lowering
Speaker 1: the price, eventually relisting it, whatever you gotta do, and
Speaker 1: that just becomes a pain. So if you're just really
Speaker 1: trying to declutter your life and get rid of a
Speaker 1: bunch of stuff, if you're trying to spring clean your life,
Speaker 1: make sure you ask a reasonable price and negotiate with people.
Speaker 1: Let them ask for you know, five ten bucks off,
Speaker 1: whatever it may be, and be willing to work with
Speaker 1: people so that you can get this stuff out of
Speaker 1: your life, because ultimately that's what you want. I don't
Speaker 1: think I've ever talked to someone who just got rid
Speaker 1: of a bunch of stuff and they're like, I miss
Speaker 1: all of it. I just miss all those things I
Speaker 1: just sold, and I'm so bummed and my life sucks. Now.
Speaker 1: It's so therapeutic to get rid of these things, and
Speaker 1: especially if you're able to make a few dollars, it
Speaker 1: feels really good. You will not miss the things that
Speaker 1: you sell. Your mind will be freer, you will have
Speaker 1: decluttered your life in a good way, and you're not
Speaker 1: gonna miss it all. Rangel Back to the beer Cascade
Speaker 1: Blueberry so it looks like you don't like your beer
Speaker 1: because you still have a bunch of left and mine
Speaker 1: is totally gone. Because I love it now. I'm a
Speaker 1: huge fan. I'm just not a lush like this beer
Speaker 1: one of my all time favorites. I'm gonna like, literally,
Speaker 1: this is probably one of my top five beers, um
Speaker 1: that I've ever had. I've had it before, I've had
Speaker 1: it maybe two or three other times, but every time
Speaker 1: I have it, it just sort of maintains its place
Speaker 1: in my mind, you know, it sort of sits there
Speaker 1: at the top. It's like on your mountain, rushmore of
Speaker 1: beers easily. This is really really good. And I don't
Speaker 1: remember if I've had this before with you or not,
Speaker 1: but um, we have. I remember physically having at the beach.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was last year, a couple
Speaker 1: of couple of years ago, but we we had this.
Speaker 1: Don't ask me why I know it, but I know it,
Speaker 1: trust me. And again, our wives are like, how do
Speaker 1: you remember the beer you drank together two years ago
Speaker 1: and you don't remember what I told you to do
Speaker 1: last night? Yeah, I know that's a problem, but yet
Speaker 1: this beer is delicious. I'm a huge fan Cascade Brewing
Speaker 1: Blueberry Ale, you know, age for a year on blueberries
Speaker 1: and oak. It's really really delicious and uh, if you're
Speaker 1: into a little bit of that mouth puckering sour with blueberries,
Speaker 1: it's it's really really really good, perfectly balanced that at
Speaker 1: the same time, it's got that that tartness, but it's
Speaker 1: got just enough sweetness in there, I think, and that
Speaker 1: barrel aged oakness is in there as well, and so
Speaker 1: it all kind of mellows out. I think this is
Speaker 1: just like right in the middle of like the ven
Speaker 1: Diagram of awesome sour beers. Man, it's got it all.
Speaker 1: So thanks everyone for listening. Our home on the web
Speaker 1: is how to money dot Com. We'll have show notes
Speaker 1: up there for this episode and if you like what
Speaker 1: you hear, let us know. Yeah, thanks guys for listening.
Speaker 1: We really appreciate it. And until next time, Best Friends Out,
Speaker 1: best Friends Out.