As I watched 😳 the cashier at the consignment store holding my 6-inch heeled, Badgley Mischka wedding stilettos (he was attempting to put a price on what seemed like priceless shoes to me) … I almost broke down in tears 😭 .
You see… it’s incredibly difficult to see your things, eyed up and down, solely for the purpose of being price tagged at a second hand store.
(☝🏽Helpful Tip: if there are several stores in your area, take your clothes to the store that sells your style of clothing!)
It’s even more difficult to keep lowering prices 💸, day after day, each time an item doesn’t sell 😞. You’ll shake your head a lot, your moods will range from happy and excited, to just blah… and you’ll wonder — more times than one– how the hell you accumulated so much shit!!!
Listing and selling your belongings will be a grueling process all around… so prepare yourself!
(☝🏽Helpful Tip: check out online stores like Poshmark and 5miles to make this process easier).
Depreciation of things like a couch and a bed are absolutely brutal. You may have paid $800 for a fabulous bed that will now only sell for $250 🙄 Or just recently bought a couch for $1,200, but you could’ve gotten something very similar (on Craigslist), for only $400.
If you take good care of things, you can list them as ☝🏽”like new” and you should definitely clean them as well as you can; however, don’t expect to get that much more money 💰 from items in “like new” condition.
DO expect the “negotiation tactics” to get repetitive and for people to casually be short $5 or $10 bucks when they come to pick up. 😕
Finally, the time will come when you must dig deep, and realize that the couple who just got married, moved cross-country, and is starting a new life in L.A., deserves your damn couch… for half-off!!
☝🏽The upside: you will meet some incredibly interesting people, with beginnings similar to yours; you will see a light in their eyes, when they tell you their budget was $100, but then felt butterflies 🦋 when they saw your bed… and just had to buy it at… $250.
Hopefully in the end, you will feel really good about giving that young married couple a deal, because… karma points right?🕉💮🕉 😊👏🏽
Throughout this process, it occurred to me that we don’t necessarily attach ourselves to the actual “thing”, we attach ourselves to the stories we’re able to tell about those “things.” 🤔 Hmmn…
For me, almost everything had a special memory attached to it. My wedding shoes were far too tall for me, but they were beautiful 😍, and while my feet killed me from the moment I put them on, the most vivid memory I have, was how my aching feet came back to life, the moment Michael & I walked into our wedding reception…
“I got a feeling” (by the Black Eyed Peas) 🎼 blasting on the speakers.
Memories are all we’re able to keep with us, no matter where we are … so why not let someone else enjoy the things we no longer have use for, while making their own memories with them? 🤔💭
To be continued…
The Sabbatical 