De-junking

We have a whole bunch of things that I've been meaning to sell, but just haven't gotten to for one reason or another. Now, with others in the household wanting to take action to de-junk, I'm motivated 🙂

There's a flea market on the first Saturday of each semi-warm month in our town, so this Saturday would be a good opportunity.

The easy solution, of course, is to donate everything, but some of the things are worth something to somebody, so I at least want to try to sell those things, realizing that the overarching goal is to get rid of the stuff one way or another.

This is what I'll do to go through this hoard:

• Put everything that's going to go into a big, shed-sized “inbox.”
• Go through the stuff piece by piece and decide what to do with it.
• If the stuff is truly junk, throw it out or recycle it.
• If it can be sold at the flea market, pull it out and do so.
• If it really isn't appropriate for the flea market but might be good to try on eBay, pull it out and do so.
• Whatever doesn't sell these ways, document, donate, and deduct!

This is a similar approach to what David Allen of Getting Things Done fame might do. One way or another, though, we'll get some room back!

Sorting things piece by piece allows space not just for decision-making, but for small wins along the way. Each item moved out—whether sold, donated, or trashed—is a little victory in reclaiming space and sanity. The flea market gives everything a chance at a second life, and eBay fills in the gaps for more niche items.

But the key is in the intent: not just to offload things blindly, but to consciously direct them to where they might be useful again.

And once that process is humming, it's natural to start thinking bigger—beyond just the resale value of an old lamp or forgotten knickknack. Some items won’t sell, won’t spark interest, but they still have potential if handled with care. Recycling becomes the final, thoughtful gesture in the cycle.

Platforms such as https://www.abrecycling.com.au/ represent this kind of mindful transition, where junk isn’t simply tossed into oblivion, but channeled into systems that actually reuse and repurpose materials. It adds a layer of meaning to the cleanup effort, turning what could be waste into something useful again.

It feels less like throwing away the past and more like passing it forward, in whatever form it can still take.