Tag Archives: Home Organizing

Moving is an ideal time to free yourself of unwanted items and Craigslist really is a great way to do it.  I frequently use Craigslist to sell items I no longer have any use for and I’ve had success with almost every sale.  It’s most ideal when you have several semi-large ticket items and you want a fairly simple selling transaction.

Craigslist is easier and less time consuming than a yard sale and is more powerful and widely used than any other auction/classifieds site.  This is especially true when you desire a quick local cash transaction for household items.  If you have plenty of time and really big ticket items or specialty pieces eBay may be a better option.

Most importantly, if you’ve never sold anything online don’t dread the process.  Craigslist is especially easy to use, partially because of its limited features and the minimal time required to open an account and post an ad.

Benefits of Craigslist

• Anonymous posting – You do not have to give anyone any personal information until you are ready to sell.
• Sell on your time – As opposed to garage sales where you need quite a bit of prep plus an entire day to devote, you just set up the ad and reply to inquiries through email or by phone at your leisure.
• Easy set up – Probably the easiest account setup for any online classifieds service.

Tips for selling on Craigslist

• Research prices of comparable items – A brief search through other Craigslist postings can give you an idea of the items for sale and there prices.  Obviously if you have time you can price your item more aggressively than if you have to sell within a couple of days.
• Include pictures – If possible for the item, include any decent pics you have or take some if necessary.  Any pic is almost always better than no pic.
• Describe your item well - You don’t need a sales pitch here but be sure to include make, model, year, condition, color, size, maintenance history or any other info of interest and as required.
• Tell shoppers why it’s for sale – Potential buyers are on the look out for people unloading items because they are broken or trashed so if you’re selling because of a move be sure to say so.
• You don’t need to include a phone number or email address! – Although including a phone number or personal email might get a little more response than just allowing people to reply through Craigslist’s anonymous reply process, you will almost definitely work harder as well.  This is because you will be forced to work through the selling process on the potential buyer’s time as opposed to on your own, negating one of the big benefits of this method.  You’ll get calls and emails from hagglers and halfway interested folks and can waste substantial amounts of time.  Instead I recommend just waiting for email inquiries to come through Craigslist’s anonymous reply process and then reply to potential buyers that seem like the best fit.  Remember though that when you do finally reply directly to potential buyers you will have to give up your email address, so if you’re really concerned about privacy you may want to use a secondary email account to send ad inquiry replies from to protect your primary email account information.

Hopefully this helps for those who have been hesitant to try this site.  It’s a fantastic option for getting cash for items you aren’t using and don’t want to move.  With Craigslist you can make money by selling your stuff while saving money by moving less all without spending a lot of time.

If you’ve just moved in to a new home with your kids, here are some simple steps you can take to organize their new room, and keep it that way.

1. Give them control
You already know your children are full of ideas, so allowing them to participate in the organizing plan is a great first step. Instead of making decisions for them about where their toys should be stored or how to sort their clothes, let your little ones make the decision for themselves. Maybe they want their clothes organized by color instead of type, when you had planned on doing the reverse. Work with your kids to find out where they think things should go, and use those ideas to find appropriate homes for all of their stuff. Your kids will feel a lot more invested in a system that they can help design, rather than one that is imposed on them.

2. Keep it simple
A common pitfall of people who organize for their children rather than with them is that they create complicated systems oriented toward adults. Keep in mind that for your kids, a simple solution is likely to make the most sense. Try to avoid too many complicated categories and hard-to-use gizmos. Instead, keep categories straightforward and age-appropriate, and make sure that any containers or specialized organizing tools, such as craft boxes, re-closable plastic bags, etc., can be safely and easily used by your child.

3. Make storage accessible
Chances are, your kids can’t reach as high as you, and can’t lift as much either. I’ve gone into a number of homes where well-meaning parents had storage bins full of toys that had been stacked nearly floor-to-ceiling. When I asked how easy it was for the kids to access the toys in the bottom bin, the parents usually say “not very.” If your kids can’t easily access their storage system, they won’t use it. When you’re ready to design your children’s storage system, ask yourself these three questions:

• Would your kids be better suited with easy-to-slide drawers instead of stackable bins?
• Is everything at a height that’s accessible?
• Will they be able to put things away without straining?

4. Label everything
For kids (as well as for adults), a label on something makes it “official.” Once a drawer has a label that says “socks” and a storage container is labeled “dolls,” those become the official homes for those items. As long as everything has a clearly labeled home, the chances of items finding their way back to those homes become much greater.

5. Use color
Finally, kids love color, so use it in their organizing systems! Color-coded storage areas, drawers, and other containers are a creative way of “labeling” functions of your kid’s storage system. Pick colors that are their favorites, and even have meaning to them. For instance, pink can be where your little girl keeps her dolls while red might be perfect for all of their colorful art supplies. Find a system that works, and remember to get them involved in the process.

Spending time with your kids developing organizing ideas and solutions can be a fun and rewarding way to settle them in to their new rooms. Soon, you may find that your kids’ rooms practically clean themselves!

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Joshua Zerkel, Certified Professional Organizer ® is a guest blogger for One Simple Move and the founder of Custom Living Solutions, an organizing and productivity consulting firm specializing in helping clients maximize their creativity and productivity in their offices and homes. He is the 2009-2010 Chapter President of the National Association of Professional Organizers, San Francisco Bay Area chapter, and speaks nationally and locally on organizing and productivity topics. For more information and FREE organizing ideas, visit www.customlivingsolutions.com or call 415-830-6345.

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Moving is a great time to clear out clutter and get more organized. Getting organized can leave you with less stuff to move and more money saved. In addition to finding cash or checks buried in a drawer, in an old bag or briefcase, or under an old stack of paper, there are multiple other ways that getting organized can help your bottom line. Here are just a few:

Ask for the discounts.
Gather bills for the various utilities that you use, including cell phone, Internet, land line phone, and any others. Once you have all the bills together, set aside some time to call each vendor and ask for discounts on each of your services. Just the simple act of you calling and asking for a discount can sometimes uncover deals that you never knew existed. Don’t expect your vendors to contact you and offer you discounts – you need to ask for them. I make a practice of doing this at least every six months.

Lose the late fees.
Since you just gathered all of your bills in one spot, look them over for any late fees that you might be paying. Late fees are not only an annoyance that cost you money in the short term; they can also negatively affect your credit rating, which can cost you money in the long term. To help avoid late charges and fees, take a few minutes and sign up for automatic bill payment, which will pay your bills on time every month. I recommend charging all of your bills against one credit card, rather than having your bills debited from your checking account. That way, if a billing error comes about, you can dispute it with your credit card company.

Scrap the extra storage.
An offsite storage unit should be looked at as an expense of last resort, something that you pay for only when you absolutely have to. Most of the clients I work with that have storage units generally have very little sense of what’s actually being stored, and mainly keep renting their storage units out of sheer inertia. Granted, taking time to go through and organize a storage unit is not high on most people’s priorities lists, but if you are currently renting one, I urge you to set aside some time to weed through the belongings that you currently are paying to store. With some weeding and consolidation, you may be able to incorporate your belongings into storage spaces that you already have at home or in your office.

Donate for dollars.
It’s always a good idea to start looking for ways to reduce the amount you owe to Uncle Sam. One possible way to save money on taxes is to donate things that you no longer want, need, or use and receive a tax deduction for your donation. Any money you can save on your taxes is like cash in your pocket!

Of course, this list is not exhaustive–but it’s a great place to start. What are some of your ideas for how to save money by getting more organized?

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Joshua Zerkel, Certified Professional Organizer ® is a guest blogger for One Simple Move and the founder of Custom Living Solutions, an organizing and productivity consulting firm specializing in helping clients maximize their creativity and productivity in their offices and homes. He is the 2009-2010 Chapter President of the National Association of Professional Organizers, San Francisco Bay Area chapter, and speaks nationally and locally on organizing and productivity topics. For more information and FREE organizing ideas, visit www.customlivingsolutions.com or call 415-830-6345.

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A frequent by-product of moving is usually a bunch of stuff you’ve decided you no longer want, love, or use. Getting rid of all this stuff can sometimes be a challenge – but don’t let that stymie your progress! Here are three ideas of what to do with your castoffs:

Sell them.
If your belongings still have financial value – for instance, electronics in good condition, designer clothes, or antiques – you might be able to recoup some of their cost by selling them. While having a garage sale might seem like the easiest way to sell your stuff, I generally don’t recommend it. Garage sales take a lot of prep work and planning, not to mention the time you have to spend staffing the sale. Unless you live in a densely populated area and expect most of the stuff you’re putting out will sell, skip the garage sale. Instead, try posting your most valuable items on eBay or Craigslist. You can do some research online to see how much you can expect your goods to sell for – helping you decide whether it’s worth your time to sell them or not.

Give them away.
For stuff that isn’t sellable but is still in perfectly good condition – clothes that no longer fit, the extra microwave that’s been sitting in the garage, etc. – it’s best to donate them so someone else can use them. Your local Salvation Army or Goodwill are great places to start, as they generally accept a variety of items – call them before driving over to see what they’re currently accepting. For things they won’t accept, get creative – other places may still value your stuff. For instance, if you’re getting rid of stacks of magazines, why not drop a few off at the gym or at a hospital waiting room? Have extra TVs or VCRs? See if a local shelter could use them. Many things that you think aren’t valuable may in fact be desired by someone else – try posting on Craigslist in the “free” section or on Freecycle – the results may surprise you! With clients, I’ve found that when we match their donations to places which will actually use them, they feel much better about letting those things go.

Recycle them.
Some of your stuff may not have any more useful life left and should be discarded in an environmentally-friendly manner. In many communities, recycling options abound for items like paper, plastic and aluminum, but what can you do with the rest of the stuff you want to recycle? This is where you have to get creative and do a little legwork. For electronics, some Goodwill locations and places like GreenCitizen will recycle your goods (sometimes for a small fee). See if old clothes can be used as art scraps at a local sewing center or school. Try calling your Garbage Company and see if they offer any resources or referrals for recycling beyond what they regularly pickup. Your local NAPO-affiliated Professional Organizer can also be a great resource for recycling and reuse ideas.

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Joshua Zerkel, Certified Professional Organizer ® is a guest blogger for One Simple Move and the founder of Custom Living Solutions, an organizing and productivity consulting firm specializing in helping clients maximize their creativity and productivity in their offices and homes. He is the 2009-2010 Chapter President of the National Association of Professional Organizers, San Francisco Bay Area chapter, and speaks nationally and locally on organizing and productivity topics. For more information and FREE organizing ideas, visit www.customlivingsolutions.com or call 415-830-6345.

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