What I Learned after selling 65 Items out of my closet and getting rid of “stuff”…
Have you ever considered what clutter does to your brain? Research shows clutter has a negative effect and more so on women. It makes us ladies feel unfocused and out of control when clutter starts to take over. It is difficult to feel content in an ever so cluttered environment.
Yet, many of us do not want to let go of our accumulated messes because our stuff holds value and sentiment. According to the Journal of Consumer Psychology, we see our stuff as part of us which explains why it can be so hard to clean out those baby toys or clothes you once looked so fab in.
A study from the January Issue of The Journal of Neuroscience from The Princeton Neuroscience Institute states, “Multiple stimuli present in the visual field at the same time compete for neural representation by mutually suppressing their evoked activity throughout visual cortex, providing a neural correlate for the limited processing capacity of the visual system.” In everyday terms, the more stuff and clutter you have in your home, the more stressed out and less productive you will be. Your clutter will always be competing for your attention, and that precious time could be so well spent elsewhere (like with your kids), which leads me to why I am writing this post.
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My Scary Closet
About one year ago, if you peered in my closet you would have run the other way scared! Clothes were everywhere and items would literally fall on my head when I went to pull down a sweatshirt or sweater. My other dilemma… Although I had hundreds of articles of clothing and shoes, I could never find anything to wear. Honestly, I couldn’t even stand going in my own closet!
One day I was reading a magazine, Redbook to be exact. There was an article about women making money from home. One lady was making a considerable amount from an app called Poshmark! Now, this sparked an idea, although I did not have a fashion buying background. I did have a numerous amount of clothing items that needed to go! Plus I wanted to supplement my income and stay home with my kids like her.
Pondering
I thought about that cluttered closet and wondered if anyone would even want my old stuff. Yet, after digging, I realized some of my items were in great shape and some still new with tags attached.
I knew leaving my closet cluttered and unruly was not an option, but many of my clothes were from my pre-pregnancy body and I was holding on thinking I would eventually wear them again. After my baby son turned a toddler two, I realized I needed to do a purge!
I signed up for Poshmark and started selling my clothes. Some of them were “NWT” which means New with tags because I had bought items thinking they were a great deal and I would lose weight and fit into them. Seriously ladies, how often have you done that. Unfortunately now, I was desperate to get rid of all this stuff and to my surprise, people were buying what I had to offer!
It was easy to package and ship items with the free boxes from the post office and I printed the mailing label from my home printer. Nonetheless, I live close to a post office so a five-minute trip was all it took. However, you can schedule pickups from your local mail carrier to save you time.
I was selling like crazy! My husband did not believe me when I told him I was in the to 10% of sellers. After receiving ten “five-star ratings” I was able to buy wholesale items and sell them as well.
Sure enough, my closet looked amazing. It was a breath of fresh air to walk into an uncluttered space. Also, the funny thing was, as I shed my clutter, I also shed more weight!
The main lesson I learned from selling my clothing is I did not miss a single thing. Us humans are always so inclined to hang on to our stuff! Personally, I can’t even remember half of the things I sold. (I could look it up, but why bother.)
Almost a year later and I’m still going at it. I’ve tried other platforms for selling clothing such as Ebay and Mercari but I was unable to self-promote or “share” like I can on Poshmark.
My goal is to get rid of half of the clothes in my closet! I now have outfits to wear because I can find items that compliment each other. The key word there being “find.”
So if you are thinking of decluttering and need to get rid of clothing try Poshmark! If you sign up with code NXUIA you will receive a $5 coupon and I will also receive a $5 credit, so thank you! Tag me at @masmax and check out my closet! I will answer any of your questions! You will see selling your clothing is a breeze and it is time to let the “stuff” stop controlling your life.
Note: Two other selling platforms I use are Ebay and Mercari, but Posh by far is my favorite!
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