Decluttering

Or trying to, anyway. I'm going through a tub of stuff that we probably need to get rid of. It's mostly baby clothes - a set of preemie dresses and some other girl clothes that we didn't use for El Burrito (for obvious reasons). And yet I'm having a bit of a hard time committing to letting go of it. Go figure. Even though I'm firmly of the opinion that I don't want to go through the whole pregnancy thing again (much to my mother's dismay, and I swear I can't wait until my little brother gets married and supplies the woman with another grandkid or two). It's that insane little packrat-voice in my head that keeps saying "save it for later, you might need it" even though it might be something I'll never need again.

Anyway, I need to get on the ball with this stuff and at least sort out what might sell on eBay, so I can list it before their fee changes go into effect next month. I may cut back even more on my selling, given their proposed changes. They're touting it as being cheaper, since they are reducing the listing fee - by 5 cents on the lower-priced stuff that I usually list. What they don't mention in the headline, though, is that the final value fee is going up 3.5%, for a total of 9.75%. Yeah, as long as it sells for more than $2, they've made back their measley nickel.

Then there are the three Roper Western shirts that won't go away. Brand new, with tags, but bought at least 10 years ago. By my mother, who doesn't quite have the same taste in clothes that I do, which is why the tags are still on. I don't even know if they're "in style" anymore. I thought I'd sold them to someone in Australia, but when I found out that shipping them would be around $30, she backed out. And I didn't blame her at all.

Speaking of Ebay, I just left my second negative feedback ever. Last time, it was a buyer who never sent payment, even after claiming to send it three times. This time, it was a seller who never sent the DVDs I thought I'd purchased (on Half.com). It wouldn't have been so bad, but their excuse was that the DVDs were out of stock, and they didn't bother to inform me of this until three weeks after I placed the order. Now, Half.com rules state that you have to ship within either two or three business days, so the fact that I didn't get an update until I emailed them is what bumped them from a neutral to a negative. If they'd emailed me and sent a refund within a week, I would have been okay with a neutral. But that didn't happen, and apparently it's a common thing with this seller (or group of sellers, as their "Me" page implies).

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So, ideas for getting this stuff out of the house:

• see if the local Children's Orchard wants the baby stuff (except that what I've got is mostly low-end stuff, like Walmart)
• find a consignment shop
• Ebay
• donate to the local charity thrift store

Hmm. Off to ponder some more.