When it comes to starting your journey to financial independence getting rid of as much of your crap as possible is a great way to get your frugal feet of the ground, realise what is actually important to your life and also kick start those savings.
As a culture we seem to all consume much more than we really need and a great place to start your FI journey is by really focusing on what you NEED.
To start the practical side here’s my first month of massively decluttering my possessions:
Having finally moved into my house I seem to have somehow reacquired all the crap that has been floating around in various family members houses for the last decade whilst I’ve lived in various flats throughout the country.
Recently I’ve been reading and watching a lot of content around minimalism. Minimalism is an interesting idea and we all should probably live more within our means and real needs……..though I’m pretty sure most of us want more than just a toothbrush, 5 pairs of socks and a laptop to our name!
That said decluttering has two major advantages – 1. You can make more money to add to your savings and investments 2. You need less space to live in and your space feels more open.
So anyway, I’ve been sorting for a few weeks – 1 pile to sell, 1 pile to charity shops, 1 pile to keep and 1 pile for the rubbish bin.
I’m not going to waste time on this it’s pretty easy to sell things on ebay but two real pointers. 1. Make sure you add in all descriptions including all defects even trivial and 2. Make sure you weigh the actual postage costs (I got somewhat stung on a few items I hadn’t weighed!).
That said here’s the results of stage one of the great declutter:
When we take out ebay fees and postage costs I’ve ended up with £750 in my pocket……well into my investments anyway. It’s a great place to start and a perfect way to kick start our journey to FI.