Hey where have you been?

First of all, to the 7 people who read this blog, I apologize.  It has been a busy month here for us.  Not only are we winding down the school year (and in charge of 3 weeks of IB exams!), but we are having to pack up our house, sell things, sort out our visas for KSA, move up to Michigan, etc, etc.  So you get it if we haven’t had time to post. (I say we, I am sure Lindsey will post at some point!)

Out with the old …

As I said, we are trying to pack up everything and determine what we want to keep and what we want to get rid of.

Wow that looks like it sucks!

Actually, this has been an interesting exercise for the both of us.  It has forced us to determine our priorities and re-evaluate our outlook on life with regards to stuff and material things!

Wow deep.

No stay with me.  We are essentially moving a 3/2 ranch-style home into about a 10×20 storage unit.  So we have had to basically label all our possessions into three categories: 1. things going to Saudi 2. Things going to storage unit in Michigan 3. Things to get rid of.

During this process, we have both said to each other, “why have I kept this??” I am sure that you have said that about a lot of the things that you own.  After saying this, most people then say, “but I spent $xx on it and I’ll never get my money back!” You are right about that.  We are selling things for deeply discounted prices.  But actually ask yourself if you really need these things.  Moving and downsizing has forced us to re-evaluate the material objects that we own, and we realized that we can do without.  The sentimentality does not warrant it staying in a box for you to look at every few years and reminisce.

That doesn’t mean that we are Minimalists, but they do have a certain point.

It has been amazing how many of our things are going into category 3.  To be honest, it has been good for us and has helped our pocketbook a bit.  We are basically taking everything and selling it to make money to supply our new house.  So far we have about $650.  We hope to have over $1000 by the time we go.

Hmmm. Money tell me more.

We have used two ways in which to sell things.  Facebook now has a marketplace, as well as OfferUp (which is an app to download).  Some of our family are buying things at deeply discounted prices.

We still have few things to sell, the biggest being our kitchen table and chairs.  It is basically the only really nice piece of furniture (read – expensive) thing that we own, so we don’t mind putting it into storage if we don’t get the right price.

…And in with the new.

We finally chose our housing for next year.  We will get a two-bed apartment/villa at the Al Reem Compound in Jubail.  It is about 1290 sq. ft. and has two full bathrooms and a nice patio area.

The compound itself has a hotel on it, swimming pool, tennis courts, gym, supermarket, 3 restaurants and we get free internet, satellite TV, and cleaning service twice/week!  It is also fully furnished (hence the fire sale of stuff)

Your Homework

So now a little bit of homework for you (being the teachers that we are).

Take a look around your house/apartment and look at the things that you actually use.  For the things that you don’t maybe consider selling it.  If you sold just one thing a week/month then you will have just that little bit more income to spend or preferably save.  Millionaires are made $10 at a time.

If you are buying something, check out Facebook, or OfferUp, or craigslist.  Why get it new if it is perfectly acceptable used.

Please comment on your experiences in selling online or decluttering!