Saturday, April 11, 2009

It's PAINFUL

ACK.....years of educational supplies to sort through!!!! TWO HUGE TUBS of NEW educational kits, old band instruments, books, art supplies.... I'm telling you it's PAINFUL for a frugal homeschooler to get rid of stuff that I KNOW will be needed in the future.....almost as painful as getting rid of the toilet paper roles a few weeks back. I HAVE needed them several times too.....

But surely I can buy notebooks, paper, colored paper, fun art kits, science kits, games and such in Japan. Right?

I started with the school closets first...as I KNEW they would be the hardest to part with and to price....ACK.....even got rid of my box of catalogs...um...havne't used THOSE in years as all the companies have online catalogs.

The hardest part really is figuring out what things were worth to then price....instruments, picnic tables, 6 ft tables, books, bike trailer, lawn mowers....what do you think about books? .25 for paperback and .50 for hardback unless otherwise marked? Or more or less?

Onward....
Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can only imagine how difficult a task this is! BTW, I love your headings & pictures on the side of your blog! I'm trying to visit links from my blog today. I hope you have a great weekend!

Heather said...

I think the pricing of your books should depend on whether they are textbook / homeschool books and what shape they are in. I usually see how much the book is going for new and cut that price in half for good condition books that don't have writing or tears in them. If there is some tears or stains, then cut that price in half again. If there is writing and pages missing, then it's free.

So sorry you are going through such purging withdrawels. Doesn't sound fun.

Renee said...

Remember that if you can't sell something, you can donate it for a tax writeoff... since you'll have owned a house for about half of this year, you should be able to use the tax deduction. Maybe a church thrift shop, Salvation Army, Goodwill, etc.
I guess I'm fortunate in that when we went overseas the first time we only had five children, the eldest was only 8 yrs old and we'd only been married 12 yrs so we hadn't had as much time or opportunities to accumulate as your family has

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Well - the problem is that we are at a phase to downsize drastically....and haven't....I mean we are moving to one table, on fridge.....and need to ship beds, books and such to kids in college. Two of them can get 350# each...so we have a lot of different sorting out things to do....stuff to store here, stuff to go to Japan normal boat, stuff to go in the hold shipment to Japan, stuff to go to 2 kids in college....and stuff to just get out of the house. LOL

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Heather - it's my experience that folks around here don't really like to pay 50% of new for used.....because I did that at the last sale and no one bit...then sold it all in one day online. LOL I have so MUCH this time that I"m willing to go less to get rid of it without having to mail. ::snort::

Though I AM thinking that I should pull some of the curriculum and newer fiction books out and put them on PBS so I at least get to choose new books when I get to Japan. LOL

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Oh - Renee - I'm going through the school stuff... think 19 years of collecting school kits, puzzles, games, books, supplies so that you can frugally homeschool....THAT is what is painful....but it will feel great when we are down to nothing and I can buy what I need. ::snort:: Yep - just finishing our 19th year of homeschooling. Wow.

Darcy from SHS said...

Hey De'Etta,

I cannot imagine what you have to go through to sort it all. I would love to know when/where you might post some things you are selling though, I am trying to find some new things for our schooling and they have to come second hand as we aren't in a position to do new yet. :) Let me know and you just might be able to ship a bunch to me. hehehe

Cynthia said...

ACK! I can't imagine!

Anonymous said...

Have I missed the garage sale???
~Margie