Found Money

Almost exactly a year ago, I read Margareta Magnusson’s The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning. I’d been hearing a lot about this practice of decluttering and organizing your home before you die so your loved ones aren’t burdened with the task.

And it’s a horrible burden to bear. My husband was saddled with this when his mother passed. I saddled my husband and kids with this task when we moved my mother to assisted living. I realized we accumulate so much stuff and most of it only has meaning for us. Our kids don’t have the same attachment to the knick-knacks and dust collectors. I can promise you that when you die, the items that have history for you will end up in the dump, the thrift store, or on a garage sale table.

Whenever Jeff and I go on a decluttering binge, we haul boxes of stuff to our local Goodwill. I was never interested in taking the time to photograph and list the stuff on sale sites. I wasn’t going to disrupt my day for a $20 sale or for someone who may not show up.

My view of this changed recently.

I’ve been doing some “money work”, an endeavour triggered by wondering why I get anxious whenever Jeff tries to talk about our investments. I acknowledge that I shut down and tune out whenever we need to decide how to invest. I am afraid to spend the money in our savings account. I feel driven to noose any spending (by Jeff) that I deem wasteful (which is almost everything). I found myself wondering “why am I like this?” so I turned to books for help. I skimmed through The Psychology of Money, The Soul of Money and Get Rich, Lucky Bitch, looking for answers. I found a lot of anecdotes to which I couldn’t relate and a few pages of helpful information. I still have a lot of internal work to do.

The most profound thing I read was the notion that our homes are filled with hidden sources of money. I thought selling an item for $20 was a waste of my time, but one book pointed out that the effort vs return was worthwhile. It takes me 10 minutes to take photos and create a listing. Do that for six items, and I’m making $120 per hour for getting rid of shit sitting in my house with no purpose.

This was eye-opening and irritating. We had given so much stuff away. Money just slipped through our fingers. I had always been so eager to get things out of the house. Why was it suddenly so important to get rid of something that sat in the basement for years?

I know this is because I am comfortable with scarcity. As the child of a single working mom, we didn’t have much. Our fridge was never full. Our cupboards weren’t bare, but there was minimal selection. I feel safe and relaxed when I can see empty space.

But that ends now. I have resolved to sell the things we no longer need. Jeff is so on board with this, he built a spreadsheet so we can keep track of the money we bring in from the stuff. My goal is to get to $4000. There is no timeline, just a dollar amount. We have already passed the $500 mark.

Things take time to sell. The last thing I sold was listed for two months. Now that I have a goal, not only am I relaxed about getting rid of things, I’m also less attached to sunk cost value. Just because we paid $100 for something, doesn’t mean I should aim for top dollar on resale. Get it out, get money in the bank. For someone with fears and discomfort around money, this is a huge step. I can already feel the healing.

xo Dana

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What I’m reading

I’m about to dive into Jeff Zentner’s Colton Gentry’s Third Act. Most people have never heard of Jeff, but I found him thanks to a fellow writer. I had him on my podcast, What Were You Thinking, a couple of years ago. He is one of a handful of authors whose work I’ll read without hesitation. From the first few pages, I already know this book will not disappoint.