Phase 1- The Yard Sale and the Power of Craigslist

Ok, after sorting through our stuff for hours and sending stuff to DI and throwing away what felt like a ton I was feeling pretty good about my "stuff" situation. Surely I had gotten rid of most of it and was well on my way to being a minimal list. Tip #1 would be to walk away and revisit. We left a lot of our stuff in Utah and when it was revisited, there was SURPRISE, so much more stuff than I remembered.
So, I started with KSL.
KSL tips-
*Be cautious about posting your address on listings and even more cautious about inviting someone to your house. I would only let the person come over when Scott was there and in CA, I only let them meet me at at central location. NEVER do they find out where I live for safety reasons.
*My stuff sold within hours of posting. I was priced to sell and took nice photos of my stuff. If you want to get rid of it, dont sell it for more than half of what it cost you. Someone most likely will just buy it new if its close to new price. If you have the time, start higher and then wait it out... but I wanted my stuff gone!

While Scott was in Utah finishing his last test he decided late Friday night he would have a garage sale the next morning and catch a plane home at 11:45 the same day. Insane, but we made a quick $500 so worth the insanity.
Garage Sale tips-
*Put bright signs up but use the back of boxes for the cardboard. Buying more stuff is against the point! When you are selling your beloved plates for only $2 and then you spend more than that advertising it just feels wrong
* Don't be there! Have a wonderful husband or friend that is not emotionally attached to your stuff be the one to sell off your loot and then you won't be sad. I don't know how many times I said to Scott, "You sold that?!" and "You sold that for that much?!". When all was said and done, I am glad its over and we have that much less to worry about.
*advertise on KSL or craigslist your garage sale, more people come!
*give yourself plenty of time to sort and go through stuff, or have more than one garage sale.
We put items in the yard sale that we actually were planning to just take to the dump. At the end of the sale you can tell the last people that they can have whats left for $5 bucks or free just as long as they take it ALL. No trip to DI- priceless
*Let them make an offer. Scott painted me a picture a long time ago that I loved and he thought was junk. Some lady liked it and he said make me an offer. We got WAY more than we would have sold it to her for.

Last tip of the day- We made a list of all the things we were going to take with us, wanted to take if there was room, and were fine parting with. Make this list first, then go through your belongings. If you did not put it on your list of things you wanted to take because you didn't think of it or forgot you had it, take that as a clue you need to get rid of it! I was surprised at what I found left off of my list but that in the end I was ok saying goodbye to you.

I hope this list was helpful and happy moving/ de-cluttering!