Deterrents to Downsizing

Not only do I love having garage sales, but I love going to them. I love seeing what kinds of junk people have and what they think they can get for it. If it's an estate sale, I love to see the insides of houses.  However, once I have my own garage sale, I try hard not to load up on more junk for a while and enjoy the freedom of less. For a while.

Today, a week after my own garage sale, we had an estate sale in the neighborhood. These are great because normally the whole innards of the house is being sold so you can find some quality stuff, not just old, worn junk. I debated whether I should go or not. I don't want to load up on stuff I may end up having to sell in a few years or risk taking a loss when it doesn't sell for as much as I paid. After almost ten years of buying enough stuff to fill my house, I no longer have a desire to buy old furniture (to paint), more garden supplies (trying not to garden much), or waste money with bad purchases (like that dog-stink rug). I'm trying hard to focus on downsizing. It takes a lot of willpower. Besides I still have a house full of stuff and will need to get rid of it if I want to move into a tiny house or follow my dream of retiring in Europe. Shipping stuff to Europe would be very expensive. But there are items I can still justify buying at sales: good quality, hardly-used, non-smelly linens, blankets, quilts and clothes. These are usable items that will wear with time and eventually be thrown away. And they are light-weight and easy to pack. Buying brand new linens and clothing means suffering from toxic treatments and washing the item multiple times until it looks old just to make it safe. And of course, paying much more.

I like buying clothes at an estate sale if they are made from natural materials and don't stink. Very often at these big sales I can find new clothing with tags still on them or obviously never worn or washed. New, yet never worn usually means they've been sitting around in a closet offgassing so they don't stink. Today I found a tourist t-shirt! Very soft 100% cotton, never worn, no smell, with a not-too-ugly-design. I draw the line at ugly designs, cheap fabrics or bad dye jobs and I refuse to wear a tourist t-shirt if I have never been to the location. I've been to Paris, but I never bought a t-shirt. I bought this t-shirt with the Eiffel Tower for only $3 and it's my size!

Hooray for a new t-shirt!

It's the little things that make my day....