Keep it or sell it?

When I was in the business full time, I used to come across a lot of really nice things. I sold a majority of the things I bought; however, if there was a really nice item, I would usually keep it for myself. Of course my wife would always be able to pick out whatever she wanted to keep, which explains why I can no longer walk into my walk in closet and why my toddler has to climb over toys to get to her bed.   We also trade up. For example, if we find a dining room set that is nicer than our current one, we sell ours and keep the nicer set. To me, this is one of the best things about our business.

I know some people who refuse to get attached to any item, regardless of how much they like it. They sell everything. To me this takes all of the fun out of it. But, I understand, some people are strictly business.

So what's your policy?

Trade up every chance I get   Keep the best IF it is something I really really want   Don't let the wife get very involved she wants to keep to much   Made the daughter-in-law (that I really like) pay for a lamp out of first unit to drive home the message this is to make money not see how much stuff we can accumulate!

So what's your policy?

My policy is expressed at the thread link below from February, 2011.

http://storageauctionforums.com/index.php/topic,633.0.html

Trade up from time to time, Our house is pretty full of stuff now, both to keep, and constant inventory to sell. What's beginning to happen more often is I have to sell furniture I would like to keep only because our house and the size of our rooms is too small to even keep and upgrade the furniture. Some of our furniture is "heirloom" pieces passed down from family members, I guess we could put it storage and replace it with better furniture from storage units, but then I would feel like we are starting to become hoarders.

It feels wierd to sell better quality furniture at discounted prices then I own in my own house.

I always trade up my tool collection.  Had a Makita worm drive for years, but bought a locker with a like new Bosch worm drive....kept the Bosch and sold the Makita. 

Bought a locker that belonged to a guy that had a lot of nice cooking stuff.  There was a beautiful set of eight JA Henkels steak knives in a nice wood box......I use those any time I have a hunk of meat!

Got a nice Kitchenaid mixer with bunch of accessories a few years ago, and with the holidays coming, it will be getting a workout soon!

Also found a very nice Cuisanart food processor (a nice heavy duty one, not the junk ones I usually find) with all kinds of accessories, and it still get's used frequently.

I have traded up my dining room table a couple of times and have a really nice set now.  My entire bedroom set (the nicest furniture I've ever had in my life!) came out of a locker.....a complete set of Drexel Heritage, Queen bed frame and dressers.  Very nice stuff!

I'm always grabbing paintings I like......pretty much only original oils and I have to like the picture.  I have them hanging all over the house.  At this point, when I find a new one I like, I have to sell off an old one. 

There's more, I find decent clothes from time to time, and of course lot's of little hand tools, wrenches, specialty tools, tool boxes, etc.  And then the stuff you need all the time.....cleaning supplies, paper towels, garbage bags, etc. 

But, having said that, at this point in my life, I have pretty much everything I need and after years of digging through other peoples stuff (the name of my business by the way....Other Peoples Stuff....LOL), I don't WANT anything anymore......it's just a bunch of things!  I refuse to pay storage on personal items....I will never pay for personal storage again.  If something strange were to happen and I was booted out of my house tomorrow, I would sell everything on CL or ebay before I paid to put it in storage.  I have seen over and over again, all these people put $500 worth of items in a storage locker, and then pay thousands and thousands of dollars in fees to store it for years!  And by then of course, it's dirty and outdated, and it probably wasn't that nice to begin with! 

About a month ago, I was at an auction with about 40 other people. The first unit of the day: A brand new microfiber sofa and loveseat, a huge solid wood bar height dining room table with 6 bar height chairs and a leaf, a sold pine bedroom set, a brand new down comforter and 2 very high quality end tables which probably retailed for $300 each when new. I was amazed that I got it for pre-storage auction reality show prices. I liked everything in the unit except the bedroom set but I knew I could sell it fast since it was solid wood. It took about 4 days to sell. My wife didn't like the sofa and loveseat, even though they were immaculate, so we sold those too. We then sold our (very basic) dining room set. After selling everything, we ended up making our money back and keeping around $1,000 worth of furniture that we really liked. Not too shabby for a day at the office.  

mine is very easy. something comes in something else goes out. don't care what it is 1 for 1. this way you never get over run with junk.

The rule for my mom and I is you better like it more than something you already have because you have to get rid of something to take it home. My mom always jokes that without this rule she will soon be on an episode of hoarders. Ugh her and her reality shows.

I will keep small stuff , books if I haven't read them and they look interesting . I'll also keep clothes when they are my size ( I also pick up scrap metal and I'm constantly ripping or staining clothing)

For the most part I sell everything else ,The only things that have tempted me are flat screen tvs . I sell them instead of keeping them though . The way the price drops on them they will never be worth more than they are right now, and we will be getting more and more of them in the future .

Everything gets sold or taken to the dump with few exceptions:

I traded up an inkjet printer for an HP LaserJet from a unit.
I kept a nice full height bookshelf, and a leather chair I needed for my home office.
Cleaning supplies, and other consumables I will usually keep if opened, sell if unopened.
Generally if it's worth over $10 I will sell it.

Pretty much we sell it if it's worth anything. I would definitely trade up furniture if I were to find something I like better than what I already have but that doesn't happen too often. Have kept some clothes. Always keep cleaning supplies if it's a product I would use. Occasionally keep unopened things like shampoo or lotion but would never keep or sell partially used products. They go in the trash. Lots of things are kept for a while. Spouse likes cool man cave type stuff (neon lights, taxidermy, knives....) but of course pretty much everything is 'for sale' and eventually it goes and is replaced by some other new cool object. Sometimes when one of us likes something we put it on EBAY or Craigslist with a pretty high price and if it goes, fine...if not we keep it. We can always sell it later when we get bored with it. I remember once we had just found a nice shop vac in a unit which my husband claimed because he needed a new one. A week later we had a garage sale and someone asked it we had a shop vac for sale. He goes in the garage and pulls out the shop vac and sells it to the guy. I said "I thought you wanted that". His reply "I'll find another one soon enough". And of course he did.

If it touches the body (excluding clothes, nail polish) it goes in the garbage, other products even half used, as long as the procees for using the product dos not include immediate contact with body parts, I sell it.

For example:

Products that are creams or jellies that a person digs their fingers or hands into; used tooth paste, bar soap (used), hair brushes (with hair in them), lipsticks (used), deoderant/anti-persperent (used), all go in the garbage.

products like hair spray, peroxide, rubbing alcohol, shampoo, soap (in a bottle), nail polish, cologne, perfume; if it's at least half-full they get sold.

I know I might be losing money here, but "personal entertainment products" go in the garbage as well.

Since I do this as a hobby I find in some units I end up keeping more then I sell.  For the right price I will sell anything I find in a unit.  In general however, my wife gets first pick on things.  While this has added more clutter to our house, it has also kept her happy.  She loves some of the crystal figurines and other things of that nature.  While she would never buy them in a store, keeping them from a unit is ok.  My girls have kept every gaming system that we have found.  If they work the first one they keep.  Then any others we find can be sold.  If they don't work they get torn apart and scrapped.  I myself have kept a few comic books and baseball cards for my collection.  Most everythying else has always gone to be sold, given to friends, or goodwill.  Have kept a few bookcases and other things to hold all the nick-nacks from above.

One thing I do now is if find a movie I like in a unit we will watch it and then sell or trade it in.  If it's a blueray then it goes into my collection and the dvd gets sold.

If i like somethin ill keep it. but i get bored super quick and usually end up selling em
not long after

We pretty much sell everything if it is not a trade up, or what are we going to get rid of to keep that. Like BigBizz we will keep a little while then sell.

 My Aunt is a hoarder. Every time I go to her house and have to move the junk around and reorganize it. I come home and make a dump run from our stuff. 

So with her hoarding keeps me in check of how much do I really want or need. Husband has done some home improvements for her recently and he has come home and looked at his tool collection and is willing to sell some of it. Guess looking at her mess makes it easy to just get rid of our clutter.