Welcome into March DINKS. It’s time for the snow to stop and the sun to start shining. It’s also time for spring cleaning. Every year around this time people start to clean out their closets, their cupboards, their drawers, and their shelves. Very often we see posts from financial bloggers about making extra money by selling our stuff and getting rid of our unwanted items. Unfortunately not everything can be sold; but we don’t have to throw out all of our unsellable items, we can donate them to local charities and organizations.
If we are cleaning out our closets and getting rid of unwanted items we can donate some of our unsellable items in order to help those less fortunate people who are in need. Think about the last time you cleaned out your home during your spring cleaning frenzy. What items did you keep, which items did you sell, which items did you donate, and what did you throw away?
Sell Your Unwanted Items
Many people’s first instinct is to sell their unwanted items. It’s definitely a great financial strategy to sell our unwanted items because we can get rid of our stuff and make some money at the same time. Adam Baker at Man vs. Debt has created an entire lifestyle from the belief that people should “Sell your crap, pay off your debt, and do what you love.” It’s true that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. So gather up your unused and unwanted items and sell them. As a rule of thumb if we haven’t used an item in 6 months and we haven’t worn an article of clothing in the last 3 months (or during the last season) then we should get rid of them.
We can sell old Furniture, Toys, previously read Books, unwanted Home Decor, big ticket Electronics like Stereos, DVD Players, Telephones, TVs, and Appliances. We can post our ads online to sell our unwanted and unused items or we can visit thrift shops and second hand stores to sell our items.
Which Items You Can Donate
There are several different organizations and charities who accept donations. Last spring when I cleaned out my entire apartment (thanks to a few sleepless nights and a little bit of OCD) I had over 10 boxes of clothes, books, and computer equipment that I wanted to donate. The problem that I kept running into was not that charities would not accept my items; the problem was that they would not come to pick up the boxes. Charities such as the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the Diabetes Society, as well as The Boys and Girls Club accept donations.
If you don’t have any unused items that you can donate to a charity or organization we can also donate food, and money, as well as our personal time. If we have books that we want to donate we can visit our local library or our local daycare, school, or bookstore to donate unwanted books.
Throw This Stuff Away
Basically if you don’t want it and you can’t sell it or you can’t donate it then you have no choice but to throw it away. I know that it can be hard to part with some of our beloved items, but we have to do so because we don’t want to become hoarders of unwanted items.
Whenever we throw away large amounts of items we have to make sure that they are clearly marked and packaged correctly. Some items (such as broken electronics) require special disposal.
Photo by Recycle This
I am (sadly) not married to my long time boyfriend, but after 12 years together it really doesn’t make a difference for our joint finances. Or maybe that is just something that I tell myself to make myself feel better about planning my life and sharing my money with a man who cannot (or does not) want to 
Good Morning DINKS. Online dating is the new nightclub. Instead of getting all dressed up, going out all night, and spending a lot of money on drinks to meet our potential future spouse people are now staying in, and spending money on signing up for online dating services in the comfort of our own pyjamas.
Good Morning DINKS. If you read our blog on a daily basis then you know that I am huge fan of Mr. 
Very often people think of being in debt as a bad thing, I don’t necessarily think that is true. Debt can definitely be a burden if we can’t afford to make our payments, but we can learn many financial lessons from getting into debt as well as getting out of it. We may have got into debt because we were financially irresponsible (or at least I did), but paying of our debt(s) makes us financially responsible.