海角大神

Storage space is one of the biggest money drains that people have.

Think about it for a second. What do you do with storage space?聽You fill it up with stuff that you don鈥檛 have any consistent use for.聽If you had a consistent use for it, it wouldn鈥檛 be in storage.

Most of the stuff that people have in storage should actually be sold on Craigslist or eBay or put in a yard sale to generate some funds instead of taking up space. Sure, there are always a few things that make sense to put into storage 鈥� Christmas decorations, older tax documents 鈥� but those items take up perhaps one closet.

That鈥檚 only part of the equation, though.聽You actually聽pay聽for storage space.

Storage space counts toward the square footage of your home. The greater the square footage, the greater the cost. If you鈥檙e using some of that square footage for storage, then you鈥檙e spending a lot of money just to store stuff.聽

Let鈥檚 say you have a 2,000 square foot home, but 400 square feet are being used solely to store stuff. If you compressed that storage down to 100 square feet, you could purchase a less expensive 1,700 square foot home and not lose a single square foot of living space. What you聽would聽lose, though, is a healthy chunk of your insurance payments, a piece of your property taxes, and a portion of your mortgage.

Not only that,聽you鈥檒l put some money in your pocket when you sell off that 300 square feet of stuff.聽That stuff could be anything from old CDs and DVDs to collectibles or pottery or clothes. Whatever it is, selling it will put money back in your pocket.

If you鈥檙e struggling to make ends meet and you also have a closet or two jam-packed with stuff,聽you have a solution to your problem sitting right there in front of you.

First, go through all of that stuff and聽get rid of it. If you haven鈥檛 looked at something in a year, trash it or sell it. If it鈥檚 鈥渟entimental,鈥� why is it gathering dust in a box somewhere? If you鈥檙e looking at old photos you can鈥檛 bear to get rid of, scan them and make digital copies that will last forever.

As you鈥檙e clearing it all out,聽put aside anything that has resale value.聽Entertainment items almost always have at least聽some聽value. Collectibles usually do, too (though often not as much as you鈥檇 expect).

Your next project is to聽sell off all of that stuff you鈥檝e put aside.聽Use eBay for the collectibles. Use Craigslist for the larger items and the functional items. Use yard sales for the stuff that doesn鈥檛 sell on eBay or Craigslist.

This will take some time. In fact, it鈥檒l take a lot of time. It鈥檚 a great way to fill up some spare hours, though. Every item that sells is another bit of space cleared out of your home聽and聽another few dollars in your pocket.

Once money starts flowing in,聽put every dime of it aside.聽Don鈥檛 spend it (unless you鈥檙e covering shipping expenses for selling some of the stuff). Hold onto it and enjoy watching it build up.

When everything is gone,聽you鈥檒l find yourself with a lot more space than before.聽In fact, you may find yourself with enough extra space that it makes complete sense to move into a smaller and less expensive place.

You鈥檒l also find yourself with a lump of cash.聽That lump of cash can be used to pay down debts or serve as the start of saving toward something big, like a house down payment.

Spring cleaning isn鈥檛 just an opportunity to clear out your living quarters. It鈥檚 a chance to earn some money, re-examine your possessions, and even look toward the possibility of more cost-efficient housing. Take advantage of it.

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