McPeg~ Your prices sound very reasonable. Dee--Wowie! Hope you get that taken care of! June is coming! QOD: If I was at my goal weight when I woke up, I'd open up the front door and see if he!! froze over while I was sleeping. Then I'd quickly take 100 pictures of myself in all my skinny clothes and post them all over the web and send them to my friends. Then I'd figure out how to STAY at my goal weight forever. I'd be thrilled. Well, I've moved--finally. That was a HUGE move from my "sold" house to my "new garage." The house isn't done for another 3 weeks. Now I am packing up my rental house this weekend in preparation for another move to my FINAL DESTINATION---haha. One DD is home from college and I'm lovin' every minute of it. The other DH will be home for college on the 11th or 12th. I can't wait. This will be the BEST SUMMER ever: all the kids home and Baby V will be here too for a while, it looks like---his next court date is in September. Who knows though, really. Where is everyone? For 2 or 3 days, I couldn't log on here for some reason. Today was the first time I could. Something must be messed up again...SURPRISE! Okay, gotta fly! Packing this weekend and cleaning out and packing the garage---it never ends---but hey, we're alive, right?

When I had an extended illness that lasted for years, I lost all energy, was in so much pain I couldn't think, and shopping made me feel better. So I went from a minimalist home to a cluttered, junky house. I didn't really notice it at first; I was too focused on the pain and fatigue I was dealing with. But as my health issues were resolved, I was appalled at the mess my house was in. I discovered Freecycle.org and cleared out a bunch of stuff, little by little. It was hard at first to let go of things, but I really wanted my clean, organized home back. So I started posting boxfuls of things on Freecycle. Then I discovered Ebay and Craigslist and realized that some of my things actually have quite a bit of value. I had tried to sell some of these things at a yard sale and could only get about 50cents per item, but on Ebay or Craigslist, the same items might get me $10 or $20. Knowing that I could actually get some "mad money" for precious belongings spurred me into gathering up more and more and listing them. In an effort to clear things out quickly, I'd list "lot" or "boxes" of similar items, like a collection of Danielle Steele books. I could sell the whole collection instead of selling one book at a time. I sold collections of craft supplies by the box. And box by box, I've been able to clear out my house. But once I got started clearing it out, I haven't been able to stop, which is a good thing. While my house is now once again neat and organized, it's not as minimalistic as I want. So I'm continually going thru shelves, cabinets, drawers, closets, etc and pulling out more stuff I can sell. I have shelves in my laundry room where I can store stuff I'm selling. This way, I can pull it out of my actual living space, out of eyesight, out of my way, and I can store it neatly in the laundry room until it sells. You might designate a closet, guest room or such for all the stuff you "weed out". Organize it into lots and list it on Craigslist. For the past year, our local newspaper has been offering one free classified ad weekly, so I've taken advantage of it to sell bigger items. About 80% of my listings in the newspaper have sold. About 70% of my listings on Craigslist sell. There are three Craigslist within 2 hrs of me, so I can list on all three to get a wider audience. Believe it or not, I've actually had people drive 5 or 6 hours for some of the stuff I've listed on Craigslist. Many of the consignment shops around here have expanded to sell more than clothing. They also sell furniture, nicnacs, books, etc. You might check with your consignment shops; you might be able to consign quite a bit of your stuff. Consignment shops usually take 50% of whatever the item sells for. Usually, I can sell my own items for two or three times what I'd get if I consigned it, so I sell it myself. If you have a lot of stuff, though, you might consider renting a booth in a well-patroned flea market. Some are fairly cheap, like $25/mo. Some charge a commission in addition, but some don't. Personally, I find Craigslist the easiest way to sell. You just write a description, name your price, and post up to 4 pictures. Pictures sell your items, so make sure they're good photos. You may not really NEED the money, but it would come in handy for the materals for your projects. And it's a wonderful incentive for decluttering. If you're like me, you really have some good stuff now, not useless junk. And it DOES have value. And people WILL pay for it. I've been able to do some home improvement projects, garden improvement projects, and buy new furniture with the money I've gotten from my "clutter". If you think about it as $10 here and $10 there, it doesn't seem like much. But if you sell a box of kitchen pots and pans and utensils for $50, that'll buy a tank of gas or several pieces of lumber, or a new ceiling fan--something else you can use. Also, if you sell on Craigslist, you might also set up a FREE www.blujay.com store. You can post an ad on Craigslist and then link to your blujay store where potential buyers can see everything you have for sale. You might be able to clear out several items to one buyer that way. It DOES take time to set up your store and write your ads, but you could alot a morning or a day a week to focus on sales. Honestly, you'd spend less time actually selling than you would worrying about letting go of valuable items you no longer need. Let us know what you end up doing. Are you taking before and after pictures? There's such a sense of accomplishment when you can see a big improvement.

Thanks ladies. After sleeping on it, and reading some of your thoughts, I think I will *let it go* for now. If more comes up, then I will say something to the mom. The party issue---oh my, I would NEVER bring that up--but that is bothering ME big time. See, in my DD's class, everyone has parties for the WHOLE class, since it's such a small group. The only time that kids don't is if they have a girls-only or boys-only party. But two of the moms I saw RSVPing on the page were a mom of either sex---so this party obviously wasn't just a handful of girls. UGH. I just cannot believe she would really exclude DD as the only one. Wow. If that's really true...just wow. When I was growing up, for THAT reason, my mom made me either a) invite the whole class or b) just the girls. I never pick and chose and that is something I've carried over to my own kids. And like I said, since there are only 14 in DD's class, everyone else seems to do the same--every party DD's been to has been the whole class, save for a few girls-only parties. I'm totally just VENTING here, too--I would never mention the party to the mom, no matter how badly it irritates me just b/c it's not *my place.* The comment...I will let go for now and see if anything more/further is said. It just saddens me because my DD is a sweet, kind-hearted, GOOD girl, and this is the first *encounter* I've had with anyone who may think otherwise. Of course, she is not perfect, but she is really a great kid--teachers/other parents/friends of mine etc. ALWAYS comment on how kind and outgoing and friendly she is. I never thought I would hear the words "bad role model" used about her, especially in freaking third grade! It's more MY mommy feelings that are hurt at this point.

We bought our Oil Rubbed Bronze (ORB) kitchen cabinet hardware on eBay and got a great deal (around $1 each for handles and less for knobs) on heavy, classic, non-painted pieces. I did spend about $30 ordering samples from two other eBay stores but found that the quality and style didn't fit what I was looking for. I second the recommendation on posting a few that you are looking at and seeing if anyone else has used the same ones in their kitchen (or ordered the samples) and can provide some feedback. We definitely saved over $100 (or much much more) on our hardware by using eBay. I couldn't find anywhere near the quality in my local stores where the prices were around $4+/piece.