26 May Aladian’s cave of gold
Money grows in our garage… or rather it accumulates in our garage.
A number of years ago I paid a visit to my sister who was working in California as a nanny. I went over to the home she was working at to pick her up after her shift. My sister was the morning nanny who got the children up, fed them breakfast and took the kids to school. There was an afternoon nanny who did the opposite routine. I did wonder why the family had chosen to have children they didn’t get to spend time with.
Anyway as I pulled up to the family’s home outside were two BMWs worth around $100,000+ each.
I knocked on the door and my sister opened up the garage door to let us in. I soon became to understand why the BMWs were parked outside.
The garage was full of stuff! Shelves and shelves of stuff. Suitcases, wine fridges, camping gear. You name it, it was in that garage. I am sure there was even the kitchen sink but just couldn’t see it.
The collection of stuff wasn’t just contained to the garage.
Into the house we went and in the corridor was a mobile clothes rack .. it was full. As well as having a large walk in wardrobe in the master bedroom the spare room had been converted into a closet with more mobile clothes racks.
How could someone have so much stuff that their lovely $100,000+ cars had to sit out in the drive way?
Fast forward 15 years and I was looking at an apartment. The Real Estate Agent took us into the basement where he showed us the parking available and the storage room.
He announced the size of the storage room: 6m x 3m.
“Oh that is generous” said a lady from Singapore.
I am thinking “really, I couldn’t even fit what is in my garage in that”.
I suddenly realised my garage was nearly as full as the American home. I use the word ‘nearly’ because I didn’t want to think about the real extent of the stuff I had.
I made a decision to start selling what was in the garage, listing one or two items a week, and to keep me motivated I kept track of how much I made.
In 6 months I made $10,458. I am sure the teller at the bank was wondering where all the cash was coming from.
An interesting thing also happened. I started to feel lighter.
My daughter said “the house feels lovely and free”.
Interesting nothing in the house had changed – it was the garage. The energy from the garage, which was free of clutter, was being felt throughout the home.
My one regret : is I wished I had done it earlier: some of the things had been in there for over 5 years. I had been so busy but surely I could have managed one item per week.
Take away:
Give it a go…
Start looking around to see what you don’t need. Start with one room in the home.
If you feel like you don’t have time, select one item per week and place it up for sale. It will take 15 minutes.
I understand : not everyone wants people coming to their home.
Maybe look at donating the items. There will be someone who appreciates it.
The Bank Teller did ask where I was going on holidays with the money.
But I had other plans for the money….
Why the photo of the camel… they make me smile 🙂
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