Selling Little Pieces of Yourself

We spend our lives working for things.  “He who dies with the most toys wins.” When we have more things than we have room for, we might buy a bigger house in which to keep all those things.  Or pay to store those things we don’t need right now, but are certain to need at some point in the future. We identify ourselves by our things: our salaries, our cars, our televisions, our homes, our clothing, cell phones, furnishings, jewelry, our book/music collections.  We determine our own value (and gauge the value of others) by the value of these things.

And then…

We lose our salary.  We lose our house.  We lose a good portion of our things.  We pay to store the most valuable of those things, certain that one day, we’ll regain our salary, our house, and use those things we’re paying to store.  As long as you still have valuable things, you’re still a person of value, right?!  Isn’t everyone always saying that no one else can determine your worth?!

And then…

{Perspective Shift}

Preparing to set out on this new life of mine, I needed cash, as much as possible, as soon as possible, and I certainly didn't need any of the things I’d been paying to store, nor the monthly storage bill.  So, the obvious solution was to sell these items of great value, have a few thousand in the bank before I hit the road, and remove the weight of “so many” possessions from my shoulders.

I took my jewelry in to be sold, first.  There were a few rings, with decent diamonds, some earrings, etc.  I estimated I’d get about $500 for everything.  The actual monetary value was set by someone else, as $89.  Okay, that was pretty disappointing.  I felt pretty small having held onto these items for so long, and discovering that other people didn’t see much value to them.  But I moved on.

Furniture, kayak, and telescope should still bring me at LEAST $1500, maybe more.  No.  These treasured pieces that I’d held onto for so long brought me a whopping $300.  The playstation, games, and DVDs brought in $100.  No one would even take the telescope for free.  It ended up in the dump with other items that other people determined held no value.

Everything else had to be sorted through myself, and either kept because of high sentimental value if I had the room, or donated to Goodwill (BTW, they only take flat screen TVs, so don’t bother trying to donate your older television sets).

Still very cash-poor, I decided to sell my car.  The salesman at the dealership told me it worth between $2660 and $4850, but that they probably wouldn’t give me more than the $2660 for it because they had a lot of sedans in stock.  Being desperate, I was actually pretty excited by the number. 

And then…

The salesman said that the owner “didn't want to pay more than $1500 because they were having trouble moving sedans.”  I asked him to intercede on my behalf and ask for at least $1800.  Boss was busy with personal items and I was told I would get a phone call, which never came.  I called the next morning and spoke with the owner, and he said, “I told him I wouldn’t pay more than $1200!!” Needless to say, I held onto the car.

Selling, giving away, and trashing 95% of my remaining belongings was a demoralizing experience, and I felt pretty invaluable.  There were a lot of tears shed, and some other ugly thoughts.  But.   

It solidified my belief in my new life plan.  I’m not going to be a slave to a salary just so I can acquire more things, which someone else will determine has no value.  The things I want, I can have inexpensively:  My freedom, my dog, my family, great friends, beautiful surroundings, pretty good food, and a mortgage-free roof over my head.

And then…

I leapt.