De-Cluttering

The on/off rainy weather we've had this week has forced us to get some organizing done in the house.  After much procrastination, I finally cleared out the closet in the new dining room.  In an effort to de-clutter, make more room and earn a little cash to put towards some baby boy times, I've decided to try to sell some of the girls' "old" clothes (which are in "like new" condition).  I have approx. 2 dozen boxes of clothes, all ranging in age from newborn - 2T.  
I put together 1 little bag of infant items and brought it over to the Children's Orchard - a successful consignment-like shop in Seekonk.  Prior to bringing the clothes over there I did a little research and browsed around the store first, to check out their pricing and see what kind of an inventory they had.  I was impressed with the quality of clothes and the reasonable price tags.  That being said, I quickly discovered that while the Children's Orchard is a great place to buy excellent used baby items, it is a terrible place to sell stuff to.  The bag of clothes I put together was worth around $50.  Many of the items were name brand that looked like they'd never even been worn.  I figured they'd probably give me between $20-$25 in cash, or more in store credit.  Boy was I wrong!  They offered me $6 in cash or $10 in store credit!!!!  Needless to say, I told them that while I'd be back to buy some items there I would not be doing any selling with them.  I guess now I know how they stay in business!
With the consignment shop in my rearview mirror I decided to try to sell the clothes on my own, using the Internet.  I joined a couple of online groups that are similar to Ebay and Craigslist.  I took a bunch of random pictures of some of the clothes and posted them in an album for people to browse through.  Within a couple of hours I received multiple emails from people interested and, yesterday, I made my first sale - I sold $35 worth of clothes - not a bad start!  I'm supposed to meet someone else on Sunday.  This person is interested in $40 worth of clothes.  I'm selling everything incredibly cheap - priced between $2-4 per outfit - but the way I see it is it's a great deal for someone else and it's still helping me to earn a little cash, which I'll turn around and use for the new baby's stuff.
Jim took advantage of the rainy weather and put the first coat of paint up in the dining room.  It's no where near being finished yet, but so far I am LOVING it!  I chose a brick red color for the walls, with a white trim.  It looks amazing!  I purchased an off-white (almost yellow/cream colored) table cloth at Job Lot the other day and I'm on the hunt for a pair of cream colored sheer curtains, similar to the type of sheer curtains we have in our living room.  I am hoping that the table cloth helps to make the kitchen table look less out of place in there, until we're able to get our hands on a dining room set.
Kyle received a beautiful frame for his 1st Communion, in addition to the gorgeous Canvas I had custom made for him.  I am going to hang them, with some nice pictures, in that room and I'm also going to get some nice frames to put inside of the built-in curio cabinet.  It should look really nice when it's all finished!
As I go through the tedious, time consuming process of de-cluttering I'm noticing how much of mess one has to make when trying to get things organized!  The new dining room has been emptied out but now my bedroom and the hallway are full of boxes which need to be sorted through and brought down to the basement.