Organizing Your Assets
If organizing your house or apartment does not seem to have anything to do with budgeting, it’s because you are not thinking of your things as assets. Organizing allows you to take better stock of and access your assets. Let’s start with defining an asset:
Asset - a useful or valuable thing, person, or quality.
What counts as an asset to you as individual will probably be a little different than how businesses count assets, but the underlying concept is the same. Stuff isn’t always an asset. It could be a liability. Liabilities are debts, but they have a second definition more relevant to personal items:
Liability - a person or thing whose presence or behavior is likely to cause embarrassment or put one at a disadvantage.
Basically stuff that helps you is an asset, and things that cause problems are liabilities. “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” applies here. An item may be potentially useful to someone else but not to you (or useful to past you but not current you). These are items which are good to sell or barter and turn into a useful asset like cash. If an item is not sellable, it may still be donated or recycled, or trashed if it’s beyond redemption. While you might not gain money from recycling, you do regain space and have less to maintain or move around, which could save you money.
Since my parent’s have a full basement, I’ve held on to more childhood toys and apartment items than I would otherwise. But space is a bit of issue at our house, so I’m in the process of organizing and reorganizing what I’ve held onto. Letting go has always been a bit hard for me, but I’m trying to use the measuring stick of whether the items are likely to be useful over the next few years or are simply taking up space.
In addition, I’m trying to better group and label the items I’m holding onto, so when I am ready for it, it’s easy to find. I found some things that I forgot I had or thought I had gotten rid of. Facing what you’re holding onto can be emotionally exhausting, but it’s worthwhile and allows you a chance to evaluate your goals and progress towards them.
Most of the things I’m getting rid are going into my yardsale pile, and we’ll have a sale later in April. But a few items will go to ebay.
What’s your favorite way to sell off stuff you no longer need?
Asset - a useful or valuable thing, person, or quality.
What counts as an asset to you as individual will probably be a little different than how businesses count assets, but the underlying concept is the same. Stuff isn’t always an asset. It could be a liability. Liabilities are debts, but they have a second definition more relevant to personal items:
Liability - a person or thing whose presence or behavior is likely to cause embarrassment or put one at a disadvantage.
Basically stuff that helps you is an asset, and things that cause problems are liabilities. “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” applies here. An item may be potentially useful to someone else but not to you (or useful to past you but not current you). These are items which are good to sell or barter and turn into a useful asset like cash. If an item is not sellable, it may still be donated or recycled, or trashed if it’s beyond redemption. While you might not gain money from recycling, you do regain space and have less to maintain or move around, which could save you money.
Since my parent’s have a full basement, I’ve held on to more childhood toys and apartment items than I would otherwise. But space is a bit of issue at our house, so I’m in the process of organizing and reorganizing what I’ve held onto. Letting go has always been a bit hard for me, but I’m trying to use the measuring stick of whether the items are likely to be useful over the next few years or are simply taking up space.
In addition, I’m trying to better group and label the items I’m holding onto, so when I am ready for it, it’s easy to find. I found some things that I forgot I had or thought I had gotten rid of. Facing what you’re holding onto can be emotionally exhausting, but it’s worthwhile and allows you a chance to evaluate your goals and progress towards them.
Most of the things I’m getting rid are going into my yardsale pile, and we’ll have a sale later in April. But a few items will go to ebay.
What’s your favorite way to sell off stuff you no longer need?
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