Decluttering: To sell or not to sell?

One of my intentions this year is to declutter our home. We have too much stuff and with a house move happening soon, I don't want to move it with us. But I want to declutter responsibly - I'm not just going to chuck it all in a skip.

When decluttering, or simply passing things on that you no longer need, what do you do about selling? Last year, I was speaking to a friend about needing to downsize my wardrobe but was struggling because I could just see how much cash that represented. (That said, I have to acknowledge that decluttering is a privilege, especially deciding whether to make money from my decluttering).

Don't get me wrong there are certain things that I will sell, whether that be through something like Music Magpie or direct to end user, partly because I feel like the person paying for it wants it & will make use of it, partly because there are some things that I really can't part with unless money is changing hands.

But here's the thing: wanting to sell the items was impacting my ability to get rid of stuff. It meant that it just wasn't leaving my house, either because I wasn't taking the time to list it for sale or because it wasn't selling even when I did list it, or even because it was broken in some way so I couldn't sell it but didn't want to just throw it. It was stuff that wasn't being sold and was just sitting in "to be sold" or "to be fixed" piles. Selling was part of my intentions to declutter responsibly (see above) but it wasn't helping my hoarding tendancies, so what to do?!

The idea that it was a waste of money to just get rid of these items played a big part in my inability to let go, but both More Time Than Money blog & Emma Gleeson in her book Stuff Happens! (both of which have been really useful resources for me) talk about how the waste of money part happens when you buy the item and/or the regret in not using it more. You have not lost money when it goes out of the door, that part has already happened.

So I've adopted a mantra, focussing on moving forwards - Space has value too. Selling my items has a value (obviously money but also relieving some guilt). However, just getting rid of the items (still doing it as responsibly as I can) will offer me value in other ways. It will give me space. I can already feel the mental load lifting, as well as the physical space that is emerging. I will still be selling some items but I'm also accepting that it's also ok NOT to sell them. 

There is value in that too.