Lately I have been on a quest to minimize: buy less, consume less, own less, eat less, think less. Basically I want to simplify my life and just be. A big part of minimizing is getting rid of the old things that tie one down: debt, stuff, stress, work, etc. I took a long look at all of the things, and they all basically boiled down to one common denominator — money. Typical Americans work long and hard hours to make money to buy things — even if the things are not necessary — and if we cannot buy things outright we take on debt to get them. I am guilty, you are guilty, we are all guilty. I want to brake that cycle in my life.

The key component of minimizing my lifestyle, and ultimately being where I want to be in life, involves minimizing my need for money. This can be accomplished in multiple ways, and I am deploying many different strategies. However, there is one that stands out above the others because it solves many problems at the same time — selling my stuff.

Over time I have amassed things I do not need and no longer want. My thought is I can sell five of these items every week for the next year. By selling the stuff I get rid of the clutter in my life, and raise funds without having to work more. I can use those funds to pay off debts, or invest them — allowing them make more money.

I picked five because that is all I can manage to sell/ship at one time. The thought is if I sell five things a week and make an average of $100 a week, at the end of the year I will have over $5000. That is a nice little chunk of change that I can use to pay off student loans, invest, store in a college fund, start a business, etc. To track things, I wrote a little application to track the progress. Follow along, I will be writing more about this initiative as it progresses.