Month: March 2019

Let the DECORATING Begin! – Decor Tips 101

Published on by Roshonda B3 Comments

Featured Image above: Photo by Martin Péchy from Pexels

You made IT!

  • You decided you were moving, check!
  • You cleaned up the OLD place and got your deposit back! (Yay!! – double check!)
  • Now it’s time to get Creative with your NEW space (Oh Yeah!!)

Of course these were clearly the steps I went through but hey, it’s really the process that all movers go through. Whether you’re renting or just bought your first OR second place. Finally getting in and settling down into your new digs can be exhilarating as well as extremely EXCITING!!!

I WANT EVERYTHING NEWWWWW!!!

Photo by bruce mars from Pexels

Okay, so that’s how I feel every time I move. It’s almost like I don’t want ANYTHING that reminds me of my old dwellings – new space, new stuff – Right?? Well, that’s right if you have the money to do that sort of thing, I mean c’mon….none of us are Oprah nor Warren Buffet. However, someone may be close if that $750 million dollar Powerball hit this week (hmm, will it be you?).

But reality says, I don’t have it like that now and that’s okay. Tip: Save Your Coins – While you may be able to buy a couple of new pieces, you can still totally use the old pieces you had in the old place and place them differently in the new place. Which will make them look like they were new finds. It’s all about placement.

Photo by Medhat Ayad from Pexels

Things that worked and looked good in my bedroom or pictures that went so well in a hallway, when you get to your new place, putting those same items in the same space as they were in the old space may throw off the new space completely! Because you have to consider how the walls look, how they’re shaped (you may had fuller, wider walls before and now you have much higher, swooped or curved walls, you see what I mean?

Tip: Slow and Steady – While the excitement of getting everything up and nicely placed may be on the top of your list (because it’s always on mine, as I hate living out of boxes for 3 to 4 months) it’s best to take your time, lay your decor out and do a complete tour of your new space to see what looks good where or can fill in a corner over there.

Which brings me to my next Tip: Really?, Every Inch? – Every inch of wall DOES NOT have to be covered, that’s if you’re obsessed with this as I am. Try buying bigger/larger pictures to fill the space, such as the picture below from my own bedroom. Yes, it’s a large picture but it covers up much of the wall and guess what, not only is it light but it only required one nail.

My Bedroom is Paris Themed – This picture is bigger than it looks but it completes the look I wanted without a bunch of nails or extra pictures.

Now, my next Tip: Nails vs. Thumbtacks/Pushpins – I say only use nails when it’s necessary and when you do, make sure they’re small. I prefer thumbtacks and I’ll tell you why. Thumbtacks not only make less than smaller holes in the wall but they can also serve as a guide until you make up your mind if that picture will really look good beside that sconce. You can actually put those items up using thumbtacks and if it doesn’t mesh well, you can always change it up without taking out that heavy hammer. That’s another thing that makes thumbtacks great….you can push in and easily pull out. Once you’ve settled on where you truly want things, then you can utilize nails, However….

Don’t underestimate the power of the push pin!

Push Pins can become your bestie when it’s time to hang those pictures.

Apartment living has advanced so much since the 90’s and although I was still in school at that time, the little decorator in me had BIG dreams of one day having a very “chic” living space and that much I have accomplished, no matter what space, Big or small that I’ve lived in. I always wanted to make it an oasis for me as well as a home away from home for anyone that visited. If you’re a avid HGTV, DIY network watching type of gal or guy like myself and If you’re still renting, like I am for the time being then you may want to have a talk with your landlord about what you are and are not allowed to do to your new digs, in which the most common thing people usually want to know if they can do and that is, PAINT!

Less than a few landlords will allow it as long as you agree to paint it back to the original color it was prior to move in. BUT, if you can’t then that’s fine! There are a slew of stick on’s and peel and stick wallpaper such as this one here:

It’s things like this Brick Peel and Stick – Easily Removable Wallpaper, sold on Amazon that can easily turn your apartment or rental space from a boring space into a great space with just a few adjustments. It goes on easy and comes off easy without making a scratch on the wall.

This would go well as an accent wall or even a kitchen back-splash. Remember, all walls are not created equal so be sure to do a test run of any “stick-on” first.

Whatever your decorating style may be for your new space – have fun with it. It’s your new home and it’s readily awaiting on you to help give it a fresh new look.

Happy Decorating – Whenever you choose to do it that is…No rush!

SPECIAL SHOUT OUT TIME!! I want to take this time to thank and give a HUGE shout out to my most recent followers:

  1. TheWaldenWord – Surf, Environment, Adventure
  2. Darly – Lifestyle Blog
  3. Janeel
  4. Rajesh – Let’s Talk
  5. The Klog
  6. Crystal Grasso – Maybe.Crazy.Help

At the end of each month, if I gain new followers I’ll not only give them a shout out but post a link back to their blogs so you can go, read, like, subscribe and hopefully follow them too! 💚💛

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My Nana, My Friend

Published on by amytemple98152 Comments
Featured Photo above courtesy of Pexels

March 10th would’ve been my maternal grandmother’s 97th birthday. I had 4 wonderful grandparents but there was something special about Nana.

I was her only grandchild so you can just imagine all of the love and attention I received.

When I was younger it used to drive me nuts the lengths Nana would go to show her affection. The loving stares, the frequent love pats. After a while I was like, “Ok, Nana. I got it. You love me. Geez. Enough already!” Mom would say, “Amy, she is only showing you how much she loves you.” And I would say, “Well, does she got to do it so much!?”

Image Credit: Gif/Bing

Due to my low self esteem and issues with bullying, discrimination, rejection and harassment I received while in school due to having a learning disability. Looking back, I think I didn’t feel worthy of having someone love me the way Nana did so I would act inappropriately, hoping she would come to understand that I am not worth loving and just move on.

God bless Nana, as she never quit showing me love and attention. No matter how many times I’d take my dissatisfaction with myself and life out on her, Nana was always right there with her big, bright smile, continuing her display of affection.

As I got older, I began to finally understand just how lucky I was to have someone love me as much as Nana did. And how very much we needed each other.

I needed someone to show me that I was worthy of having someone love me and after my grandfather passed away unexpectedly, Nana needed to know that it was all right for her to get as affectionate as she wanted.

I came to understand that by rejecting her attention, I was rejecting Nana as well.

And Lord knows I didn’t mean to imply that. I was so caught up into my own world that I failed to see just how fragile Nana truly was.

She was perky and fun-loving but underneath all of that was someone who felt lost… very much like me. I needed love to be shown I am worthy and Nana needed to give love so that she herself would feel worthy.

In 2011, I got a call that Nana was diagnosed with esophageal cancer… and it was terminal.

Image Credit: Pexels

Upon learning this, I immediately went to visit Nana at the nursing home. This was Nana’s home now in which she was placed after having a series of other health issues.

As I walked up to the front door, to my surprise – There was Nana sitting right by the door in her wheelchair flashing her big famous, bright smile.

Outside of being at the door that day, Nana mostly stayed in bed. When I would come, I’d take her for rides in her wheelchair. There was this little hill by the Physical Therapy wing that she loved for me to take her, whether going up or down – I’d always go reallyyyy fast!!

Nana would put her hands in the air and shout, “WHEE!”

It was during this time that I wholeheartedly apologized for my unkindness so long ago. Nana, without hesitation. Forgave me instantly…

She said, “It’s ok, You were young.”

Man, that did me in! after hearing those words, I just lost it..

Image Credit: Pexels

After Nana died, I began what was going to become a 7 year long journey of finding my true self. I knew I had to do some serious soul-searching. I was 34 years old and I was still feeling the effects of all that I went through.

I am happy to say that I am finally there and I would not have gotten here if it weren’t for Nana. She showed me just how worthy I really was and am. It was during the difficult times when I felt like giving up that I reminded myself that someone believed in me, even when I didn’t.

Nana’s been gone for 7 years now and there are still pieces of her all over our place. She’d  spent the winters with my family and I. She and I shared a bathroom.

In the top dresser drawer, is where Nana kept all her combs and brushes. I hadn’t even touched them. They’re still there.

I remember her every time I watch NCIS, she truly enjoyed that show as she was a huge fan of Mark Harmon and whenever I hear the song “Everything I Do, I Do It For You” by Bryan Adams, I would think about the time we all, including Nana went to the movies to see the film “Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves”

I remember Nana saying to me one day, as we looked up at the clouds together, how fun it would be to ride on one those. Now, every time I look up and imagine which cloud she might be on, going “WHEE!” with both hands flailing high in the air.

Image Credit: Pexels

I was without a doubt so blessed to have had her as my grandmother and I know without a shadow of a doubt, she would say she was blessed to have me as her granddaughter.

After all, She was my Nana. She was my friend.

May 2017, she self-published a memoir titled “I Am Not Stupid” which is available through Amazon.  She writes for seethegoodinfo, an inspirational website and the Learning Disabilities Association’s newsletter LD Source.

Amy is a resident of Florida. Since 2006, she has been self-employed in the dog care field. In May 2017, she self-published a memoir titled “I Am Not Stupid” which is available through Amazon. She writes for seethegoodinfo, an inspirational website and the Learning Disabilities Association’s newsletter LD Source.
Amy Temple

Can I have My Deposit Back – PLEASSSSEEEEE!!

Published on by Roshonda B2 Comments

True Story – I mean all my stories are true but you get it =)

In 2007 after living in an apartment with someone with HUGE feet living above me, Oh gosh – the noise and stomping. I can’t even begin to explain the torture, any-who I decided to move out and move into a nice little quaint house on the other side of town. I inquired about it, looked at it and had a sit down with the landlords in which were an elderly couple (names I shall not say), but they were super nice. The only thing they wanted was someone to take care of the place. While the place was really small, it had a load of character in which I loved.

Image credit: pexels

Immediately I began to see where I would put all my furniture and how I was going to make smaller areas, such as my bedroom work. The washer and dryer was going to have to be in the kitchen, a feature I didn’t particularly like, but hey. It had loads of charm and it was well maintained. It had a very nice backyard with a storage building. So any furniture I was not going to be able to fit into the space, could easily go into there.

Another feature I didn’t notice but quickly became annoyed with was the fact that the house was 15 steps from the local AIRPORT!!! Geeshhh, you know how you get so gung ho and excited over something until you forget the MAJOR details! I’m so like that. But, it had loads of charm! A three bedroom 2 full bath, who can beat that and the kitchen was even big enough for me to put in a computer desk for my office. How cool was that!

Immediately with the place, I would say about a week or two in – I seen a huge water bug making it’s way out of the kitchen. Scared the living daylights out of me…but it wasn’t the last one, it seemed like when we moved in – a whole other family moved into the furnishings as well. It was indeed water bug city! I immediately told the couple about this and they suggested I put down sticky traps along the walls and that I did…while it helped some, the kicker was a BIGGER than life one crawling across my TV screen as I watched the news one morning….I was livid! I had a 8 month old and a 1.5 year old at the time and I was so scared one of those suckers was going to bite them or get into my son’s crib or my daughters BED! Needless to say and to make a long story short, after living there for about a year and a half, I decided it was time to go.

The elderly couple that seemed so nice in the beginning turned into monsters in the end!

I cleaned the place to the best of my ability and mind you, as with moving you will have a load of stuff to throw away and I made sure it was placed neatly in front of the house so the garbage people can pick it up. I left the house in good standing. No rips or tears anywhere and it was clean….so now I awaited my 500 dollar deposit to come into the mail. A deposit that I never received.

What I did receive was a letter from the couple citing that I had lost and/or misplaced a couple things of theirs and they charged the heck out of me for it:

  • Missing curtains that were hung up to the window when they showed the place that were no longer there. Now I don’t know if these curtains were new, but they charged me store prices for all 4 curtains!
  • Missing stove and AC unit manuals that were not in the drawer when I left.
  • Burners for the stove that were not replaced
  • The trash that was left out front – Yeah, they charged me for that too.
  • The clear shower curtains that were not on the shower rods and they charged me for the rods as well.
  • Painting and a whole lot of other stuff that I can’t even name or was unaware of and they tacked on the charges majorly….like those manuals? Yeah, they called the company and found out how much it would cost to get another one and it wasn’t cheap!

By the time they got done calculating and adding things up that didn’t make a lick of sense, I not only wasn’t getting my deposit back but I had owed them money, money in which they put me on a payment plan to pay back $25.00 a month until the balance of 200.00 was paid in full, this was two hundred after the five hundred I didn’t receive. I was SOOOOOOOOOOO (excuse my language) PISSED! I called them both RAGING in fury, crying and cursing them out to the top of my lungs and then I hung the phone up in their faces.

Image Credit: Moose Photos/Pexels

Now, I’m not proud of my actions as they were elderly and I should’ve showed them respect, no matter how they acted – but I wanted my deposit back!!!!!!! Hence the move, I ended up back at my parents house and was looking forward to that money to help alleviate some irons I had in the fire – owing someone was NOT what I was expecting, BUT it happened.

Recently, I just moved and since that move. I got my full deposit back. While that issue with the elderly couple was a tragic one, it was also an eye-opening one that taught me a valuable lesson going forward and I want to share a couple of tips with you in regards to it!

FIRST THOUGH…..

Image credit: Bing/livingwordmontrose.com

Every landlord is NOT created equal. People say private owners are better but I’ve had both and each had their own set of rules and regulations. Private owners are a little more relaxed but you have to make sure – you get all your “I’s” and “T’s” crossed! and please by ALL means, if you don’t understand something – ASK QUESTIONS and read the lease thoroughly (especially the move out section), because the information that’s contained in it, can come back to haunt you later.

NOW FOR THE TIPS….

Image credit: Bing/steinbachapartments.com

1. Do a complete walk thru of the place before you move in. Make sure you look for anything that may not look right to you. Bulbs, sockets, paint, previous holes that may be in the wall, under the sinks, the toilets – I mean everything and make a list of those findings and give it to the landlord, this ensures that you are not charged with anything that was previously there prior to moving in.

2. Be careful of the pictures you hang on the wall. I know in my earlier years of renting, I was a landlords nightmare! because I absolutely love decorating. I would hang big art on the walls and some of it would be heavy, causing me to use an anchor or a heavier nail or screw. And trust me, I got dinged for my creativeness when it came down to getting back that deposit. While landlords cannot take away your deposit due to normal wear and tear of a property, such as (paint, carpet and etc – depending on how long you’re there) They can deduct if the walls are damaged from either hanging pics that are too big or major holes caused by you. Make sure you get those patched up before leaving.

3. Are there things in the apartment or house prior to you moving in? As I stated above in my own story. The landlords had put up curtains and shower curtains and rods and so forth to make the place look nice. If there is anything of the such hanging up prior to your move in, ask the landlord are those your items to keep or would they like them back. Another thing you could do is take them all down and place them in a box labeled “Decorative items prior to move in” so you can make sure those items go right back up when you leave. It sounds petty but….as you seen with my story, it was a SERIOUS thing!

Image credit: Bing/Trulia

4. It’s wise if you do a walk-through of your place prior to leaving. Check everything and determine what you need to do to either fix it or call a professional to get it prepared. And if you can, try and replace the things that may have gotten damaged prior to you staying there, especially if it was in good condition before you moved in.

5. Take a video and or pictures of the place prior to moving out and keep receipts of everything that you might have replaced or gotten fixed. This covers you should you have a slumlord that thinks he’s keeping your deposit. Speaking of which and every state is different. Make sure you check with your state to see the time-frame a landlord has to return your deposit. For NC it’s 30 days, some landlords will give it back to you sooner than that, while others will stretch it out. Knowing this information will help you know when to expect it.

Bonus Tip: Be clear in the beginning about what your deposit will be used for. Either the last month’s rent or the deposit in which you’re expected to get back, should the place be in good standing. Talk with your landlord about this as most people confuse the deposit to be the last month’s rent and unless your landlord has told you differently. Then know that it’s clearly a deposit only.

I have one last tip and that’s How to Properly decorate your new “rental” space! Sometimes we can go a little overboard. That’s next week, so stay tuned!

A School ‘Without’ Teachers – A Nigerian Education Innovation

Published on by fashdami2 Comments
  • Have you seen a school that uses no textbooks, no exercise books and no timetables?or… 
  • Have you ever visited a school without a row of chairs, tables for students and teachers?… and 
  • Have you been to a school where there are no grade levels, and nobody is actually a student?

If you haven’t, then welcome to Prikkle Academy!

All that you see in a regular school, we have the opposite at this Academy.

In Nigeria, there is a worrisome statistics of millions of youths that have to spend at least 16 years through school to become fully unemployed.

The numbers are even scarier in rural communities where the quality of formal education is low, where the infrastructures are weak and the motivation of learners and teachers dwindle down to zero every day.

This news is everywhere, everyone is angry about the educational system and the hope for a highly productive future of the nation is like the legs of a snail walking backwards.

Instead of waiting until everything crumbles, Prikkle Academy decided to chart a different path – a daringly odd direction to not fix education but to nurture the gifts and assets that are available in any community.

We have a vision of an Africa where rural youths are community builders, valued by everybody and can play a critical role in national development.

So, we co-create innovation hubs (called makerspaces) with grassroots youths to inspire creative collaboration in identifying the social problems within their community, freely choose their own tools and become problem-solvers through virtual and peer-to-peer learning.

Student at Prikkle Academy

In a practical sense, we run from a specific community location, inside a solar-powered building, opened for 7 days in a week, where anyone of any age, background or skill can freely walk into and find the tools and resources they need to turn their ideas into real solutions.

No timetables, no teacher or student, no classwork or homework, no report cards, no payment of any fees, and nobody is paid a salary.

We call it real learning as real life is happening.

There is a little story that is worth sharing about how we decided to go in this direction and then, we will hold your hand as we walk you through some of the magical possibilities that have happened since we started in 2016.

Are you ready? Let’s go:

In 2012, a young man after immediately graduating from the University was enrolled by the Nigerian Government as a biology teacher on the compulsory 1 year National Service.

The usual practice is that some graduates influence their placement to be posted to the cities, but this guy didn’t bother influencing his posting.

Fortunately, he was posted into a hard-to-reach rural community in Benue State, North-Central Region in Nigeria (Most-populous African Nation).

He had to live in a house without electricity, drinkable water or toilet for 7 months of his stay in the community. When he resumed at the school, he found students that were academically brilliant and many others that struggled to learn.

While his job was to help students learn Biology, something shocking started happening to the students that he couldn’t ignore.

He realized that some of his students dropped out of school without any prior notice. He inquired about the situation and found out that there were two problems that led to this problem:

#1 Poverty! – the parents could no longer afford the cost of sending their children to school.
#2 The quality of education was too low to raise skilled youths.

Survival is generally tough in rural communities and the youths continuously moved to the city to become street children and manual laborers to survive.

At this point, he got inspired to help rural children and youths to get tailored, personalized and quality education that will ensure they learn effectively, have top-notch competencies to get jobs, be engaged and lead peaceful lives in the future, no matter where they go to.

He engaged about 200 students for 3 days in a series of capacity building sessions. The creative spirit, curiosity and the passion in the students were unleashed. Within a month, new enterprises were created and still growing till date.

The children and youths seemed powerless living in rural communities because they didn’t have the necessary technologies to learn, research, grow and blossom like the children in the city or in developed countries.

After his 1 year service year ended, he took a job that he didn’t need in the city. Yet, deep down, he was already consumed with the passion to empower humanity, because of his experiences visiting and working with more rural communities within that year.

His name is Damilola Fasoranti, straightaway he decided to start Prikkle Academy, left his city job and permanently moved into the rural communities to do 2 major things:

  • to make sure that any child and youth in the rural communities can be fully engaged with the tools, people and resources that will help them turn any education they have into solutions.
  • to help more youths to access learning opportunities, to collaborate on projects with other youths from around the world, to communicate effectively, become ethical leaders and lead successful lives.

In the past 3 years, here are some of the results of this ‘odd’ approach to Education:

  • Increased community recycling: plastic bottles, nylons and cartons were usually thrown away by the community people are now being sold in bundles starting from $2, as they now see the tangible recycled products that children and youths are creating from it.
  • Employment opportunities: At least 15 unemployed participants now earn $60+ monthly (above minimum wage) by offering their new skill sets virtually in design, content creation, social media management and research.
  • This makerspace, launched in 2017 has helped to engender peaceful co-existence with neighbors, different tribes, religions and language serving 7 schools (over 900 students) in the local communities of Mbagishi, Benue State and Afon, Kwara State, Nigeria.
  • For the first time, rural youths are able to use computers and learn with other people from around the world virtually.
  • The centre has attracted the visits of urban professionals, University students from several states in Nigeria and Overseas.
  • Our solution of turning household food waste into organic fertilizers for farmers has been adopted by people in 3 African countries.
  • We have successfully converted human feces into organic cooking fuel.
  • Successfully partnered with the Government in Nigeria and 4 other organizations in Nigeria (MollyFrank Nigeria Limited and MindTheGap – A Google Sponsored Initiative), in Benin Republic (VIP World) and a Non-profit Organization (Loss of Generality) Ireland.
  • In 2017, Prikkle Academy was profiled as one of the 450 education organizations in the world solving education problems with an innovative approach by Centre for Education Innovations (an Initiative of Results for Development Institute), USA.
  • – We were selected as 1 of the Top 100 Global Most inspiring Social Innovations by Social Enabler, India.
  • Our Staff and Participants have been selected for at least 6 International fellowship programs for using an unconventional method to solve rural educational problems in Nigeria.
  • Prikkle Academy’s inspiring approach to development has been published in the renowned CHANGE Magazine, by Development Innovation Insider (Diinsider), Hong Kong.

If there a dream that you have always had, the time to launch it was yesterday, not tomorrow. No matter how odd or scary it may seem.

See this documentary, click >>>> HERE

You have been inspired enough… now, LAUNCH!

To learn more and support our work at Prikkle Academy, visit our website: www.prikkleacademy.org | On Social Media: @PrikkleAcademy [ctt template=”8″ link=”aIJ70″ via=”no” ]Prikkle Academy – Changing Lives, Empowering Communities [/ctt]

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Damilola Fasoranti writes in his dreams and helps fearful entrepreneurs to finally launch their awesome dreams. He is a Tedx Speaker, a professional educator and the Chief Listener at Prikkle Academy (in Nigeria) where he provokes young people to turn their skills, gifts and knowledge into social solutions.

It’s Moving Season! Are you Ready?

Published on by Roshonda B9 Comments

Yes, Yes, Yes – As the season’s are changing, so is life. Now that we’re into the month of March, this is the time of year where weddings are being planned and some lucky bride or bridezilla is looking forward to going down the aisle to her prince charming. But you know what else this is the season of? ….. the BIG MOVE!

Yessss, this is the time of year where rental contracts are up and people are either looking for new digs or contemplating on if they should continue staying where they are. Let me just say, that that’s what I just did, I did the BIG MOVE and let me tell you – you learn something different and new each time. Will this be my last move? According to my aching body, YESSSSSS it will be – but in 2, 3 or 5 years tops. That statement may change, yet again!…LOL

So what did I learn during this move? Chile, A WHOLE LOTTA STUFF…

Moving just happens to be one of the toughest and hardest things you’ll do – it’s not only rough on your body (especially if you were sick with the flu the week before the move, like I was – this move liked to killed a sista…lol and I’m still recovering!) but it’s also rough on you mentally as well. Of course with anything you have to have a PLAN and moving is no different. As someone once told me, you have to…

So, if you are or do plan to take that step out of the old and into something new….you’ll have a couple of tips that hopefully could help you “plan” well along the way.

Tip #1 – Room to Room

I’m the type of person that can’t just clean one room – I have to clean multiple rooms at one time. My cleaning starts in the kitchen and then before I can get the kitchen done, I move to the living room and before that’s completed I’m in the bathroom. It’s a little insane but honestly it’s how I work. I figure if I touch everything – then I’m getting more done, which is totally wrong but I do it anyway. However, when you’ve decided that it’s time to move, my suggestion is to take one room at a time and get rid of things you don’t want NOW as well as things you might want to sell (I’ll get to that in a jiffy).

Doing these things now and hopefully you’ve given your landlord a proper 30 day notice. Will help you when move day officially comes, because who wants to take junk into a new place? I don’t and trust me, you don’t either. So now’s the time to decide what stays and what goes.

Jiffy moment here >> Do you know that I had papers (boxes of it) things such as old rental receipts from other places I stayed, old check stubs from years ago, cards from when I graduated high school (let’s not talk about how long ago that was), old letters from a best friend of mine (they were 20 years old!) I even found a love letter I had written to a guy I had a crush on when I was in my last year of high school/first year of college (that I was too nervous to give to him) – So what am I saying? I was carrying ALLLLL this stuff around from place to place for years!!! We never know what we have, go through everything and trash it or dispose of it safely (shred it!) It’s amazing the things we keep hauling around that’s not necessarily pertinent to us now. SO PLEASE, LET IT GO!

Tip#2 – Sell Those Items!

So you know those clothes that you’ve been vowing to get into or that treadmill that’s become your clothes hanger instead of a walking machine? Yeah, sell those items. I’m sure you’ve seen your new place and if it can fit the treadmill, great! but what if it can’t and no sense in taking it over if it’s still going to serve the same duties it’s doing now. SELL IT! that’s exactly what I did.

When it comes to moving I realized that people don’t have traditional yard sales anymore, I mean some people do but now that social media is a gem. Guess what, that’s where the sales are happening! In my county alone there are about 6 different ones and I joined all 6. Let me tell ya, my stuff went like hot cakes – I had so many people inquiring about things until, I was saying things were sold when they really weren’t…..It was crazy but it helped me get rid of a wide variety of things that I either wasn’t currently using or the new place was providing, such as a new washer and dryer. Can I get a WHOOT-WHOOT!!

So check out FB and see if there are online yard sales in your area and say bye bye to the old and yes to getting money for something totally new!

Tip# 3 – Be Safe

While it was exhilarating to sell off my items, I also had to be careful as everyone “online” is not who they say they are. So whether you decide to sell online or some other way, be safe in doing it. People are scared of you just as you are of them…

a) If what you’re selling is something big that cannot fit into your car. Don’t give out your address until you know for sure it’s a sale. I had many people to ask for my address but didn’t actually want to buy the items. It’s okay to let them know the county you’re in but not your address. b) If possible, have someone at the house with you – don’t be alone during an in house transaction. c) Ask that they have correct change before arrival as you don’t carry extra money.

*Bonus Tip* – Try to plan what you’re going to do by a week to week basis. Write it down and stick to it. When you’re in the process of moving, there are many things you can do to get prepped for the big MOVE and if your place looked anything like mine? Trust me, you need to make sure a plan is in place and you’re consistently working on it daily. This will ensure that come Move Day, you’ll be prepared and equipped to only take the items you’re truly going to use and it helps with clearing up your place as well.

Well, these are just a few tips to get started – I have more. Next week I’ll be discussing things you can do to get prepared to prep your rental so you can get that deposit back!

STAY TUNED!!