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Welcome to A Slob Comes Clean, the Podcast. I am Dani K. White. I share my personal des lob ification process as I figure out ways to keep my own home under control. I share the truth about cleaning and organizing strategies that actually work in real life for real people. People who don't love cleaning and organizing. Thanks for joining me today. This is podcast number 481. I'm a little. I wouldn't say disconcerted, but that's the word that comes to mind. I'm a little like. Because I feel like we've gone so fast up toward podcast number 500, which will be coming soon. Well, in 20 weeks. So it's not like really soon, but because I did the podcast over the summer where I shared, you know, the recordings from previous Q and A's. So it's just kind of made my podcast number go up a lot faster. Usually I take the summers off anyway. Blah, blah, blah. Let's keep going. So the title of this podcast, I think is going to be is It a Collection or an Investment? I am giving no investing advice whatsoever here. I am just talking about the mindset around collecting that can be used both for good and for bad in the stuff in your home. A lot of us who struggle with clutter, well, we struggle with clutter because we really like cool things. I see huge. I love looking at a collection like I thoroughly enjoy, even if it's not something I'm super interested in myself, personally. I love seeing what other people are interested in. I love seeing all the cool versions of things that people have collected. I just find that really fascinating. And it's a common thread for a lot of us who struggle with clutter, this idea of collecting. And so it's just something that I've thought about recently and thought, huh, let's talk about that. So we are discussing this in this podcast. My goal is to discuss this for the purpose of helping you declutter, okay? Not to judge collecting or investing. Okay? Now, you may feel some twinges of, oh, she's stepping on my toes. That's not my intention. My intention is to help you declutter because you're listening to a decluttering podcast, right? And I'm sure there are collecting and investing podcasts out there. I don't know what they are, but I guarantee you they exist, right? So because you're listening to a podcast about decluttering, that's the angle that we're going at this from. So the discussion of this is, how do I recognize my collection or investment mindset and how it might be backfiring for me. Like, how is this mindset making it harder to declutter? And how can I reframe this mindset to identify am I collecting or am I investing? And whatever my answer is there, how do I do it in a way where I can also manage my home? Because that's why you're listening to a slop podcast podcast called the Slob Comes Clean, right? Is because you want to manage your home well, either because you've gotten it to a point and you're trying to keep it under control, or because you're completely and totally overwhelmed, which is where I was when I started all of this. And your goal is to change your home so that it no longer overwhelms you. Right. So I also want to make another clarification here. Right? Like, there are art collecting. Like, art collecting is an actual investment strategy that. I mean, I've read books, y', all, where the characters were art collectors. And so I know these things. Right? But fiction books, I'm not talking about, like, nonfiction learning books. I'm talking. Anyway, so there, there is that, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about, do you view your collection of stuff as a collection or as an investment? And whether or not you view it one of those ways, how can we then frame that in a way that will help you get your house under control? Okay, but I'm. I mean, I know that you could argue that there is absolutely collecting that is for the purpose of building wealth and all that. And that's not really we're talking about here. This episode is sponsored by gab. The youth mental health crisis is often in the news, and we know that social media is a big part of that. Teens spend an average of 9 hours a day on screens outside of school. That's like a full job. Here's some good news. A company called gab, that's G A B B, has solved the problem by doing something no one else is doing. Their approach is tech in steps. Tech in steps works by providing kids safe phones and watches that are tailored to every age and offer just the right device at the right time. You'll have peace of mind with GPS tracking for young kids with the ability to increase features as they get older. Parents can enable apps on the phone so you can update them on their device as your child grows. Bottom line, you can give your kid a device that was made for a kid, helps you help your kids be connected safely. I don't claim to Be an expert. But I know that when my kids hit the age when they had to have a phone to communicate with me, to pick them up, or for their activities and responsibilities, I wished for a phone exactly like Gab. A phone that only had the basics until they were ready for a little more. Use my code to get the best deal on something that will make parenting easier and give you peace of mind. Visit gab.com slob and use code slob for special offer. That's gab g-a b b that's gab.com slob and Use code slob. Basic advice if you are a collector, my basic advice advice for you is going to be the same basic advice that I give regarding any decluttering question that I basically ever receive. Y' all know what I'm about to say, right? Well, it all comes down to the container concept. I would say 999 times out of 1000, when I am asked any question about decluttering, I'm able to say, well, it all comes down to the container concept. Because it all comes down to the container concept, right? Like, that changed how I viewed literally every single item in my home, Every single space in my home. Whether that item was in my home because I viewed it as an investment, because I absolutely, passionately loved it, whether it brought me all the happy feelings or whatever, or whether it was absolutely necessary and useful. The container concept changed everything about how I saw my stuff and my space. So if you're new here, welcome. The container concept is this space is finite. I used to think most people who struggle with clutter also used to think, maybe you still think that containers are meant for putting things in. So I would put things in a container, I would still have more stuff. So I would buy another container, I would fill that container. I would still have more stuff. I would buy another container. And my house never. My spaces never looked like the pictures that were advertising those containers. I would see the containers and think that organized space has containers. The difference between that space and my space is I don't have those same containers. I brought those containers in. They did not work the way that I ever thought they were going to work. And I would get so frustrated because I felt like, why doesn't this work for me? Why is it that this is supposed to be the thing that works and it doesn't work for me? When I realized that the purpose of a container is actually to contain, that's when I went, oh, okay. So a purpose. The purpose of a container is to serve as A natural limit, like a physical in my face limit. It does not expand because I want to keep more stuff. It is literally a physical boundary. And I put my favorite things in first. And then when it is full, the container decides how much I can keep. Not me. I don't decide that because just wanting it is the reason I was in the mess that I was in. I would look at things and say, is this a good thing? Yes, I want it. Do I? How do I feel about it? I want it. And so I would keep it in my house. And my house was constantly out of control because I had more stuff than could physically ever fit in the space that I had. And if I. I realized if I try to keep more stuff, then I have space to put that stuff there is like, like, I think it's like science or something. There is literally no possible way for my house to be under control. If I have more stuff than will fit in the physical space that I have, then we keep going and we keep going. And I have in other podcasts, right? But that is the basics of the container concept. So whether we're talking about collections or anything, it all comes down to the container concept. So with a collection, the best, most impactful advice is to acknowledge the reality of your space, acknowledge the container concept, and identify what space do I have to devote to this collection that doesn't take up the space that I need to live my right now, everyday, regular life, right? So I get to decide I am going to make this entire shelving unit for this collection. That is what goes here. As long as that doesn't mean that I don't have room for the underwear that we need to wear, right? Or the books that the kids are using in school or, you know, like, I. That's. That physical space determines how much of something I can keep. Okay? And it is not. It feels like the first time you hear that, it feels depressing, right? Like, oh, so there's not this magical answer to just being able to keep all the stuff I want. Instead, it is a reality of, oh, actually, there's so much freedom in that because I can keep anything, but I can't keep everything, okay? And it makes those hard decisions for me. So that is the acknowledging the reality of your space. What space do I have to give? Maybe it's this shelf or this surface or, or, you know, this table. I've seen people who, you know, put a collection of old family photographs on top of their grand piano, whatever. All of those things are limit. All those places are limited spaces. Right. Like this. And, and I know there are some of you saying you shouldn't put anything on top of your grand piano. I get it. That's not what we're debating here, right? But that reality of this space being limited is freedom, because I don't have to feel guilty. But there also is a limit, right? Like, I also don't let it take over my, my house, right? Like, I get to give it a space, but it's also not going to take over when I acknowledge that that space I've given it is a limit, is a natural boundary. It's a limit, right? So it's a defined space. And therefore things have to deserve space. Space in that defined space. And I think this is, this is one of the major trip ups that happens with collecting. And I think sometimes it happens because, you know, as we get older or honestly, this happened to me when I was younger too. But when there are just people in your life who are supposed to buy you gifts for different things, which is great. Like, I love gifts. I am not. I know there's people like, oh, just say you only want this. I'm like, no, I, I still love Christmas. I still love gifts. Right? But the, the, the people who are maybe gifted giving is not something that they're super excited about figuring out gifts, and it stresses them out. When they hear that you're into something, they're going to start giving you that thing. Like, oh, for me, it was wizard of Oz stuff. When I was in junior high, high school, I started collecting wizard of Oz stuff. I always was obsessed with that movie. And when people found that out, they started giving me wizard of Oz stuff. Friends, family, everything. And I appreciated it. Right? But there does come a point where I realized, oh, this is kind of taking over. And a lot of the things that I'm getting are not necessarily things that I would choose, right? But when I have a defined space, things have to deserve space, deserve a spot in that space. So if this shelf or this surface is my wizard of Oz collection, it doesn't grow because more people gave me more stuff. So therefore I look at each item and I, I determine, does it deserve space here? And therefore it can't be endless. It is not possible for me to say that this endless number of items deserve space here. I can say that the endless number of items are great and beautiful and interesting and valuable and fun, but they can't all deserve space here because the space is limited, right? And so I put my favorite ones first. And then when this space is full, then Anything new that comes in has to deserve to come in enough to kick something else out, right? So two things can be great, but one is going to be better. It might be better because it has a higher value. It might be better because it is more rare, which I guess maybe would have the same thing, but it might have more value because it's more sentimental to me. It might have more value because I just like it better. It might have more value because, well, it's small. And so then this other thing, I get to keep these other two small things. And so this big thing is going to. I mean, like, an infinite number of reasons can make it be better. It doesn't mean that either of these things is not great, right? Like, I'm not rejecting this item and saying I don't like it. I'm saying I love it. But only one thing can fit in this physical space. I do want to just say, if you'll notice that I am saying surfaces, bookshelves, you know, curio cabinet, whatever. I'm not saying storage units because. Because I do think that it feels like a storage unit is an endless expanding space. Because I can always get another storage unit. I can get a bigger storage unit. And if I let that be the. The. The place where a collection goes, then that's where it can get out of control, right? And that's where I have to go. Am I collecting or am I investing? Because if I'm collecting this item, I'm collecting it for a purpose. The. The purpose here is for me to enjoy it, for me to show it off. Like, that's fine, right? Like, I'm not going to judge that. My. What is it? That is my reason why I'm doing this. Am I collecting it because I personally enjoy the value and I get personal value out of it existing in my home? In that case, then that helps to determine. I want it to be something that I get to see and I get to enjoy because that's where the value of it is. It doesn't have to be all the time. My wizard of Oz collection, I just put it out at Christmas. That is my solution for that. I don't really want to decorate with wizard of Oz stuff all year long. That's not my overall aesthetic. But I put it out at Christmas time. Is there really a relationship between wizard of Oz and Christmas? Nah, not really, other than I have quite a few ornaments that people have given me and that I have collected over the years, right? So I'm able to have a little wizard of Oz tree and and wizard of Oz display, and that's my way that I do that. But it also puts those boundaries around it, right? Like, I have the boundaries of where I'm going to store it when it's not this year, and then I have the boundary of how much space I'm going to give to it at Christmas time. So the, the collection, though, that is one of those distinctions, right? Is this. Am I collecting it for my own enjoyment? That's the collection. Boundaries still apply, and the curating of it has to be even more part of the deal because open space that is not taking up space I need for us to live our everyday life is naturally going to be more limited. I mean, think about it like this. When you think of, like a professional collection, generally I'm thinking of a museum. And a museum is a very different thing from a junkyard. Like a junkyard is stuff is just put there for the purpose of whatever, you know, like, I mean, I'm assuming it's. People are going to come in and get what they need at some point. But like, is it. Is it. Is it a place where stuff's dumped or is it a museum? And a museum, the idea is that it's curated. And this idea of a collection being curated means that things have to deserve space there, right? And they have to be displayed in a way where people can actually enjoy it. If it's a museum and you just walk in and it's a bunch of doors and you open the door and then a whole bunch of stuff falls out, that's not serving the purpose of the museum, right? Like, those things are not able to be enjoyed. And so this idea of, like, okay, a collection is for the purpose of enjoyment, and therefore that enjoyment determines what this space can be like, right? Like, it is not an enjoyment thing for me to fill a closet top to bottom with all these things that I like. And instead it's. It's for me to put it in a way where I can actually visually see it and get out of it. What I need, let's say it's something where you. You're like, oh, no, I collecting something useful. I'm collecting kitchen tools. Okay, well, function comes in. In that scenario too. Because if I collect every cool fit. Kitchen Fitching. Cool. Yeah. Kitchen tool, I don't even know. Kitchen tool that comes across my path that I see in a magazine or I see in a specialty store, I see in an antique store or whatever. If I'm collecting all of those things and I'm thinking of it as a collection. And so therefore I justify bringing in all of the different things. Well, then I could get to the point where if I have so many that I can never actually find and use the one that I know I've got it somewhere, but I can never find it because the drawers and the cabinets are so completely packed full that it becomes this, oh, well, I would really like to use this very cool tool. And yet I would have to completely empty and dig out that drawer right there. And I don't actually have the time to do that because the tool was meant to save me time. But that would add an extra hour and a half and a lot of hassle onto using this tool. I think I'll just use this multi purpose knife instead. Right? Like that's the mindset that gets into trouble. So it's that, yes, this is my acknowledging of the space of acknowledging of the container, acknowledging the size of, you know, what space can I devote to this? And also the function of that space has to be considered within that, right? Like, what is the reason why I have these things? Am I just having it to see? Well, then I need to be able to actually see things and not have 10 things behind the front row that I can see. If the thing is for me to be able to use it, well, then I need to be able to reach in there and get what I need in the moment that I need it without having to dig through a bunch of stuff. Right? And so it all comes down to the container concept, even with collections. And so that's where I have had to come to a realization personally, for me to transform my home was. It's not just, oh, I like wizard of Oz. Therefore, if anything that is wizard of Oz crosses my path, I bring it home. That's what I used to think. Okay, Anything that was wizard of Oz needed to be in my house because I collect wizard of Oz because that's what I like. And instead it's, oh, that's how I end up with things taking over and me not being able to handle my house and not being able to function in my house. So instead I say, this is the space that I can devote to a Wizard of Oz collection. Because of that I have without guilt. I'm not saying I didn't feel sadness, but without guilt or without feeling like I'm giving up my identity as a Wizard of Oz collector, memorabilia collector, I was able to get rid of some things that were fine, they were perfect, and yet I don't have the space for all of it. You know, I actually had a couple of tin men tin man figurines that were given to me over the years and the exact same one, you know, I think they were came out at some point and so a lot of different people saw them and were like oh Dana. And so they gave them to me. And I know one of them, the little top of his hat was snapped off. But the person who gave it to me, I was like, oh, you know this is not a hat, it's a funnel. But like the little funnel part, top part of that funnel was, was snapped off. And I'm like oh, but this person gave it to me. And so I really, you know, I remember that they gave me the one that ended up being broken. But I can have all those same feelings. I remember that that person gave me that. Even though I get rid of the broken one and one of the other perfectly fine ones, I can have all the memories from the one that I keep of remember how so many people gave me a 10 man figurine in 1989 or whatever it was right like those things, knowing that there is a limit is the thing that lets me get rid of the two lesser of the same item. Are you still overpaying for wireless? With Mint Mobile, you can say yes to no contracts, no monthly bills, no overages, no hidden fees. You can say yes to making the switch and getting Premium Wireless for $15 a month. That's significantly cheaper than other wireless services. You can keep your phone with any Mint Mobile plan, keep your phone number and bring along all your existing contacts. Y' all know I'm an empty nester with our family spread out all over the country. My favorite thing is when all five of us get on a call together. Seeing their faces laughing together, them laughing at me, them laughing at each other. All of that makes me smile. So thankful for modern technology. With five phones in our family, Mint Mobile's savings could really add up. Ready to say yes to saying no? Make the switch@mint mobile.com slob that's mint mobile.com slob upfront payment of $45 required equivalent to $15 a month limited time. New customer offer for first three months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited plan taxes and fees. Extra speed. See Mint Mobile for details. The best way to learn something is to go to the experts. That's why I was so excited to sign up for classes on Masterclass. Whatever you want to learn, there is a mentor who will walk you through. You can learn cooking skills and a masterclass taught by Wolfgang Puck or improv skills to help you thrive in any life situation. From Amy Poehler Wolfgang's lesson on making a Bechamel. I think that's how you say it. Sauce was so well done. 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I know what's the best stuff. I know what was mass marketed and you know, really didn't have the value. I know that and then the container lets me go. You know what? These are the things that can go. I've talked about it in another Podcast and I think I had a blog post on it at one point. I worked on an archeology dig for a week. Five days, five full eight hour, maybe ten hour days. I really enjoyed it. I was just a grunt worker. I was absolutely not anybody with any knowledge or skills that made any kind of decisions. Right. But the square that I was working on, we were uncovering a wall. There had been a wall there. And in the beginning they were really excited because they were like, oh, there's plaster on this wall. And so that's interesting because of whatever reason, I have no idea. But anyway, there was plaster on the wall. So we were finding a lot of chunks of plaster. Like the goal was to keep the wall as intact as we possibly could. But, you know, in and amongst the dirt, we would find pieces of plaster that have fallen off the wall over the years and then been covered by dirt. And you know, in the beginning they were like, here, here's a bucket. And I forget what the buckets were called, but here's a bucket to put the plaster in. Okay. So I put the plaster in there. Well, I filled the bucket and I was like, okay, I need another plaster bucket. And they were like, yeah, we're good, we're good. We don't need any more plaster. And it was. As someone who Containers. Understanding that containers are. Limit isn't. Limits is not my natural thing. Right, okay. It was like this mind boggling thing to me. I was like, oh, but this is plaster. That's however old. Like interestingly old. Right? Was this wall and. But the wall and the plaster, remember how exciting that was? And they were like, yeah, well, we don't need all of the plaster. We've got enough of the plaster to study and find everything that we need from it. And if we keep more of the plaster, then that takes up space and time and effort that we need to be spending on other things. Like, there is a limit even to really good, really interesting, really important to remember stuff. There's a limit. And that was a real mindset shift for me. That was very helpful for me in understanding. Oh, okay. Just because something is great and good and valuable and I can learn something from it, it does not mean that I just have to keep it because it exists. There's a limit even to that kind of stuff. So if you consider yourself a collector, I think it's really important to think what part of the collecting experience drives you. Is it the search? Is it the displaying? Is it the competition of knowing that you have the coolest thing, like what Part of that because. And none of those are wrong. But I think it's important to understand because for me, what I realized was, you know, with garage sailing, I loved going to garage sales. I loved finding cool things, interesting things, and yet I brought all those things into my house. And I did not have any concept of containers of any kind of concept of, oh, there's a limit to how much stuff I can have in my house be under control. Like, I didn't have any of those concepts down or in my brain at all. And so I was bringing things in and bringing things in, and my house was getting completely out of control because there was just so much. And so as I decluttered, yes, I don't go to garage sales as much because I'm not just arbitrarily bringing cool things into my house. But I did realize that the part of the process that I enjoyed the most was the searching. It was the hunting aspect of it. Like going to sales and seeing what kind of cool stuff there is. And I am able to experience that now by having very specific things that I'm looking for, right? So I'm specifically looking for silverware or different areas of the world, call it cutlery or whatever, you know, like everyday knives, forks, spoons. That is something that I'm searching for. When I go to a garage sale. I'm also searching for wall art. Now, there will come a point where I don't need any more silverware and I don't need any more wall art, but I have those things that I'm specifically looking for. So when I drive by a thrift store or I see a garage sale, I walk in and I enjoy looking at everything, but I'm specifically looking for these two items. And that keeps me from just saying, that's cool, I'm going to take it home. That's cool. Cool. I'm going to take it home. That's cool. I'm going to take it home. Right? And instead, out of everything that's in an estate sale, the only things that I'm really seriously looking at are the pieces of art on the wall. And most of the time, none of them speak to me. None of them are what I'm looking for. But I still enjoyed the experience. And I've. I've realized that that is actually what I enjoy. I enjoy getting to see inside somebody's house and, you know, when they're letting you write an estate sale, but I. I enjoy that process. And identifying which part of it was the most fun to me allows me to really zero in on that, which allows me to experience that without my house getting out of control. Right. So that, that, because of that, that's why I've picked out. These are the two things that I look for at garage sales right now or the estate sales or thrift stores. Is it the displaying? Like, I don't actually enjoy the displaying of things. Like, I don't enjoy putting up a shelving unit with or shelves or something to then make. My daughter does like she has collections. And that is what she enjoys is the actual displaying and making it look interesting and cool. That's the part of it for her. Well, that's a container as well, right. That this is the space she has to display it. And if it gets to be too crammed, then it's not actually in a situation where people can see what you're doing and see what you're looking at, but identifying that, that, okay, I don't want to display, which means the things that I'm going to look for are not things that are going to go into some kind of a curated display. Obviously, art on the walls is going to be displayed, but. And then there is a limit to the walls and all that. But anyway, you know what I mean? Maybe, you know, who knows? Okay, Is it the competition of it? You know, is it the getting there super early to whatever sale to see if. If it's, you know, the. The one most interesting, most exciting thing is that the thing that's perfectly fine, right? But also having, okay, this is. This is what I need. Well, then it has to have a certain kind of value, either sentimental or monetary value, for it to be the thing that you're going to compete to be the first one there to get it. And just having that acknowledgement that, okay, it's the competitiveness that I really like. All right, well, then that's going to determine which things you're looking for, right. And which things you're going to bring home. Because remember, you can keep anything, but you can't keep everything. Right. And I also want to say another thing I wrote down in my notes was just this reminder that I have to remind myself whether it's competitive shopping. That is the thing I want to do. Whether it's the search for it, whatever thing that makes me driven to go and collect this item. People whose homes stay under control choose to live with regret over clutter. So I. In my search for art, there are two paintings that I debated and debated and debated and debated about that I still think about and I still have moments Where I think, oh, this place in my house would have been perfect for these two. It was two ma. Like a matched set of paintings. Not the exact same painting, but you know what I mean? Like a pair set. You know what I mean? But I think about those two paintings, and I think. I think I should have gotten them. I probably should have gotten those, but I'm not quite driven enough to drive the 47 minutes or however far away it was to go see if they're still there. And I'm fine, right? And I do feel some regret over not having purchased those paintings. However, I'm fine with the regret. I am choosing to live with that regret because I don't want to have paintings that I then have to get rid of because I bring them home and go, ugh, that's actually not what I was thinking it was going to be. Which has happened to me before. I've been through that experience. I have gotten rid. I have donated things. And paintings are hard to kind of donate because you're worried about them getting damaged and all. And they're awkward and they're unwieldy, and the bigger they are, the harder it is, right? Like, all of those things I have had to think about, and I've gone through the process of getting rid of some things, and I now say I would rather regret those two paintings that I can picture in my head. Regret not having gotten them over having the clutter in my house. Like, I'm choosing that regret. People whose homes stay under control choose to live with regret over clutter. If it's a possible clutter, it's not worth it, right? Like, if it's maybe gonna work, but it's also maybe not. I think I'm going to choose to live with regret over clutter. And the good news is, you know, like, as I'm talking about all these things, I'm not interrogating you. Like, I'm not saying you need to decide, is this the search or the displaying or the competition? What's your thing? I'm not saying that. Y' all know me, right? The container concept will help you figure all of these questions out. Because you can keep anything, but you can't keep everything and expect your house to stand or control. 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So one of the things that I, we experienced a lot with my in laws, my father in law particularly, was that he viewed his stuff, his physical stuff, as an investment. Okay? So he had taken things from people who had given them to him and were like, hey, you know, Jack would love this and he would take it, and he knew that these things had value. And so he brought it into his house, his shop, his closets, out of this thought that it's an investment, meaning, like, if I ever needed the money, I could sell these items. In the meantime, those items were aging, collecting dust, making it harder for him to manage his space. So I think it's really important to think, am I collecting this or is it an investment? Because if you are viewing it as an investment and viewing it as an investment is the reason why it feels very logical and justified to continue renting bigger and more storage units, then let's talk about that. Right? Let's talk about. Okay, so if you're viewing it as an investment, what are some things that we need to consider? Okay. And I, I personally, I've talked many times about how, you know, I used to sell on ebay. That's kind of what got me into the mess where I ended up having to start a blog about getting my house under control. I had this tendency to view every single thing that I owned with dollar signs attached to it because I knew how much this item could sell for on ebay and how much this item could sell for online. Like, that was my mindset. And it really got me into a bad place. And so having this healthy view of it, like, okay, I am viewing it as an investment. So what does that mean? It was not worth it to me. I was viewing things as an investment, as an investment, and viewing those things as an investment, therefore keeping them in my house. No, I could sell this someday. I could sell this. I could sell this then Meant that for me, I ended up having a lot of spaces in my home that I had actually physically, like, monetarily. We had invested in this house, we had spent money, we had taken out a mortgage. We were paying money every single month for this house. And yet I had entire closets and rooms that I could not use because they were full of these items that I saw as an investment. Right. I had an ebay room that was ended up once I got it cleared out. It was one of the best rooms in our house. It was a game room that we had in our old house. And I viewed that space. Space as my ebay room. There was a half bath at the back of it that we did not use for years because we couldn't get to it because that room was being used to store items for me to sell on ebay. So I was thinking of it as an investment, but in reality, I was actually paying a lot of money for a mortgage. And then a good chunk of our square footage couldn't even be used. Right. It's like, so having that mindset of, am I viewing this as an investment? And if I am, what does that need to mean? Right? Like, so let's talk about the reality of investing. I am not giving any investing. Investing advice here. This is all just little things that I've learned over the years. Right? As we do our own investment, which is there's risk involved in investment. There is. It's just facts. Like, and I'm pretty sure that most of the places where they help you invest, the fine print that we're signing when we use an investment firm is acknowledging that there's risk involved and that there's no guarantee there. They. They can't guarantee how this is all going to work out if we're going to make money or not. You know, there's. That's just part of the reality of investing. And so going into it with eyes wide open of, okay, I think of this as an investment, but I have to acknowledge, what does that mean? How, how many times I know for me, selling. Buying things at garage sales, how many times have I seen huge bins and baskets full of Beanie Babies? Bins, baskets, Beanie Babies. How many times have I seen that? All the time. Like, it's a common thing. And yet many of those Beanie Babies were purchased and brought into the house and stored for years because of this mindset that it was an investment. And yet it was an investment that did not play out in the end because that's the risk of investing. And so when I am looking at it as an investment, the, the container concept, the boundaries also has to come into play. Right? Like, so what are some basics of investments? Well, you invest. Again, I'm not a financial, I'm not giving any financial advice here, but it doesn't make any sense to invest instead of buying groceries, it doesn't make any sense to invest money that actually needs to be able to pay my mortgage or my rent. Because if I don't have money for my mortgage or my rent, then I don't have anywhere to live. And the money that is in the investment is money that I'm putting in now, but I can't get that money right back out. I mean, that's the reality of investments, right? Is that you put the money in and then there are hoops to jump through and knowledge that you have to have and maybe experts that you have to pay to help you figure out how to actually get that money out. Difference between a bank account and an investment, it's not the same thing. It is a bank account is where I'm putting money in, but also I'm basically going to have that exact same amount of money plus a little tiny bit of interest to get back out. Well, if I put it into an investment account, well, then I might have a whole lot more money to take out, but I can't take that money out to just use whenever I need to, right? And so I have to prioritize my right now life, my actual, actual situation of, okay, this stuff that I'm keeping that I'm thinking of as an investment, if it is keeping me from being able to live in my space, then that's where things are out of whack, right? Because I need to, I have to give priority to my actual bills before I put stuff into money into an investment. So the same thing, like I have to put priority, priority on my actual living space, being able to cook in the kitchen that I'm paying rent or mortgage to be able to have to cook in. I need to be able to sleep in my bed that I paid money for and I need to have it not covered in a whole bunch of stuff, right? Like I need to be able to walk into my closet, if I have a walk in closet that I paid for, to be able to get to the things that I need to get to where if I've just got this idea of, oh, well, these things could be worth something someday and so I'm just going to keep them in my house, well then that can take over to the point where now I can't get into my closet, now my cabinets are so full that things are spilling out onto the counters, which then means I don't have any actual space to cook. Right? And so it is where the things get warped when we don't consider the container concept. The other realities of investing are education and expertise are required. Right? Like, I am not here to say don't do day trading. I don't even know really what it means. All I know is that I hear the stories of somebody who doesn't know what they're doing getting into the, the stock market and failing miserably and losing all their money. Right. Obviously there are success stories, which is the reason the person even got into it in the, in the first place. But you do have to know what you're doing. And if you're listening to this and you're like, no, no, I day trade. Okay, great. My guess is that you know what you're doing. My guess is that you've put time and effort into ex education. You've either paid for that education or you've put a ton, you know, with actual money, or you've paid for it with a ton of your time and, and learning things. So with your stuff, even if you're viewing it as an investment, there has to be a lot you're going to pay for getting that money out of it. Either with the learning curve, the time that you spend into educating yourself on how to actually get money out of it, or in paying someone else to go through the process of getting the money out of it. You know, and the reality is, with my father in law's stuff, there was so much stuff and we were the people who had to sell it and we didn't know what we needed to know to get every last dime out of this stuff that he had. We called people, we called, you know, the friends that he had had when he, you know, was working his welding jobs. We had other people who came and they, they said, yeah, yeah, you can potentially get this. But also this one right here that he thought was worth a lot of money, there's a new way of doing that and this isn't what we use anymore and nobody's really going to pay much money for that. And just the sheer volume of items that we had that he had thought of as each clamp, you know, he had so many clamps because I don't know how he ended up with all those clamps, but he had so many clamps and in his mind they were all worth Five to ten dollars, you know, so if you have a hundred clamps at $5, he's viewing that as $500 worth of clamps. Well, in reality, there were so many clamps. And we tried to get people to buy the clamps when we were selling things, but in the end, we were, hey, everybody gets a free clamp with every purchase. Because the time was crunched and we didn't have. We didn't have the time and we didn't have the drive to figure out the way to get the very last amount of dollars out of these clamps that we could possibly get. You know, the reality is, if we wanted to sell him for the amount that he thought, which I don't even know if 5 or 10 was what he was thinking, but that was just an example I pulled out of my brain. But if we wanted to sell the clamps and get what he wanted to get from those clamps, we probably would have had to, you know, open a clamp store and pay rent on a clamp store. And, like, all of those realities have to come into play. So it's your. It's the container concept. I can't let these things take up the space, space, or even the time or the energy that I need to actually live my everyday life, or my house will be out of control, or things will be out of whack. And also the clutter threshold. You know, my clutter threshold is. That is the amount of stuff I can personally keep under control. It's the same way, like, I can have all these things thinking they're an investment. But if it is over my clutter threshold to be able to. To actually curate those items to be beautiful in my home, then I need to have less of those items. Okay, I am going to end this. I hope I got to what I wanted to get to. But when I clicked back over from my notes to the recording program, it had kicked me out. So, blah, blah, blah, collections, blah, blah, blah, investments. I hope this was helpful. I will talk to you all next week. Bye.