How to De-Clutter Your House From the Comfort of Your Couch

Over time, your house collects junk. It's a fact of life. If you don't stay on top of it, you may find yourself with a dearth of clutter that's taking up your living spaces. Or, in extreme cases, you might find yourself the subject of the latest episode of Hoarders!

Getting rid of all this stuff feels great. In fact, it's been proven time and time again that de-cluttering is actually correlated to happiness.

The problem is you're busy. You've got tons of stuff that can't just be thrown to the curb on garbage day and it's a pain to figure out where to take it for proper disposal.

Well guess what, the internet has your back! More specifically, Craigslist free listings has your back. You'd be surprised what people will come and take off your hands if you post it under the 'free' category. Talk about the lazy man's path to a minimalist living space! And best of all, you can manage the entire process from your couch.

Not convinced? We took a number of items from our house to see how easily they'd get picked-up on the popular classified site. First up, three 1/4 filled cans of Varathane left-over from refinishing hard wood floors. It took three days, but sure enough, an email came through with a gentleman asking if they were still available. A fifty-something wood-working hobbyist showed-up the next morning happy to take the cans off our hands at no charge.

Next up was an old, decrepit bed frame that hadn't seen use in years. That one went quick and actually had three different people vying for it. We told them first come, first serve. The frame had a new home within the course of a day and we had a guest room with way more space.

Now it was time to turn attention to freeing-up space in the garage. We found three pieces of plywood (which had some cuts out of them but were otherwise great), 2 pieces of drywall left-over from a past project and some random pieces of quarter-round and baseboard.

Guess what went first? If you guessed plywood, you get a gold star! The boards actually had multiple suitors, all of whom responded the same day they were posted. The lucky winner came that night with a pick-up truck to grab them.

The drywall, on the other hand, took four days to get an inquiry. But sure enough, one man came and got the gypsum boards to use on a home improvement project. The quarter-round and baseboards, unfortunately, were the only items that didn't garner any interest. Thus, they remain in the garage collecting dust. Maybe we'll post again in the spring to see if anyone wants them.

It's a cliché, but it definitely applies here: "One man's trash is another man's treasure."