this kind of stuff gets me! Rant/Soapbox warning

I should start a separate blog for Craigslist rants...

I'm looking for a white bookshelf for Maddy's room. My eyes tend to wander while searching craigslist, and I find things like this:

http://portland.craigslist.org/clk/bab/1527604950.html

Basically, this person wants to trade her leftover crap (like a bottle of Herbal Essences hair spray???) for really nice items. Like her old used digital camera for a "nice large lens" new digital camera and video camera (digital only, naturally); or her cheap Gerber BPA bottles for Avent BPA free bottles. I want to tell her that maybe if she didn't waste all her money on toiletries that she didn't need or use, she would have been able to just buy Avent bottles or some of the other items on her list.

This is one of my pet peeves in the world of garage sales and Craigslist. People don't want their crappy items that were likely a frivilous purchase; so they want to get top dollar for them so they can go out and spend more money. I have been guilty of being a frivilous spender in the past, so I can't judge. But I do know that lately I have come to realize that people consume way too much CRAP.

I challenge you to clean out your garage, closet, etc. and get rid of items you really don't need. Put them in a box and then ask yourself this:

1)How much did I pay for this? and
2)Did I really need it (or furthermore- even use it?)

Once done, I encourage you to give these items to charity; rather than expect someone else to make up for your silly spending (unless its a very expensive item and you need the money).

I'm not trying to be preachy- in fact, maybe all of you readers (all 2 of you ;) have been much more wise about spending and don't even need to hear this. This is just my little recently learned life lesson. It just helps me to write it/say it outloud so I remember it