Your Forgotten Assets Are Worth Money - and Maybe You Should Let Go of the Past

I cleaned out the garden shed yesterday - part of the mighty Spring Clean that I force myself into at about this time of year every year - and as I hauled gardening tools and equipment to and fro, and applied spit and polish to everything that was standing still, a couple of things occurred to me.

• I own two lawnmowers - one moterised and an old push-me-pull-me job. I haven't had a lawn (or anything else mow-able!) for getting on for seven years.


• I have a strimmer - but I haven't had anything to strim for getting on for seven years either.


• I have a tiller - but my garden is mature now, so there isn't anything left to till.


• I have a spade - but it's too big and too heavy for me, and it's been hanging in a corner with a John Lewis label attached to it since 2006.

Today was attic day. I found four kitchen chairs (blue with rush seats à la V. Van Gogh), a cupboard full of curtains that haven't seen a window since we left England in 1994, enough glasses to stock a public house, and a stash of ornaments and picture frames that have never seen the light of day in any house of ours. 1984????

Oh, yes. And when I opened the wardrobe this afternoon to pull out fresh clothes, I spotted a red feather boa. I tried it on. If you've got one - don't do it.

All that stuff! It's all in good condition and good working order - even the feather boa - but I had to ask myself why I'd still got it.

It's all going. It's all going in the next car boot sale I see advertised - along with the unwatched, unread and no longer listened to videos and CDs and DVDs and books that are clogging our shelves and cupboards, the clothing that we will never wear again, the tablecloths that we never use, and everything else that might be useful to someone else, but will never be useful to us again until it's turned into money and becomes the future, rather than the past.

Two things:

Firstly, your forgotten assets are worth something to someone else - and the money you get for them could pay a couple of bills, give you walking about money, or let you eat for free for a week or two.

Secondly - and this is just as important - all that old stuff is PAST. It's gone. It's lumber. Getting rid of it isn't just about getting money for it. The fact is that when you get rid of your old stuff you clear your mind as well as your cupboards, make tomorrow a better, unencumbered day, and leave space for the future.

It's Spring. Time to clear the dead leaves and leave space for new growth.

Emily - http://www.therapypartnership.com/