As a Details Dad, you know I'm always working to help the family. Sometimes when I survey the basement, I see so many items laying around that we haven't used for years. Then I think, "We could sell these items, and tidy up our home at the same time!"

I recently decided we should sell a refrigerator we had in the basement. It had actually been sitting there since we moved into our house, which was about 8 years ago. We never plugged it in during that whole time, and I thought it would be a good item to sell. "We'd make some money, and create some space," I thought. We got the word out, and we generated some interest.

One man I talked to over the phone was very interested in the refrigerator for his daughter, who was getting married soon. But on the day he was supposed to drop by to look at the fridge, and potentially buy it, my wife said, "maybe we should keep it." She had been hearing from people who said she should use the refrigerator, or at the very least, we should have a freezer in the basement. So, I called the potential buyer back and said, "I think we are changing our minds". The man on the other end of the line was very nice. He said, "Well, OK, but I drove 100 miles with my pick-up and I think I'm going to buy it." When he said he had driven 100 miles, I told my wife about it, and we decided we should go ahead and sell. The gentleman came over to our house. He had very nice family members with him, and he decided to buy the fridge. I was glad it was going to such nice people, and the buyer even invited us to his daughter's wedding.

Later that night, when the fridge had been hauled up the stairs, and taken away, my wife asked me: "Did we do the right thing?" After a good deal of discussion, we finally decided that it was a good move. But it took a while to get everyone on board. I would say the lesson I learned here is to make sure that when you are organizing your home, make sure your family is OK with it. And sometimes your goal may not be everyone's goal. You don't want to be second-guessing your decision at the last minute.

My other lesson learned here is that although we may have initially missed the fridge, I think we have generally forgotten about it now, and it was good to get a little extra money for it. I think that's typical with many items we own. We are afraid to let them go. But if we realize that the items are just things, and if they haven't been used in years, why not let someone else use it? And, why not use the extra cash to pay a few bills and cover a few tanks of gas? I know that saying goodbye to some items is tough. My advice is that when you are fighting the de-cluttering battle, be sure that everyone is happy with the decisions being made. As a dad, or parent, have you ever gotten rid of something you shouldn't have? Let me know your thoughts!