18 May 2008

To destash or not to destash?

I woke up today and before I even finished my first cup of coffee, I somehow got sidetracked looking for something in my studio, that, of course, couldn't find. I am not one that handles clutter well. I grew up in the ultimate pack rat paradise, so my idea of rebelling when I got older was to, well, clean. Alot. I also clean when I'm stressed or mad, but try not to divulge this information to too many people lest they pick a fight to get me to clean. Sadly this works, even when I know they're doing it. I have a problem, I know this. But I digress. What happened was that after a flurry of art supplies going this way and that, sweeping long covered places and making several brown recluse spiders homeless or orphans, I came up with a very organized, well labeled art supply area and a huge pile of stuff I know I will never use again. I am like the anti-packrat. If I haven't used it in years, and honestly know I never will, out it goes.


Here's my problem though. Between my mother and myself, I have collected an inordinate amount of really great art supplies, more than I will ever use. I recently inherited a large volume of things from my mother when she moved out of a five bedroom house chock full of goodies. Many I have used and many I will use. I did come up with a few bags of things that are new or almost new (barely used), and wanted to sell them in my etsy store as a "destash" item. My dillema only came up as I got sucked into chat rooms and read more than a few threads about hating sellers who sell supplies, destash items, I will never buy from sellers who..., and so on. I come from a family that speaks blunt only, so I am not easily offended, but apparently many are. I would hate to lose buyers, but it seems like selling almost new art/ craft supplies to other crafters only benefits everyone. I guess I don't understand what is so bad about this. I would rather these things go to someone who will use them and make something beautiful, than sell them at my garage sale to someone who may end up never using them, and selling them at their own garage sale a year later. It seems like art sacrilige.


If anyone understands this, leave me a comment. I always read them, and appreciate the insight. In the meantime, here's the items I plan to list (for now) as "destash" items:

1 comment:

Leah said...

I don't know why destashing is a problem - I destash sometimes, as well as sell my handmade stuff. Just make sure to tag correctly...