Keeping the Ball Rolling

I have a mountainous backlog of items waiting to be listed. Some of you have seen photos. For those of you who haven't, I'll spare you. It's bad. Really bad. And what's worse is I've got a 3-day road trip planned for next weekend. I've got over 70 pairs of shoes to get cleaned up and listed, 15 sets of hot rollers, about 8 board games, housewares, clothes, toys, the list goes on and on. But I am determined to at least make a sizeable dent in the piles before I go out for more.

Here's my game plan ... Each day, I go into my eBay room with a laundry basket and pull out 10 things to list. Then, I pull out another 10 and set them on my table, ready to go. I try to alternate sets of fun things and sets of not-so-fun things. That way, while I'm slogging through cleaning 15 gross sets of hot rollers, I know I've got a pile of super quick and easy kids' clothes waiting for me as soon as I'm done. While I'm working hard researching a basket full of toys I'm unfamiliar with, I know I have a basket full of mindless shoes to list when I'm done.

I try to keep several stages going at once. That way, no matter if the computer is occupied, or the kitchen table is filthy (my photo station), I always have something I can be working on. If someone is on the computer, I can be taking pictures of my next pile of 10. If the kitchen is piled with junk, I can be cleaning up my next 10 pairs of shoes.

When I get into this fanatical listing mode, I am always doing something. More often than not, I flit from one task to another. My attention span is almost non-existent these days, so I might clean up my next 10 things, but then not feel like taking pictures. So they sit on the table while I wander off and pull out the next 10 things. But then I remember that I have to finish the other pile first, so I go back out and take the pictures. Then maybe I'll wander off and clean up another 1 or 2 things. I suppose this could be considered a good thing, because I don't get bored and end up dreading it. It keeps things interesting for me!

If you get stuck on a pile of stuff you aren't excited about, go ahead and pull out your next pile of fun stuff! It will motivate you to keep the ball rolling. You'll be much more inspired to finish the boring pile if you know you've got fun stuff waiting for you.

Oh, and sometimes? Instead of doing what I'm supposed to be doing, I stop and write a blog post ....

I guess I should probably go get these kitchen glassware pictures done so I can move on to counting board game pieces...