Category: uber-and-side-hustle

Categories
uber-and-side-hustle

Uber driving tips

Reading Time: 8 minutes

(03-01-2025) I just realized today is Madi Gras. This morning I drove 3 trips. First trip: from Rock Hill (near old Warson road) to Kirkwood. 2nd trip: from Kirkwood to South County. Last trip: I drove back to CC, drove a gentleman across the Olive road, from the Courtyard Hotel to the office building across the street. The last trip was worth the money as I needed to come home.

I also had a minor issue when the train was blocking the Geyer road. I had to use Apple Map to make a detour, before switching back to Uber Driver app. This is the 1st time I used Apple Map instead of Uber Driver map for navigation because of road/traffic condition.

At about 1 pm, I also realized it was Madi Gras celebration and no wonder the Uber Driver app shows quite busy and surge prices in many areas. And I also recall my passenger brought beer to friends’ house and he sounds like opened the beer can in my minivan – I didn’t look whether open drinking in the car is legal or not (many years ago I heard from friends who have lived in NY saying it’s illegal in NYC).

(02-16-2025) I drove 2 trips today. One in the early morning, and another one between 10 and 11 am when I was taking my 10 year old to her drawing class (I didn’t have much to do, plus it was too cold to walk outside today). I didn’t know or anticipate we would have snow overnight. The first trip has two legs, the 1st one is from near the Costco Business Center (St. John) to Maplewood (the lady dropped her kids there), then from Maplewood I drove the passenger to a senior living home in the Tower Grove neighborhood where the lady worked for 12 years so far. It’s on Magnolia road, north of Tower Grove park. So overall my minivan has been helpful because I carried 4 people for the 1st leg of the trip (the longer one too).

(02-14-2025) It seems Uber is getting cheaper comparing my Uber trip to airport back in 11/27/2019 vs today I drove a passenger to the Airport (comparable location). I cannot ask passenger how much she paid, but I am using 40% for Uber’s cut. $9.42/0.6 + $3 (tip) = $18.70. In 11/27/2019 I paid $21.48 for trip from my home to STL. I realized one factor: the trip starts at 4:46 am (vs 7:12 am). Bogleheads has a thread too.

Perhaps more importantly, I picked up a trip when I was near the airport, and now I realized it was not worth my effort moneywise, it’s from 63121 near highway 70, to St. Mary High School in South City: 16.5 miles and 28 minutes one way, my fare (earning) is $14.41. Note the plus side – I got to see or drive some of the places I haven’t driven until today, from the north county, north city, downtown (gateway arch) to the South City. I saw the Love gas station, the factory or warehouses, 1st time driving into downtown from highway 70, and transition to 55. Many things look pretty impressive: including the Budweiser plant and the St. Mary HS.

I should probably stick to my one trip a day pledge 🙂 || The reason I turned on the “accept new request” thing is I thought I may be able to pick up a trip starting from airport, after the drop off, it happened to me once – but I guess that kind of luck is rare.

(02-10-2025) I continued Uber driving this morning. I got a repeating customer. Note on Uber a rider cannot designate a driver, but he/she can choose service (Uber X, Uber XL etc.) and so on. The matching part is determined by the system (platform). I think from now on, on weekdays, I am going to just do one trip in the morning (with the exception of airport ride). I am also going to just accept the pickup within 10 minutes of driving.

(Update 02-09-2025) I resumed my Uber driving today. From now on, I will probably only drive on Saturday and Sunday, couple hours at most each day.

(Update 02-08-2025) More about Go Go Grandparents ride (here is a reddit thread if you are interested). Now I recollect, the Go Go Grandparents people kind of tricked me in some way, because initially it was a ride for $4 or $5 and it’s a one way trip (probably from the old gentleman’s home to the McDonald’s at Maplewood, off Hanley road, near Home Depot store). Then once I was on the way (after took the rider), Go Go Grandparents updated the trip, so that I can also bring the gentleman home: made it a round trip. The total is about $7. But because the rider asked for extra stop at the gas station, and I need to help him get off the car, back out my car, etc., it made my 2nd already booked trip a bit late – it’s possible the rider for 2nd trip gave me a score of 4 because of that.

A side note of this is: the starting address is across the street from the real house the gentleman was living in (because I drop back to his home, and I have the address, which I dropped off his phone later, btw). I don’t know why the discrepancy. The house was a bit run-down, which seems to match the old gentleman’s life stage. I saw broken down car in the backyard. Next time, if I ever encounter similar issue (lost item in my car), I would take a picture so that it would help me resolving the issue.

Before the trip on 01-28-2025, I did two trips that were either Uber Health or called by people like Go Go Grandparent. I mentioned one on 01-23-2025 (see below). In another case, I just drove a gentleman (a veteran) from his home to BJC in central west end. I don’t mind drive people for medical appointments etc., but from now on 02-09-2025 I will probably just drive on weekends (leisure time), as well as not taking Go Go Grandparent (not sure how best to distinguish/decline).

(Update 02-03-2025) Rideshare Safety Tips: A Complete Guide

(Update 01-28-2025) Once again please be aware of Uber Health – or those rides arranged by the Caregivers. I got such one again this morning: the ride is taking a gentleman to McDonald’s, order food, and take him back. On the way back he asked me to stop by the gas station: he said he left his debit card there last time. I did him the favor in terms of the extra stop. I also helped him the food and drink during drop off to his home. But he forgot his phone (left it on the seat) in the end. I had to make an extra stop and drop off his phone after I drop off my 2nd passenger. Last but not least, it seems between them I got a 4 star. Later I got a call from gogograndparent (FB page for GGGP) that they are the Uber coordinator. It went to my voice mail as I usually don’t pick up phone from stranger. Looks like they are Chicago based.

This is probably going to be my last Uber driving for a while. I am not overly concerned about the phone itself, but it seems there are quite a few caregiver responsibilities that comes with this kind of Uber driving. Also the customer service stuff (which I got a glimplse when I worked for Mastercard). I think ideally I want to be like the Costco and pick the ideal customers.

Now I am thinking about becoming real estate agent next (part time though).

(Update 01-23-2025) I did a few more trips this week, including during the deep freeze (Sunday to Wednesday morning). I feel some people are appreciative: e.g., on Sunday I dropped off a caregiver from apartment near my home to Delmar Garden, a senior living place near 141 and 64. The lady told me one driver bailed on her: she gave me $5 tip. Yesterday I drove a lady from her home to dental appointment: she gave me $5 tip too. Another trip was for a WUSTL undergrad (senior) from his home to medical school. The day before it was similar: drove a nurse from Mercy Creve Coeur campus to her apartment; then drove a medical school student to WUSTL medical campus.

This morning, I declined a few far out of way trips (I think it’s a bit too much if I need to drive 15 to 20 minutes to pick up someone, via highway). I picked up a lady at Westport and drop her off STL Lambert International airport. On the way we stopped by the Panera Bread at Westport (at her request). She gave me $7 tip.

Today also marks the day that I drove 100 trips (I started on 10-13-2024, as shown in my blog post here). Technically I think it’s 101. As I drove for an old lady after I cancelled the trip because she didn’t respond in time. Uber did give me the money via adjustment later on. Below was the story on Jan 13, 2025 (note the temperature was low, but more importantly road condition was still not perfect after the snow storm).

A bit unusual Uber driving experience this morning. I picked up the ride during my 1st trip. Just as I was going to pick up the passenger for this particular ride (2nd trip), the Uber platform told me the passenger doesn’t do text, via a medical (care) coordinator. I arrived the apartment, did call, text to the number given by the platform. No response. But just as I cancelled the trip, and ready to leave, I saw the passenger – an old woman with cane. She is going to the Mercy Hospital in Creve Coeur. The parking lot for the apartment is both icy and slippery, and I slipped, and almost fell. She said she was just locking her door. I said: okay I will take you. I drove her to the Mercy Hospital which I briefly worked for 18 months between 2013 and 2015. She said she didn’t eat breakfast – somehow, she reminded me of my grandma and my parents nowadays (as they are aging).

(Original 01-18-2025) Last Sunday, as I dropped off one passenger on United Airline gate, the next ride came. My lesson learned: keep the Uber Driving app online. In the past, sometimes I turned off new request when I drove into airport dropping off passengers.

This evening, I dropped off a friend at Southwest Terminal 2. But the Uber Driving app told me to go to the STL waiting lot. I was hoping to get a ride right there, and I was not going to waiting lot.

Some safety features for the drivers

Don’t drive during the night, or early mornings, basically when it’s dark outside. Quite recently, once I woke up early, it was New Year’s Day (01-01-2025), as I drove around for Uber, I picked up a ride for 2 guys. I was not 100% sure what those 2 guys were doing, I suspect they were drinking and f?!x around, as I heard a bit of their conversation re: women etc. I have zero intention to learn their business. There was a small incident during pickup too, I parked, one guy came aboard: he took the seat behind me. Just as I was pulling off, I saw another guy pull my door or knock on the windshield, asking me to stop. Turns out he is another passenger. The ride was not eventually, until the end, turns out two guys have a slightly different destinations: one guy lives about one mile from another. They did give me $10, and after my Uber ride is over, I used Apple map for navigation dropped off the other guy. Note Uber does allow for multiple stops and they are probably not sophisticated Uber users and didn’t use this multi stop feature.

Set the minimum rider star rating (score) to 4.5, unfortunately we need to do it every time we go online. I used to set minimum to 4.5, but the article says Any lower than 4.6 could be a potential issue, because it’s at this point that Uber can consider deactivating your account.

I saw from this Reddit thread one driver says 4.85 for Uber. But I also saw some passenger’s rebuttal. Just copy one back and forth below:

======

Driver: Anything under a 4.8 is a no-go. 10 years driving rideshare.

Rider: I am 4.79, always respectful and tip well. Just had a few too many drivers give me a 4 instead of a 5. The rating system is BS and you are losing money by rejecting perfectly good passengers. Now if someone had a 4.2 or 4.1, I’d understand why you wouldnt pick them up.

======

Go offline if we are not familiar with the destination or area: I did this once at East St. Louis. I didn’t realize the ride was going to East St. Louis at the beginning. It appears a security guard was getting off work at Clayton and went back his home in East STL.

I will add more as I think of some more tips.

Last but not least: some other blog posts I wrote re: Uber driving

More Uber driving and tips I learned

Drove for Uber the 1st time – 我在美国开优步

Uber Official YT Channel – Earning with Uber

Categories
uber-and-side-hustle

More Uber driving and tips I learned

Reading Time: 2 minutes

First a few tips (not the tip as in the money) I learned since I drove Uber.

One is you can setup a secured code like 2 factor authentication: I have one passenger used this feature. This may be faster than looking at license plate/exchange names etc. The driver can only “start the trip” after type in the code from the passenger.

Another one is something I learned this morning: we can do multiple stops. Today two older brothers dropped off the little brother at early childhood place, before heading to their destination high school.

Last but not least, try to keep your car clean. By “clean” I meant the carpet is clean and the cupholders are clean. And if you have a minivan like me, try to keep trunk clean of junks. Guess when do we need the storage space in the trunk? When we have junks there. I am not kidding, it actually happened recently to me once, when I need to take 5 people with their bags 🙂 I learned this lesson the hard way actually, in the very beginning of my driving adventure, I didn’t pay attention to the carpet and the cup holders. And I quickly got a few low rating (2, 3, 4) and it pushed down my overall rating score quickly. And now I can say proudly I am coming back as my score is 4.78 (I think 4.9 is considered excellent on Uber).

How about real tips (tips in the money)

Never expected, always appreciated. In real life though, interacting with passengers, talking to them (probably listen to them 1st) may have something to do with the tips.

Why I drive for Uber – reasons other than money

I think driving these one or two trips helps waking me up. In the old days I commute 20 to 30 minutes to work. Nowadays this is my “commute” in a way. Driving my freshman girl to HS and back is a bit too short to wake me up. The earning per hour never exceeded $30 (before tips). I received $13 tips from below trips. Subtracting the tips, it would be $58.72 for 2-hour 17 m online time. Other side benefits: keep my car clean and watch out for my driving habits no road rage etc. Use the modern word, just “chill”.

Here is an article by Harvard – Taxi drivers are steering neuroscience toward better understanding Alzheimer’s. In Chinese BMJ：老司机狂喜！哈佛团队分析近900万死者数据发现，出租车和救护车司机因阿尔茨海默病死亡风险全职业最低，或与空间导航能力有关

How to improve the rating?

Keep the car clean, in addition to be friendly.

Last but not least, I have driven 65 trips since started this very much part time gig about 2 months ago. PS: this is my earlier post on driving for Uber.

Reference

YT video How Uber Robs Its Drivers by More Perfect Union: let me quote a comment – As an accountant, I did Uber and Lyft a few years ago on weekends to make a few extra bucks. After about 300 rides, I created my own report that detailed my revenue, expenses, hourly work pay rate, etc. And came to the conclusion that was only making about $9 maybe $10 per hour in profit while putting lots of wear and tear on my vehicle. I stopped all ride share driving after that.

I think I tend to agree with the comment above. My main motivation for driving is not to get the extra income (that didn’t hurt). But I think if I want to make more money or make a living, or bring bread home, driving for Uber is not the 1st thing I will attempt to do.

Categories
Saint Louis uber-and-side-hustle

Drove for Uber the 1st time – 我在美国开优步

Reading Time: 4 minutes

中文简体读者：这里有一个谷歌翻译的版本，可能不是最新的版本，但大意差不多。

Yesterday (Sunday) afternoon I drove for Uber the first time, after I thought and talked about it for a bit. Note I still have the day job – this is mostly to supplement my income, and also gain some experience/have some fun. I also wrote a Twitter/X thread here.

A few things to do or think before drive for Uber:

I did give some thoughts on the whole thing before my 1st trip. Here are just some of the things I wrote down on my iPhone notes (MX):

MX: read safety tips (here are Uber Tips for Drivers), I also read a bit more on safety at Google and Reddit too, for example, below thread at Reddit:

Safety : r/uberdrivers

Don’t accept any obviously fake names (Smokey, Mr. X, Princess, etc) and if you’re gut says it’s wrong, let rolling and cancel when you get around the block…

Oh, and buy a dashcam! I got one at Walmart for $75. I honestly believe just having it mounted helps avoid issues.

Re: dash cam, I actually did place an order at Amazon, but I decided to cancel the order today after I think more about it. I always get it if needed, down the road. I have a few items that I bought from Amazon that ends up didn’t get used. Try to avoid that mistake again – and I really need to use the items I bought or sell them on eBay (it it’s passed the time to return).

I also thought about Pepper Spray or carry a firearm: my understanding is that Missouri is an open carry state.

It is not a crime under Missouri law to openly carry a weapon into any place where concealed carry is prohibited, except for a church, school bus, school, or onto the grounds of a school function. According to RSMo Section 571.030, there is no age limit to openly carry a handgun, long gun or any weapon.

But I have purchased neither for now: I think the rearview mirror, along with some items near my driver seat are sufficient for me. Under any circumstances, if I feel that my safety is not 100% guaranteed, in most cases if I am driving and my car is good, I expect to get out of the trouble quickly.

MX: only drive days with daylights, no evenings or nights;

MX: tax or expenses tracking including: miles driven, gas receipts 🧾, and insurance.

But today’s two rides (one cancelled) is mostly around “finding the rider” at the starting point.

Some bugs in the Google Map abd Uber Driver App

For the 1st ride, it took me a few minutes to meet my rider. She had someone else called the ride. And it seems (according to her) Google Map also messed up her home address. I think the Uber Driver App too. But I was able to pick her up and drop her off at the right place. From Clayton road near Hanley road to a house near 270 and Manchester (via highway 64 and 270). My gross income for that ride is about $13.50.

Shortly after I complete my 1st ride, as I am driving back to the Manchester road near 270, I got another ride request, and the starting point is at Eureka. That one took time to drive, and unfortunately, the Uber Driver App pointed me to the wrong place (it was close, but not exact). I texted and called the rider, no response. After 5 minutes or so. I decided to leave, and drive back home. One thing because I followed Uber Driver App, and waited the necessary time, I was paid about $15.50 or the cancelled ride. But I do have some lesson learned and I documented in the Twitter/X as well:

use Apple Map for navigation; also pick the ride when I am stationary and have time to think about it. I picked the 2nd ride when I was just finished the 1st trip, and when I was driving. I think I can let the pass in a situation like this next time. Ideally I would stop accept my new ride when I have ample time.

Bonus points

I liked the view of fall leaves: not quite red or changing yet, but start seeing colors when I drove highway 44 west from 270 towards Eureka, MO (exit 264). I used to enjoy similar sceneries when I was working in an office, more specifically working for the Mastercard at their O’fallon MO office. I drove quite a bit of the Page (Missouri 364) Extension and part of the road was beautiful in the fall (autumn). I understand I may not be able to enjoy nice views everywhere I go – but since I work from home 99% nowadays, and yes sometimes I do miss driving (and not just driving with families, my wife and kids – hope they don’t see this comment 🙂

Also, Fatal crash closes westbound I-44 near Six Flags: note I was there about 2 hours before the accident. This again highlights the risk of driving including drive for Uber and drive on highways (high speed).

PS: I will likely write another post on “driving for Uber” or create a quick YT video hopefully soon: I will write down my thoughts after driving for them for the last 4 days (Monday 10/14 to Thursday 10/17), may include Saturday 10/19 too (if I have some free time).

(Update 10-29-2024) in this short YouTube video, I talked about my thoughts after driving 19 trips for Uber. Also, I noticed quite a few YouTube video in Mandarin on Uber 优步 too – collect them here and here.

(Update 11-04-2024) Reddit – Curious as to how well Uber drivers do here in STL?

(Update 11-27-2024) Realized it’s best to keep the Uber driver ratings (score) above 4.6, if applicable (and you are curious about the score).

Categories
Business uber-and-side-hustle

Selling on eBay

Reading Time: 7 minutes

(Update 04-03-2025) Received a return request for a laptop bag. It appears the user didn’t use it properly. But I issued the refund anyway. That’s one downside of selling on eBay or drive for Uber: that is the customer service or customer satisfaction. My impression is some customers will never be happy.

(Update 02-13-2025) In general, I hate throwing away useful things into the trash/landfill. Yesterday I was able to fix an old Wi-Fi router. For a while I suspected the power adapter is the reason it didn’t work. Because when I plug in the power adapter the router’s light didn’t come up. Yesterday I looked around and found an OEM power adapter whose output meets the broken power adapter, and I tested it out – it works – and I listed it on eBay right away.

(Update 12-01-2024) New Netflix documentary looks at the downsides of overshopping (CBS Mornings)

(My eBay shop “majorxu” page above, 08-19-2023, do you want to guess which item got sold, which didn’t 🙂

(Update 05-29-2024) Some packing and shipping tips: make sure we get a good, also decent sized packaging, otherwise the item may get lost during USPS shipping. I noticed two recent items (one is a buy from China, via eBay), another is a small item shipped from Springfield, MO (education sector, probably want to save on cost, used a very small box). Both got lost in the process for a while – it was put in the “moving through network“, before eventually showing up. USPS informed delivery helps, but we are mostly in a holding pattern in this case.

This also reminds me of a short video I saw recently: it seems the workers in the video was processing or sorting mountains of packages in China: not sure if this is domestic or International shipping. The number of packages are enormous. Also this is how a Temu warehouse looks like (I 1st saw it on Twitter/X, but can no longer see it).

Btw, “search” on X/Twitter is horrendous, I was able to find it via google search. On the result page, I click on the camera icon to go to other sources.

(Update 04-01-24) I sold a few surprising items last few days, things I didn’t expect to sell.

(Update 03-03-2024) I sold one item for the multi-quantity with variations listings below. Also I noticed one minor issue: it seems eBay does not offer the USPS 1st class mail now. So I had to pay extra $2.00 or $3.00 to get their ground advantage service. In order to avoid extra cost on my side, I changed the shipping to the USPS Ground Advantage in my listings. I still have 15 items left. Those are free items for me (10+ years ago, Courtney of Subaru America), so overall I am still okay as long as I don’t lose money over shipping and eBay fees 🙂

The reason I want to buy shipping from eBay is it has better integration with eBay payment and so on. I am willing to pay a bit extra to get this. Somewhat like what I do with Turbo Tax (better integration with IRS and the state tax authority, here in the show me state, it’s the depart of revenue).

Fixed price (buy it now) vs Auction: I gave it some more thought. One of the fairly common thing happened to me at least, is with an auction starting price of 99 cents, plus shipping. Some buyers don’t pay after bidding for it. This is usually not the case for the “buy it now” buyers. I assume the latter group is more committed buyer: they will need pay for the item when they bought it via “buy it now”. So in the future I will explore this format instead of my earlier experiment which is mostly auction.

(Update 03-02-2024) Today I created my 1st multiple quantities listing with variations on eBay – Genuine Subaru Badge of Ownership you pick Medallions many Discontinued – NEW. I also explained how to make sure the “variations” show up during listing process in the Twitter thread below.

(Update 02-26-2024) It seems eBay doesn’t like I listing Helmet there, it automatically cancelled the listing a few hours before the bid closes. Below is the email I received from eBay.

email from eBay

I just deleted the “Crutches” listing there too – as earlier I got a similar message from FB Marketplace. I still leave my crutches listing at local CraigsList. Below is the FB Market place rule regarding medical device etc.

FB Marketplace rule re: medical and healthcare products

(Update 02-19-2024) For eBay, when selling old and sometimes not so appealing items, the “unsold” rate could be quite high, one has to have a thick skin, as well as lots of patience and a big heart to continue.
On 02-18-2024
Unsold 132 –
Sold 10 – (2 unpaid; 8 paid and shipped)
Active 25 – (the main concern is not to have a distress kind of feeling)

Last but not least, it seems we lost the money made ($6 or so) from the above shoes in another pair of shoes my 13 year old bought and tried to make some money on eBay. In Chinese we say that as “偷鸡不成蚀把米” 🙂

Back to declutter, I think there are a few other ways to give away things, rather than throw them away, again one man’s trash could be another man’s treasure. They include, local buy nothing sell nothing FB groups, and charities such as Helping Hand Me Downs. The latter direct items to the families in need.

(Update 02-04-2024) Recently I realized I can sell item at 99 cents, plus the USPS Ground Advantage shipping (buyer pay), and I can make about 99 cents from the sale. The buyer’s payment for shipment covers the shipping cost plus the eBay seller fee (transaction fee). One of such items is – 4-Pack Repair Parts to fix Crocs Shoes Rivet Strap Replacement Button Fastener Do you want to guess where I got this item, or how I got started selling those? Hint: I am selling the surplus items I bought from Amazon or other places. Again: reuse, reduce and recycle.

(Original 08-09-2023) This would be my 18th year since I started to sell on eBay in the year 2005. I recall the year because that’s the year one of my nieces was born, and I visited her when she was a newborn in the southwest USA. It’s one of the few times I got to hold a newborn baby. At that time I was single and I didn’t have much chance to hold a baby. Later on, I had more chances to hold babies because my wife and I have 2 girls. I recall in late 2014, I put my baby girl (our 2nd) on my left shoulder, while I typed on my computer (laptop) working. Those are some of the highlights of my life for sure.

Back to selling on eBay topic. I understand nowadays some people would say eBay is slowly dying (here is an article I recently came across). But back in the day, 20 years ago, I recall Dick Cheney (the W’s VP), touted that “Four hundred thousand people make some money trading on eBay.” Note he gave that remark in the presidential re-election season of 2004: the economy then was not very good including the employment, note in year 2003 the US invade Iraq. I think eBay’s position then is like today’s Etsy, Uber / Lyft, and Doordash combined in terms of the number of freelance jobs being created. I know we call it gig economy now, a much fancier word.

Recently I came across James Sinclair’s YouTube video and he probably mentioned that “selling on eBay” is a hard business. I tend to agree.

Back in the days

I recall in those early days, I would buy and sell, monitors, digital camcorders, digital cameras, etc from websites such as dell.com, and using some discount codes. Then sell them on eBay. I sold quite a few. Again if you look at my eBay profile, I sold 215 items in all time. I believe most of the sales were done between the years between 2005 and 2007. I don’t think I made a meaningful profit from those (this again sorta confirms Jame’s assertion above). Once I had a complaint filed against me because the item got lost from the US to either Afghanistan or Iraq, which I have zero control. Note the USPS insurance also only covers shipping inside the US. I know this sucks but this is just life, and I think that’s probably another reason I decided to not continue selling on eBay, in addition to low or no profit, as well as in the next few years, iPhone and other smartphones got more popular and gradually replaced many camcorders and digital cameras (24 things that the mobile phone has replaced). I still remember the excitement I had when I got my 1st blackberry, and back in 2009 my coworker really hoped for the iPhone (note it was the early days of iPhone, and it was not available as the company device yet, but it was coming soon).

Different purpose: declutter

But nowadays, my main goal is to sell unused stuff, from a “reduce, reuse, recycle” point of view (refer to the picture at the way bottom to say the point). One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. That’s also why I don’t care much about profitability etc. of all this. It’s not my main goal. I know from time to time I really need to be more organized and reduce the things I keep at home. Until recently I watch Holy Schmidt’s video on the topic, I was not serious enough though. That day I got a bit unhappy about my own mess or the not-well-organization of my desk. So I decided to do a little cleanup. During that, I found out that I forgot to open the mail and quite a few checks from the dental insurance company. Some checks are over one year old and I can no longer deposit them 🙁

Schmidt’s example in his video is more extreme, per se. But I can see I am coming down this path if I don’t clean up the garage, the basement, and other rooms at home quickly. So there is my incentive. I don’t think it’s realistic to sell everything on eBay. I would probably give some large items away, or throw some away eventually.

Last but not least, something left an impression, is this YouTube TedX video, To be different is good, by Jon Jandai. I think I have a lot to chew on about the video in terms of living a simple life.