Realistic personal growth with a little edge ~ Namaste, muthafucka!
Author: zenblitz
zen BLITZ = Self-help with edge. Real talk, bold vibes, and tools to help you live loud, plan well, and grow on your own terms. ✨🖤 zen-blitz.com
Sign up for my weekly newsletter at https://bit.ly/zbnewslettersignup (No spam, no selling your info - pinky swear!)
“Where I’m at” posts are just random updates about what’s going on in my life at any random time, based on the areas / roles in my life. Any particular goals I’m working on will be highlighted, so you can easily see what I’m actively working on improving (and see that I do try to practice what I preach). Leave a comment & give me ideas for topics you’d like to see posts about!
planner : I keep toying with the idea of analog planners, but they’re so impractical for me right now! I miss my Happy Planner & my bullet journal, but everything’s still working so well for me on Notion that it doesn’t make sense to fix something that isn’t broken! I did create a horizontal weekly layout with a memo section for my mini Happy Planner, but I mostly use it to get a focused overview of my appointments, goals, & meals for the week. I guess it helps gain some perspective.
self (body & mind, emotion & education) : Not much going on here, except for with my diet. I’m trying to follow a “mindful eating schedule” I created with ChatGPT. I like it a lot so far, but I have some trouble with tired / stress eating around dinner time. For example, I may have eaten too many brownies this evening & kinda wanna crawl into a hole right now lol oops. Progress, not perfection – I will try not to do that again tomorrow!
marriage (relationship & libido) ; Going pretty good. I’ve been enjoying working on improving my libido, and working with sexual energy more in my life. Hubby’s enjoying the journey too lol! Next week I will try out the “Radical Intimacy” course on DailyOm, and I’ll let you know how it goes
mom (BooBoo & Bubby) : The little monsters are good. BooBoo is starting to read like a pro, and Bubby still loves her dolls. Both girls want Furbits for Xmas (😱)
teacher (K & PK) : School has been going pretty well. I love ChatGPT for helping me with ideas for lesson plans!
zB : I’ve been enjoying my writing journey quite a bit, and I’m learning a lot! I love it!!
homemaker (finance, cleaning, gardening, prepping, travel) : Still gotta plan a little family cabin trip. Hopefully I can get that situated this week. Working on a cool “Friendsgiving” party for this month (charcuterie board & board / card games), and a chill family Thanksgiving dinner.
witch : Nothing going on here. I celebrated Samhain with a day full of journaling though, which was very much needed.
reseller : BLAH! Still mad at resale, still haven’t done anything about it.
Currently
eating : Brownies lol
drinking : Rosé, lime water, coffee with pumpkin spice creamer & occasionally a shot of Trader Vic’s Macadamia Nut Liqueur 😋
watching : Outer Banks, Nobody Wants This, Agatha All Along (OMG I love it lol)
reading : Good Morning Good Life by Amy Landino
playing : Bingo Showdown & Candy Crush Saga
buying : Nothing, so help me god
listening to : Green Day, Reverend Horton Heat, Lofi, other stuff my family members hate LOL (though I did sing Barbie Girl in the car with BooBoo the one day, that was pretty cool hehehe ☺️)
celebrating : the rest & reflection time of year nearing
pinning : self care, Green Day, planners, Xmas, crochet
I know this is short notice for most people who celebrate Samhain on October 31, but as I started planning for my own celebration this year, I was inspired to share a few simple ideas.
To start, I don’t always celebrate the Sabbat on Halloween – Often I celebrate it on the halfway point between the Autumn Equinox & the Winter Solstice, which for 2024 would be on November 6. (I’m not justifying my late post lol!) Another personal thing I wanted to point out is that I “do my own thing”, so I refer to the Sabbat commonly known as Samhain as Ancestors’ Night because that’s really what it is.
What is Samhain?
For those who don’t know, many occultists believe that the veil between our waking reality & the spirit world is especially thin this time of year, & it is celebrated as such by honoring the spirit world. We’ll all be joining it someday, so it’s important to many people to acknowledge this (”Memento Mori!”) and take some time to remember our loved ones who are no longer on our side of the veil. As I say about Dia de los Muertos, it’s a time to “celebrate life, & honor the dead”.
Simple Ideas for Celebrating
An Ancestor Altar. If you’re going to start one, keep it simple & keep it up year round. Just as Xmas should be a reminder to be generous throughout the year, Ancestors’ Night should be a reminder to remember daily where you came from & where you’ll be going. A small spot with a few photos & trinkets to remind you of your beloved departed are a beautiful reminder of how they influence who you are at your core. If you already have an ancestor altar or shrine, now would be a great time to thoroughly clean & refresh the space, adding or removing things as you see fit!
Candles. For quite a few years, I had a running list of proverbial ancestors (people not necessarily related to me who had a profound impact on my life and are no longer living, and even pets), and I would light a tealight candle for each of them. It turned into a fire hazard unfortunately, but it was a nice gesture at the time.
Letters. You can write a letter to any especially important ancestors, & tell them whatever you want! You can even burn it (safely, of course) to symbolically pass the message into the spirit realm.
Journal. Ask yourself if you’re carrying any dead weight, psychologically speaking, & how you can move past that in the coming months.
Hibernation goals. I’m listening to a flock of geese heading south right now, as a matter of fact. Nature is preparing to hibernate, harvesting what’s left for the journey into the cold months. Not that humans are able to hibernate, but it’s a good time to consider what you can do to slow down a bit more & enjoy some relaxation. Perhaps you’d like to read a book you haven’t yet found time for, or catch up on some sleep? Now might be a good time to think up some slow living goals.
Pumpkins. I’m sure you’re already carved your pumpkins, if that’s a thing you do. But if you have an uncarved pumpkin, harvest it! Scoop the shit out & make a pumpkin based dessert, or a savory soup! Roasted pumpkin seeds are really good for you too, and you can season them with just about anything you like (I’m particularly fond of cinnamon & sugar.)
Food. Make or buy your ancestors’ favorite foods as a way to honor them. My mom was always fond of surf & turf (steak & shrimp specifically), and I’m happy to make that for dinner lol! A couple of my favorite memories of my grandma were her hand grinding deli ham to make ham salad for sandwiches, and soup. She also kept me on a steady supply of homemade chicken noodle soup throughout my childhood. So, I love making my “magic” soup, with ingredients that are heavily inspired by her!
How do you honor your ancestors?
Share some ideas in the comments below – I’d love to hear them!!
I hope you’ve enjoyed my “ghost stories” series this month! Here I have the final installment. It’s not a particularly exciting one, but it’s the most recent, and interesting regardless.
About this time of year 10 years ago or so, the DJs on one of the local radio stations started talking about local ghost stories & urban legends during their show all month. My fiance at the time & myself just so happened to be listening when they mentioned the area we were living in at the time, and how there were sightings of a headless horseman with a lantern in the woods by our house, and ghost deer all over the area. “Ghost deer?!?” I laughed. “Are they sure it wasn’t an albino?!?” (There are a lot of deer in that area.) But they said they weren’t just your typical white ghosts – mangled shadow spirits resembling deer were also spotted in the area.
A couple weeks later, as I was driving home from work late at night, a big tree about a half mile down started to look weird to me. Assuming I was just tired and stressed, I didn’t think much of it, but I kept watching purely for the entertainment. It was really weird. It was probably about 6 feet tall, walking weird, seemed to have white glowing eyes, & it eventually melded with the tree. As I said, I didn’t think much of it and simply headed home. Well about an hour later my fiance got home from work, and his face white as a ghost. Now, this man does not believe in anything paranormal, so for him to be freaked out like this was a sight few have ever seen. He drove from the opposite direction, more in the area where the headless horseman was typically seen, but he said he saw a large black mangled deer in the ditch with glowing red eyes, and it jumped off into the woods as he creeped up by it with the car. I laughed & told him my story. He said he was never leaving the house again lol! I don’t know what we saw, but there was definitely something strange in the air that night!
A couple weeks after that, I was again driving home late from work at night, and had another strange deer experience. I saw a doe in the road, and so I slowed way down, hoping I could just get around it without spooking it into running directly into my car. Plus, deer always travel in groups. It strolled casually into the other lane, but as I drove past, I realized she was lit up as though my headlights were still shining on her. Mind you, I was probably only going like 5mph, so I had plenty of time to look around & verify that there weren’t any other cars on the road, shining their lights on her. Looking in my side mirror, I could still see her, & she was still lit up. But when I stopped the car in the middle of the road & turned to look behind me, she was gone. I have no idea what that was all about, but it was…different.
So that concludes my life’s ghost stories. So far, lol. It’s been over a decade since this last experience though.
If you haven’t yet, check out the other ghost stories I’ve posted this month :
I apologize for the photo quality, but I’m still learning how to edit well. Here’s a barely edited Google Maps view of the area I’m telling you about today, so you can get a visual of where we were when this happened. Most of the buildings are gone now, so I typed in where they were :
(This one is my favorite story of all time!)
Once my high school friends & I were old enough to drive, we discovered a small abandoned military base not too far from home, and spent a crazy amount of time exploring. It was a NIKE missile radio control base that closed in the early 1980’s. Still standing at the time was about 10 buildings, all with different uses.
Like I said, we explored there often. Always respectfully, of course, and always very carefully. There was only one building that we wouldn’t go into (though I did one night, just because I was that curious…and young & dumb), and that was because the entire floor at the entrance had caved in, exposing the support beams.
Nothing strange ever happened there, oddly enough. No unexplainable sounds or sights. Until one night, later in the summer. A few of my guy friends asked me to join them, and I reluctantly agreed. I was enjoying just chilling at home, but they practically begged me to go.
When we got there, we parked in the parking lot of one of the two active apartment buildings in the immediate area and walked down to the recreation center. I’d only been in there once, and I knew there was a very secure looking basketball court, and in the back was a bowling alley you couldn’t really get to because the hallway leading back there was completely overgrown with vines. To get into the basketball court, the entrance was like 3 90 degree turns, so you couldn’t see into the building at all until you were actually in the building, so I insisted my friends be extra careful. The most badass looking of my friends decided to go first, much to his dismay lol, and as soon as he stepped foot into the shadow of the entrance, a loud BOOM echoed through the basketball court. We all quickly decided to turn around & head elsewhere lol. But as we walked to a more familiar building, we began to discuss the sound we heard.
We all agreed that it didn’t sound like something had fallen from the ceiling because we didn’t hear any subsequent debris. It didn’t sound like the bleachers gave out & dropped because we didn’t hear any metal creaking or any other noises. The badass friend said “as crazy as it seems, it literally sounded like some picked a basketball up over their head, slammed it down on the ground, & caught it as soon as it bounced back up”. And it did. That’s exactly what it sounded like.
So, for the sake of safety, we headed to what we called the missile building because it had 3 large metal pads and a control room. What else could it possibly be lol. We got bored quickly though because that was the easiest building to get into, & we’d explored it a million times.. So we decided to see if we could get into the office building, which was backtracking to just past where we’d parked.
To get there, we had to walk around the most massive building, go down a little road to where it teed off, and make a right. As we headed to the “T”, I lit a cigarette. When I looked back up, I saw 2 women walking about 20 feet in front of us. Plain as day, they were walking in the same direction, on a casual stroll, just chatting amongst themselves. But I could see through them. And I couldn’t hear them talking. Being that I was a stoner as a teenager, I assumed I’d just smoked too much & was hallucinating lol, but when I turned to my friends, they were staring in awe at the same sight. We all slowed down & let them get far ahead of us. At the “T”, there was a relatively small building with a streetlight on the corner that cast a shadow to the right of the building. We watched these ladies walk into the shadow of the building and literally disappear. We all stopped for a moment, and began to discuss what just happened.
We all saw it. But what exactly did we see? We tried not to make a big deal out of it and continue on to our destination, assuming they were fellow explorers. But as we turned at the “T” & examined the area we’d seen them, there was no evidence anyone had been there. The grass around the building was about 2 feet high, so if anyone had walked through there, there would’ve been a very noticeable path. It was also very dark inside & behind the building, but there were no flashlights. There was nothing.
Still examining the building as we continued walking, all of a sudden the alarm on the car we came in started going off. It was as though the car alarm was going off, but there was no pattern to it! You know how a normal car alarm alternates flashing the headlights & honking the horn every 2 seconds, for example? It wasn’t like that. It was more like one headlight, brights, long honk, short honk… The owner of the car held his key fob up & said he had no idea what was going on, and that he couldn’t make it stop. So, since I’m sure it was drawing attention to us from whoever lived inside the apartments, I insisted we head home. Literally, as soon as we walked up to the car, it stopped. Without anyone touching it. So, we got in the car & headed home.
On the road just outside the complex, you could see about a mile down. As we drove away, a particular car speeding in our direction caught my eye, & I wondered if it was a cop. With how much weed my friends & I smoked at the time, & being that it was illegal at the time, I got pretty good at spotting cop cars, whether they were speeding toward me or not lol! Sure enough, as it sped past us, we could plainly see that it was a county sheriff. And sure enough, he pulled right into the complex we were just leaving.
This experience has haunted us all ever since. What was going on there? Who was trying to get us out before the cops came? And why was this the only time anything weird ever happened? We’ll never know. But holy hell, was it fun!!
Do you have any true “ghost stories” you’d like to share? Leave them in the comments below, I’d love to hear them!
And if you haven’t checked out my previous ghost stories, here they are :
I have one more to share next week, so stay tuned! And happy spooky holidays!!!
PS – I can’t find any of the pictures I’ve taken of this place, but if you’re interested in seeing someone else’s photos, do check out this person’s Flickr album from 2010
While I was always fascinated by Ouija boards (I got my first from my mom for my birthday when I was about 9), I never really believed in them. I’d always get messages like “stay away”, “danger”, & other ominous things for no apparent reason. I quite quickly realized how easily people can manipulate objects they’re not even trying to move. Or how often people will intentionally move things to make an experience more fun, lol!
In high school, I had a friend who did too much acid. She always said she was very in tune with spirits, & she was always saying she’d have weird things happen to her, & she’d get messages or feelings at random times. Even when she was sober. Of course, nobody believed her because she was so “out there”, but then one night we were bored & playing with the Ouija board in our other friend’s basement. I decided to take a break to smoke a cigarette because the “spirits we were talking to” were boring, and she asked if there was anyone I wanted to contact. I figured why not, & told her to try to contact my mom. And she did. It was the freakiest thing I’d ever experienced. I spent most of the time just asking tricky questions that no one else would know, & it was unbelievable! She didn’t have a whole lot of energy to work with, but she ended with something along the lines of “take care of your father, because no one else will”, and no truer words have ever been spoken. I took care of him for the rest of his life.
Moral of the story – don’t discount the Ouija board. Or hippies LOL
If you like this post, make sure to subscribe to my blog! And if you have any creepy stories you’d like to share, leave them in the comments below – I’d LOVE to hear them!
Since it’s Halloween season, and I’ve always wanted to share my ghost stories online, I thought I’d take the opportunity here. I plan to go in chronological order (the third story is my personal favorite), so let’s start with when I was a kid.
My mother was a huge Sci Fi fan, so I watched more than my share of Star Trek & Unsolved Mysteries when I was a kid. I had quite the active imagination, but I was also very skeptical – I always tried to find logical explanations for things I’d experienced. My first encounters with a spirit had no other explanation.
I was sitting on the couch in our living room, and my parents were sitting together in the kitchen behind me after dinner. From where I sat, I could see the hallway to the rest of the house. One night, I saw a man, glowing white & dressed in what I can only describe as 1950’s business attire, walk down the hallway to the rest of the house. I shouted, & told my parents, & of course they told me that there was no such thing as ghosts & not to worry.
But for a couple years after that, I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was around me whenever I was alone in the house. Now, the house isn’t that old. It’s not like anybody died here, so I had no idea who it could be. And that’s what really frightened me.
Another night, I was alone in the house. I was probably about 8 years old. My father was outside shoveling the driveway, in anticipation of my mother coming home from work. I was, again, watching tv on the couch. The living room & dining room were one room, separated by the couch. So, with my back to the dark dining room, I felt like someone was behind me. Not menacingly, just…there. I looked out the windows as though someone would possibly be casing my middle class family’s home with 3 feet of snow in the backyard, but there was no one there, nor was there anyone in the dining room. I tried to ignore it, but I couldn’t shake the unsettling feeling! So I got up & walked to the bathroom on the other side of the house. I just sat in there for a moment, before it felt like someone walked by the door & was standing in the doorway of the next bedroom over. You know how you can sense the movement in the air when someone quietly walks by you? That’s what it was. After a couple minutes of feeling like someone was waiting for me in the next room, I decided I’d rather wait impatiently for one of my parents to come in the house in a more comfortable spot, so I went back out & sat on the couch. A few seconds later, I felt someone walk by & sit back down in the dining room. It was like I could’ve watched them walk by, but I couldn’t see them. Another 10 minutes or so passed before I started panicking. I started pacing around the house, looking out the front door to see how close my dad was to finishing the driveway. It got to a certain point, where I just stood with my back to the front door, & I yelled out into the house 3 times in a row “I don’t know who you are or why you’re following me, but you’re scaring me! Please go away!” And it went away. Just like that.
Fast forward about not quite a decade, & I found out who it was. My mom admitted she believed in ghosts, but she wouldn’t tell me why. Come to find out, she was married once before my father, for about 10 years. They couldn’t have kids, so he got sucked into a gambling addiction, slipped into major depression, and eventually ended his own life. I absolutely think that spirit was his, just babysitting me when no one was around. And I feel like I’ve made peace with him. I also feel like he never really went away, just kept further distance.
So there’s my first ghost story! I have a few more to share, so stay tuned!
And if you have any spooky stories of your own that you’d like to share, please do! I’d LOVE to hear them!
“Where I’m at” posts are just random updates about what’s going on in my life at any random time, based on the areas / roles in my life. Any particular goals I’m working on will be highlighted, so you can easily see what I’m actively working on improving (and see that I do try to practice what I preach). Leave a comment & give me ideas for things you’d like to see me write individual posts about!
planner : I’m loving Notion. I forgot that I enjoy moving blocks around like I used to when WordPress first started using that system (I think before I even originally started this blog!) So once I realized you have to play with Notion on a computer and not your phone, a whole new world opened up for me lol! Now I pretty much do everything on Notion, and I love every second of it!!!
self (body & mind, emotion & education) : My #1 goals right now is to eat more mindfully & exercise more. So, I’ve been making sure that I eat a lot of protein & produce every day, trying to eat more consistently throughout the day (since I’m the type to graze a little & then go overboard at dinner), and paying attention to my portions. It’s a lot of work, but I’m definitely making progress because I feel a lot better (and that’s the goal!) I’ve implemented a quick 15 minute exercise routine every morning, I do a little exercise with my kids when we do school, and I’ve been doing a few minutes of yoga at night. And I started a habit I like to call Squatty Potty LOL (nothing to do with the Shark Tank idea!) – Every time I go to the bathroom, I do 5 squats lol! I like it actually!! 😆 As for mind, I’ve been trying to write in my A5 Stalogy journal more often, and I’ve been working on a proper PARA PKM setup on Notion (of course).
marriage (relationship & libido) : My second most important goal! Hubby & I have been through a lot over the past couple years, so I’m really trying to focus on improving our marriage right now. I’ve been reading a lot of articles on the topic, and making sure that I am giving all the affection that I want to get. And it’s been working! We’re pretty happy right now, though there’s always improvements to be made. A lot of it has just been a shift in perspective. As for my libido… I’ve always had a low libido. Even though Hubby’s a wonderful lover, I just don’t…I don’t know! I really don’t know. I’m always trying to do too many things, honestly, and I have trouble slowing down to make love I guess! But I’m trying. I’m making sure we don’t go very long without some intimate time, and I try to flirt with him a bit every day. We used to get yelled at in restaurants for making out at our table LOL, but we have kids now, so we don’t even get to go out on dates hardly ever, unfortunately. Which is another thing I’ve been working on correcting. Anyway! I took a course on DailyOm last year which focused on tantra called “Sacred Sexuality: Open the Energy of Intimacy”, which I really enjoyed. I might try another course they have, “Radical Intimacy”, which seems to touch on a lot of similar ideas. We’ll see.
mom (BooBoo & Bubby) : As I’m writing this, Booboo is sick. She’s just got a bit of a cold. I blame the triplets she was hanging out with at the library, even though they didn’t seem sick. Gotta blame someone, right?!? LOL! I always get nervous when she gets sick because she had a fever seizure the one time, & it freaked me right out. But she’s in good spirits. But very snotty lol. Bubby’s doing great! She really loves watching Baby Bus on YouTube, which is actually fairly educational! And she also loves playing with dolls.
teacher (K & PK) : School is going pretty well. I dropped Busy Toddler’s Playing Preschool year 2 for Bubby for now because I felt like it was too advanced for her, and we’re just doing Easy Peasy All in One Homeschool’s Kindergarten & Preschool. They’re really enjoying it! Booboo’s been working through phonics (she had a lot of trouble & irritation with sight words), and she’s doing absolutely awesome with it! She can practically read anything she tries to!
zB : My “Ikigai”! I’m having a lot f fun doing research & making a plan to take zenBLITZ to a whole other level by blogging more and eventually working on more products & services such as workbooks, printable stationery, & eventually private coaching. I’m just too excited!!!
homemaker (finance, cleaning, gardening, prepping, travel) : Uh, yeah. LOL. I’ve actually been keeping up with housework fairly well. I just audited the fridge, freezer, & pantry, and I found a bunch of stuff in the pantry that we need to get creative with before it ends up in the trash. Hubby used up the French’s fried onions last night in a delicious green bean casserole. Finances are going well. Gonna need to wrap up the garden pretty soon – we’ve still got zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, & herbs producing goodness (when the groundhog lets them!) Ya know, I got one of those motion sensors that are supposed to deter animals, but I don’t think some of them give a crap about it! It emits a high pitched noise when it gets set off, & I’m the only human I know who can actually hear it. And it drives me crazy! Why doesn’t the groundhog care?!? Prepping & travel are on the backburner. We’re usually pretty well prepped for events like snowstorms, power outages, or pandemics lol. We did just get a Jackery portable power station, though, & Hubby’s all excited & wants to get some new solar panels for it. It’s pretty awesome, I’d definitely recommend it! And as for travel… I had plans to go on a nice road trip, but that got derailed by Hubby’s household projects. Especially since he wanted to turn his mini school bus into our camper, & it’s not quite ready yet. Maybe next year.
witch : I’ve been meditating daily, and playing with my Happy Grimoire (I’ll have to share that soon, it’s pretty sweet!) And we did a nice little homeschool lesson designed by ChatGPT for Mabon, which we all really enjoyed : Booboo learned a bit about equinoxes (she’s really into “space”), we read about an orchard, we baked some muffins, and we went on an autumn scavenger hunt. It was really fun. We still gotta get to the local orchard, and make a collage with our scavenger hunt findings though! I’m looking forward to planning for Samhain soon!
reseller : Ugh. I don’t really enjoy reselling anymore. I have a goal to get the shops in full gear for Q4 so I can at least make enough money to pay off my associated credit card, but I have no enthusiasm for it! I think next year I’m just gonna pivot to local sales so Hubby can have something to do cuz that’s really why I got into it in the first place. I’d rather focus my efforts on zenBLITZ!
Other things I’ve been interested in lately :
Digital Minimalism : Trying not to spend too much time on my phone. Laptop is for morning productivity. But I’m trying not to get too distracted by reading stuff throughout the day. I’m working on being more intentional about the content I consume, I should say.
Capsule wardrobe / daily uniform : I didn’t realize I already pretty much have a “daily uniform”, but I do have certain items I wear for certain occasions. And I didn’t realize I already pretty much have a capsule wardrobe, but I kinda do! I limit myself to certain numbers of certain items! I review my wardrobe twice a year, when I switch my closet to summer or winter clothes! I do need to pair it down quite a bit now because there’s a lot of things that either don’t fit me or I don’t like, so I’m glad I’ll be switching my closet for cold weather soon lol!
Meal prepping : I was always really against meal prepping. But I got inspired by Shutterbean’s super lax meal prepping philosophy, and I’ve tried it out the past couple weeks, and I really like it! I don’t prep every single thing, but I prep whatever I feel is manageable to help the week go more smoothly. More on this in a future post!
Currently
eating : protein & produce!
drinking : water, coffee with ID Pumpkin Spice creamer (it’s the only pumpkin spice I really like hehe)
watching : The Mayfair Witches, The Penguin, Resident Alien, Sweet Tooth, Dead Boy Detectives
reading : The 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, Good Morning Good Life by Amy Landino, & The Homeschooling Starter Guide by Gina Riley. I read a little bit of whatever strikes me each day.
I’ve been selling stuff online for about 3 years now. I am not a professional. Nor do I think I’m terribly successful at it, though you get out what you put in (and I don’t have a lot of time on my hands).
This is going to be a long article because I want to be as thorough as possible. I’m going to tell you what I do, so you can start there & develop your own systems. Ready? Let’s get into it…
Inventory
First things first, you need stuff to sell. You don’t even need to spend money on inventory – you can find free stuff on the side of the road, in dumpsters, or around your house to start with! (Please check legalities of “trash picking” & “dumpster diving” in your area before rummaging, & always leave a junk heap cleaner than when you found it – It’s illegal in some areas, & it’s rude to leave a mess!) Other places to find inventory include thrift stores, abandoned storage unit auctions, liquidation pallets (sold locally or online), garage sales, estate sales, subscription boxes… There are lots of options! I try to aim for spending no more than $4 per item, because there isn’t much profit to be made even at $4. Another option is an app called Freebie Alerts, which pulls together local free listings from Facebook, OfferUp, and more.
Once you have things to sell, you need to prepare it for listing online. I use : a white sheet for a backdrop, phone camera, kitchen scale, fabric tape measure, & a spreadsheet on Google Sheets. Take good pictures. Give an overall view of your item, then detail photos (graphics, copyrights, whatever is on the item), point out any flaws (damage to the item), and then measurements with your tape measure in the photos. In my spreadsheet, I note what the item is in detailed words (an example from my own spreadsheet is “Trish Stratus Headlocked Comic”) and then how much it weighs. So the next step is to weigh your item in ounces if it’s less than a pound, & note that down.
There are lots of websites you can use to sell your items online. Personally I use eBay, Mercari, Poshmark, and occasionally Facebook Marketplace; other popular options include Whatnot & Etsy. I’m only going to talk about what I know best though, so let’s talk about listing!
Getting started for your first time isn’t as daunting as it seems. Most sites will just ask you a bunch of questions, & they need a picture of your photo ID for tax purposes. At the time of this post, a website will only send you a tax form for your earnings if you exceed $5000 in sales on their platform, but they want the information up front to verify that you’re not scamming anyone.
I always start with eBay. First step is to search for a listing similar to the item you’re selling. The purpose of this is to see how much similar items are selling for so you know how many of these types of items are on the market. You can also filter results to show how much items have actually sold for, and then pick one that sold recently for the highest amount; click on that listing, & then on “Sell one like this” (this will save you some steps in your own listing). Now you add your photos; crop & adjust them as needed. Edit the title if needed, and copy it. Check your category to make sure it sounds right to you. Input the condition of your item. Look over the specifics to make sure it sounds right for your item. Then comes the description – Push the “Use AI description” button & let it generate a starting point for you. Make sure to add detailed information about any flaws, because saying “item not as described” or “INAD” is an easy way for a buyer to return an item. I always add the title to the beginning of the description, review & edit AI’s suggestion, then add at the bottom the following: “Condition is (new/pre owned); Ships (shipping platform, ie ‘USPS Ground Advantage’, & what the item will ship in, ie ‘in a bubble mailer’); Check out my shop for more awesome goodies! Message me if you’d like to bundle items; (Shop name); (Tags, ie ‘vintage 80s 90s classic’ etc)”. Copy this whole description if you’ll be listing the same item on another platform. Next comes pricing. I’ve done auctions before with collectible items with some success, but I usually use the “Buy It Now” option, & push the “More options” link to add a minimum offer price. Here you can also mention if you have more than one of that item available for purchase. Next is shipping – the package dimensions generally don’t matter but the weight does! Anything under one pound is usually best shipped USPS Ground Advantage; their price increases every 4 ounces, so anything 4 ounces or less is one amount, 8 ounces another, 12 ounces another, and up to 16 ounces. You need to consider the weight of your packaging when you enter this information! I have a cheat sheet of the individual weights of my typical packaging so I can keep that in mind. eBay will tell you the prices of each shipping service so you can choose what you think would be best. I always have the buyer pay shipping, because it can vary widely based on location. And that’s about it for eBay.
Mercari is super simple to use, & (at the time of writing this) has no selling fees! They do charge you to deposit your money into your bank account ($2-3) each time. I’ve always been quite a fan of Mercari, but we’ll see how these new changes affect the marketplace. Anyway, you can search for your item, as well as sold listings, just like on eBay if you like. The only advantage to this is seeing how much the item has sold for. You upload your photos, paste your title from the description you used on eBay, & paste the description. You answer a few details (category, brand, condition, & color). Again, I have the buyer pay for shipping, & Mercari’s shipping rates have been better than eBay’s recently. The fun things about pricing on Mercari is that you can set your price high, and then use “Smart Pricing” to bring it down to an acceptable price; doing this promotes your listing daily until it reaches the bottom line price you entered. Then, once a month I “promote” each listing individually so that my old listings get refreshed for new eyes to see & to remind “likers” that they liked it & it’s on sale!
And then there’s Poshmark. I’ll be straightforward – I don’t care much for Poshmark, but a lot of people have a lot of success with the platform. To me, it seems like a lot of work because it’s like a resale social media site, & I haven’t had many sales on that particular platform. You can search for your item & see how much others are listing it for (though I’m not sure if you can view sold listings). They do have a “sell one like this” option, but their descriptors aren’t as complicated as eBay’s, so I just fill it all in manually. You upload your photos, paste your title, & paste your description (but I omit the shipping method & bundling parts). Then choose your category, quantity, brand, colors, condition, & style tags. Set an “original” price (which just makes it appear as though your item is at a special deal), & then your listing price. Aim high on your listing price because Poshmark seems to encourage sending offers. They also encourage the use of making bundles of items to purchase from a single seller. Part of the reason for this is also the reason they don’t give you shipping options – they use USPS Priority Mail as their default shipping method, which covers up to 70 lbs.
On the topic of shipping, here’s a couple other notes :
I typically use 2 sizes of bubble mailers, rigid mailers for autographs & comic books, and poly bags for clothing. All of which can be purchased on Amazon, but I’m sure you could find cheaper options if you sell a lot of stuff! You can reuse any boxes, so long as the address label won’t be confused with your own shipping label. And USPS offers free materials so long as they’re used for their intended purposes (for example, flat rate boxes need to be shipped with a flat rate label).
USPS offers “media mail” for educational materials only. This is a cheaper shipping option, but shouldn’t be abused. They reserve the right to open & adjust the shipping charges of any package they deem fit.
PirateShip is another company you can buy shipping labels from, if needed. I’ve only had to use it once or twice, but if you have to ship anything offsite from the platforms mentioned above, it’s worth checking out. (I’ve had to do this for certain mix ups & returns in the past). With that said, don’t sell things offsite completely, because that’s one way scammers can get you!
When your item sells, the platform provides you with a shipping label. You package your item, slap the label on it, & send it out! You can use a regular computer printer to print out your label, just make sure not to cover the barcode with packing tape when you attach it to the package (their scanners have a hard time scanning through the tape). You could also invest in a thermal label printer, which is what I did. USPS items can be dropped off in “blue boxes” in various locations, but sometimes it’s better to take it directly to the post office & have them scan the item in so you know it was sent out. Items shipped with FedEx can be dropped off at one of their stores, in one of their drop off locations, or even at certain Dollar General Stores! I rarely ship with UPS, but they do have stores & drop off locations as well.
One more thing to bear in mind : If you list an item on multiple platforms & it sells on one of them, make sure you delete it from the others!!! I tend to do it immediately. I’ve heard good things about Flyp, which is a paid crossposting service that can assist you in listing (& unlisting) across platforms. I’ll probably be checking them out once my business gets a bit busier.
Bookkeeping
There are two spreadsheets I maintain on Google Sheets : one for inventory & one for bookkeeping.
My inventory spreadsheet goes by year, so I know how long an item has been collecting dust in my shops. (However, my oldest item, after sitting there for about 3 years, just sold! So, you never know!) My top line goes as follows : a space to “X” when I list an item, source, item, weight, COG (cost of the item when I purchased it), sold date, sold price, & notes. As I prep my inventory (photos & weights), I add it to the spreadsheet. After I list it, I add the “X” in the appropriate box. After it sells, I fill out the rest of the information. Easy peasy!
My bookkeeping spreadsheet monitors my income & expenses for tax purposes. I maintain separate sheets within the same annual file for each month individually. The top line goes as follows : date, item sold, platform, sale total (price+shipping, etc), platform fee, shipping label, COG (cost of the item when I purchased it), profit, & notes. The second line is for my totals, and I fill it out from there. Then I have another section, which starts a couple columns over & includes other random expenses. The first line of this section is : date, expense, category, & cost. Then I skip a column and have a list of categories to add the totals from the random expenses (which are tax deductible, by the way!) These categories are : inventory, shipping labels, refunds, materials (things you use up, like mailers & labels), equipment (like a scale or label printer), training (courses or events), travel, store “dues” (if you have a special eBay “store”, for example), mileage, & services (a CPA to do your taxes, or an assistant to help you do anything with your store, for example).
Conclusion
It sounds a lot more difficult than it is, really! I just wanted to be as thorough as possible with what I’ve learned & do so that you have a good starting point to reference if you’d like to get into this adventure of online resale & develop your own systems & ways of doing things. If you have any questions or comments, leave them in the comments below! And, for good measure, here’s a supplies list that covers everything I’ve mentioned above, though what you really need is up to you of course :
Supplies
inventory
smart phone and / or computer
platform apps (eBay, Mercari, Poshmark, etc)
camera
Google Sheets
kitchen scale
tape measure
packaging (bubble mailers, poly bags, etc)
thermal label printer (4×6) & labels, or a computer printer & clear shipping tape
I think that about covers it, but if you’re looking for more information, there are lots of resale Facebook Groups & YouTube videos that can help – some of my favorite YouTube channels are Lindey Glen, Rockstar Flipper, & Ready Set Resell. Happy selling!!
I’ve been a “planner girl” intermittently for as long as I can remember. My enthusiasm for planning began with a Lisa Frank binder in elementary school and continued with a free notebook in college. I started journaling at age 12 and have maintained the habit consistently since then.
In 2012, when my father had his first stroke, I needed a highly flexible planner to manage everything I had to do for him. That’s when I discovered the “Bullet Journal Method” on Pinterest, which captivated me for several years.
Planning is a fundamental element of success in any endeavor. Whether you’re launching a business, achieving personal milestones, or simply trying to improve your daily life, effective planning is crucial. This post will discuss the importance of planning and provide practical tips to help you develop & refine this vital skill. In a future post, I’ll delve deeper into my detailed and unique quarterly goal-setting system.
Moreover, planning offers clarity and direction, whether for daily tasks or long-term goals. Without a plan, life can seem overwhelming. By breaking things down into manageable steps, planning turns ambitions into actionable tasks.
What do you specifically need a planner for? Write a list on a piece of paper. Are you a student? Does your job require a separate planner or notebook? Do you need to manage medications, household chores, doctor’s appointments, or a side job? How about improving your health, strengthening family bonds, or tracking finances? Choose or create a planner that suits your needs and make sure you know what you need to keep track of and prepare for.
Next, decide on your planner – digital or analog? Your preference might lean towards one or the other. For a long time, I was a paper planner enthusiast. I’ve used the Bullet Journal, Happy Planner, and traveler’s notebook systems. I loved to decorate, customize, and adapt things to my needs. But recently, I’ve been trying to simplify my life, including my planner system. I’ve found that I rarely refer back to my old planners, and their main purpose was to leave something for my children when they’re older. But why would they want my to-do lists mixed in with memories? Thus, I’ve switched to digital planning, specifically using Notion. I find it more functional, less wasteful, and inexpensive. Now, I keep separate journals for memories and pictures for my kids, keeping my day-to-day tasks digital for easy deletion. Often times, less is more.
Once you’ve chosen your planner and know what you need it for, start filling it in. Prioritize appointments, meetings, bill due dates, and other important events. My weekly and monthly planning includes dinner plans, work schedules, homeschooling and extracurricular activities, cleaning goals, and spontaneous adventures. Don’t forget to include some fun!
Depending on what your needs are, there are lots of productivity tools to help you organize your tasks. A “kanban board”, for example, is a visual tool used to show what tasks need to be done, are in progress, or done. Another example is the “Eisenhower Matrix”, which is often used for prioritizing a long list of tasks.
Image Credit : Google Search
Daily, weekly, and monthly reviews can also be beneficial. The frequency of these reviews depends on your needs, but regularly evaluating what you did well and what you need to improve is a good practice.
Remember, flexibility is key in planning. Life is unpredictable and your plans may need to adapt. Embrace changes and adjust your plans accordingly. Finally, celebrate your accomplishments, no matter how small. Every completed task brings you one step closer to your goals. Just remember that planning is not a one-time task but an ongoing process that requires dedication and adaptability.
Just for fun, here’s a little zine I put together about three of the different planning types I described earlier. You can print it out for free, resize it to the paper size you use if need be, & this infographic shows you how to fold & cut it into a proper mini zine. Enjoy!!
What planning tips & tricks do you like to use? Share them in the comments; I’d love to nerd out together!! 😊
WordPress has certainly come a long way from 20+ years ago! I remember starting my first Blogger blog way back in like 2000, & I eventually moved on to WordPress for its customization options. It seems very much the same, with a hint of Notion lol.
Anyway… All paths lead back to blogging. I tried starting a YouTube channel, but I didn’t like it much. A bunch of fuss, & my niche that I was going for, well… I’m fairly often switching it up & I’m not tech savvy enough to evolve with it on video lol! All paths lead back to blogging. I’ve always been a writer at heart, so why am I not writing more?!? I wrote a couple of small books since the beginning of the year, & I thought I should focus more on that than getting a headache on YouTube (for now at least!)
So welcome to my new blog! Here you’ll find all kinds of different things that interest me, things I’ve been learning & creating, and so on. I’m a stay at home mom of two little girls who I homeschool, I’m a reseller, and I’m a very organized “planner girl”. So you’ll likely find occasional content on those topics here as well.
I hope you enjoy & stick around to see where this project evolves!
zen BLITZ 
