To Quit or Not to Quit, That is the Question

Reselling, that is.

Several months ago,  I realized that I am sick of buying stuff and the need to always be out shopping, shopping, shopping for the booth/ Etsy shop.  I am also sick of having cluttered rooms in my house due to merchandise being everywhere.  Until last October, I had been thrifting every single week in an effort to update my merchandise.  

I started reselling in the spring of 2012 after thinking about it for a long time.  I had just left a miserable full-time job and was cobbling my income together with VERY part-time work at several nursing homes and a couple of teaching gigs.  I had more time than money, and it seemed right to finally start reselling.  I opened an Etsy shop which did fairly well as long as I kept it updated.  I should also note that because of the miserable job I had just left, I was questioning whether or not I actually wanted to be a psychologist anymore.  When you've invested a decade of your life for training and six figures of student loan debt into a life decision, it is rather painful to believe you've made the wrong choice.  

Slowly, I recovered.  Through my nursing home work I realized that I did still want to be a psychologist and that I was actually still pretty good at it.  Late in 2012 it became apparent that while I was super happy working VERY part-time, I needed to make more money.  The opportunity for my hospital position came up, and I added that into my rotation in early 2013.

In mid-2013, I decided to expand my vintage-selling empire (HA) by opening an antique store booth.  I have generally made a small profit each month, with the exception of the first month and February 2014, which was a bad month for sales.  This month (March) has been really good for sales.  I love the antique store that my booth is in and have only good things to say about it.

Unfortunately, reselling has become more of a pain than a pleasure.  I'm finding that I just have less time for it these days and my booth suffers because of it.  If I'm being honest, I think that I NEED it less now than I did in 2012 when I started.  At that time I desperately needed a creative outlet that had nothing to do with being a psychologist.  Reselling fulfilled that need and was an incredibly enjoyable hobby for me.

I shuttered my Etsy store in December, and will likely close my booth sometime in the coming months.  I haven't set a timeline for it because I'm just not sure when I will be ready to let go.  My goal has always been to someday have a small vintage clothing store, and that is still in my plan for the future.

So, I'm sad but also relieved.  I'll keep you updated as things move forward.