Over the past month, I've listed a lot of items on Amazon again, to try and raise some quick extra cash. Financially, it's been worthwhile--so far I've netted about $150 after mailing supplies and postage. But I'd forgotten how much it disrupted my life when I was doing it as a business.

It's not one of those things you can do when you feel like it or have time. Once someone orders an item, you are committed to mail it out within 2 business days. Sometimes, it's just not convenient because of my work schedule or things I need to do at home. Sometimes, I don't have the mailing supplies on hand and have to run out for padded envelopes when I really can't spare the time. Last night I tried 3 dollar stores for envelopes, and they were all out!

Plus, I start to get stressed out when the volume of stuff to be shipped gets beyond a certain point. I've had 28 items to mail out since June 1. I start to worry whether I've addressed things correctly, whether I've mailed the right item to the right person. I worry I haven't looked at things carefully enough so people are satisfied I described the condition accurately.

So basically, for me, it's kind of a high-stress way to raise money. I think this next week when I'm on vacation, I'm going to take the rest of the stuff to a used CD store (they give cash) and a used book store (they give credit) and be done with it.

Update--the ants have slowed down. I used talcum powder in one spot and will be trying the cucumber peels in another spot today. The a/c problem seems to have been a fluke. We're signed up for a "cool savings" program where the electric co. can turn off your a/c remotely if electricity demand is high. So that's probably what happened Saturday. I just can't understand why they cut it off on an 80-degree day instead of the 96-degree days we had last week. Oh, well...