Nearly everyone has stuff in their home they no longer use, but they can’t stand the thought of just tossing the items in the garbage. After all, those things still have value, right? So why not sell it? You’ll not only declutter your home, but you’ll pocket a little cash as well.
Decluttering your home is a good way to make some extra money and make it easier to clean and maintain your home in the future. Here’s how you can get rid of your junk, declutter your home, and make money. I’d call that a win-win-win!
1 Designate a Collection Zone.
Depending on just how much stuff you have and how large the items are, you might need to decide on a specific location in your home to temporarily place items you are collecting until you can get them sold in a garage or yard sale, or online. Make sure it’s out of the flow of traffic, but somewhere you can easily access.
2 Identify Items to Sell.
Go through the rooms in your home one by one. Scour them from top to bottom. Be ruthless as you declutter your home. That dress hanging in the closet you love from ten years ago might need to go. Yes, you still love it, but it hasn’t fit for the last four years and it’s probably out of style, so why are you keeping it? Styles have changed and tomorrow you’ll love something else just as much. Put it in your sale pile. Hopefully it’s not too late to get it sold. The more often you tackle this project the easier it will get and the more money you’ll be able to recoup from your stuff as it gets more timely and not as out-dated.
3 Choose a Sales Medium.
Are you going to list the items on E-bay or Craigslist, or, will you be having a garage sale? The choice you make could have an effect on how much money you make from a particular item or group of items. For example, a designer handbag will probably net you more if you sell it online than you would get at a garage sale. However, you might have trouble selling those old shorts on-line, so put smaller items like those in a garage sale instead.
4 Determine Each Item’s Value.
This might not take long for some things, such as a pile of old t-shirts. If you are having a garage sale, for instance, you might consider making all t-shirts the same price rather than marking each item. Think about the time you are willing to invest in stuff you aren’t keeping and streamline as much as possible. For other items, such as the name brand purse, you might want to invest a little more time researching what similar items are bringing online and list it at a comparable price. Keep in mind shipping costs and seller’s fees also affect the final amount you make from selling the item if you list it online.
5 Don’t Get Emotional.
If you let your feelings get involved, you could end up losing a sale. Just because you paid a certain price for something doesn’t mean you will actually get anywhere near that much when you sell it. Remember, the ultimate goal here is to declutter your home and recoup some money at the same time.
Hopefully these ideas will help you declutter your home while at the same time adding a little money to your budget.
Have you had success decluttering your home and selling some to make money?
I’ve made nearly $1,000 this year alone from decluttering! Next Door and Facebook garage sales have worked well for me. Eventually I’ll run out of things to sell, but it’s nice to get some extra cash from decluttering!
Awesome! I’ve never heard of Next Door. I’ll have to check that one out!
When decluttering, I think one should accept the fact that they have to let go especially of those things that have sentimental value.
Sentimental clutter is definitely the hardest, but it has to be done.
We have a bunch of kids bikes and exercise bikes that I REALLY need to get rid of. I have been putting it off for far too long. Maybe I should take this article as a hint that I need to get off my butt and get rid of them :-)?
I just miss doing a garage sale. I am still looking for things I can sell, but it would take a month before I put up a garage sale.