Shaun & I are not only on baby step 2 (We've paid off 10K!), but we're also in a transition period. Shaun is separating from active duty military into part time duty in the military and with that, starting a whole new career in Real Estate. I'm taking my current career in the entertainment industry to a new market in the Charleston SC area, a bigger market than our current Minot, ND area. That means a cross country move & smaller digs now that we will no longer be living on base for free and while we pay off debt. This means selling stuff. We have so much stuff. It just accumulates. So we had to go through all our stuff and figure out what to keep, toss, donate & sell.
It's the end of Summer, which means the yard sale season is just about over. It's time to stop procrastinating & purge yourself of all the "stuff" you own and don't need. We all have stuff. According to Self Storage Finders.com, 9% of U.S. Households have a storage unit with 50% of those storage units containing household overflow (NY Times), & Slate.com says that storage units in the U.S. stay at 90% occupancy.
So why do we have so much stuff? Are we "keeping up with Joneses"? Are we just too polite to say no to other people's hand-me-downs? Either way we are wasting money on storage units and bigger places to put our stuff. Now is the time to rid ourselves of the clutter. It will be better for your wallet and your sanity. But how? It's not easy going through years of stuff. Some stuff is "sentimental", some relatives will lay on the guilt trip for getting rid of that thing that's been in the family for years but they won't want to take it either (they'll just want you to keep it), we think we'll need it someday, etc. So many excuses. Well, it's time, especially if your in debt like we are. If your getting through baby step 2-3 (paying off debt & building your emergency fund). You don't need stuff. You need money. I'm gonna give you some easy steps to declutter your home & make some money.
1. Take a week to go room by room.
2. Have 3 bins/boxes/hampers
1. Sort 2. Sell 3. Donate
Also keep a recycling bin & trash can as well as a shredder for personal documents.
3. Sort- is for things that don't belong in that room. That way after you go through the whole house you'll have a sort bin to go through. It saves so much time rather than running around all over the house and getting off track.
2. Sell- We'll get to that in a sec.
3. Donate- After you sell what you can, find some great local charities that you want to support. Some even have pick up services so you don't even have to leave your house. Many also have tax forms so you can get tax write-offs. Be sure to make an inventory before you donate so you have no issues filling out the form.
Now for the selling part.
Here's what we sold, where we did it & how much we made:
Virtual Yard Sales: It was still very cold here when we started the selling process so outdoor yard sales were out of the question & the local indoor flea market wouldn't start for a month.
- We went on Facebook & looked up local yard sale pages & groups
- We sold our sectional set (1 L sectional, 1 large round chair & 1 round cocktail ottoman for $600, a sewing machine that I never used for $40, a waffle maker never used for $20, a car kit for hooking up a auto stereo system for $20, & my guitar (barely played as I'm much better at piano) for $50 Total: $730
Garage Sales: We don't really have a front yard just a front driveway.
Garage Sale 1: May 2015
- Where- our house during Ward County's Ultimate Garage Sale Weekend
- We advertised online and made a FB event. A ton of businesses & homes participate. It's the biggest yard sale day weekend of the year. Check your local county websites for yard sale questions regarding permits, advertising, and to see if your area has a similar weekend. Also doing community sales with your church or neighborhood gets more customers.
- We made $600 in this one despite heavy rain.
- To see how we set it up, and a more in depth look at how we had a successful yard sale read here. Each pic has a tip or how to.
Garage Sale 2: July 2015
- At our house on a Saturday. We again advertised online and made a FB event
- We made $350 at this as we had less to sell
- Our neighborhood only allowed 2 garage sales a year and required us to fill out a form to have one, had restrictions on what kind of signs we could put up and where, but did provide us with 2 sturdy metal wipe off signs for free. We also took advantage off a wipe off board/chalkboard easel left on the curb by our neighbors at the corner who left it on the curb for trash to pick up the following Monday so we wrote YARD SALE with an arrow pointing to our house.
After the yard sale, we still had stuff left over. What to do?
Clothing:
- Threadflip-sells good condition women's clothes & accessories for you online. You just print out a free shipping label or order a free shipping kit, go through your stuff, and send it in. They go through your stuff. What is rejected can be shipped back to you for $10 or can be donated for you to Goodwill with a requested tax receipt as well. What is accepted is sold for you for 90 days with a very nice commission set up for you. What doesn't sell in 90 days then has the same offer from above. I've made $150.40 so far. Here's my closet so you can see for yourself.
- .LikeTwice (now out of business) is just one of dozens of sites that also use the same business model as Threadflip for kids & men's categories as well. I sold some of my husband's things. LikeTwice gives you money up front the way that stores like Plato's Closet & Uptown Cheapskate do. I only made $7 for a sweater, a pair of khakis, and 2 shirts but it's something.
- Total: $157.40
Books
- Sell books to a used bookstore. Our book store: Main Street Books
- Book trade in program: 2 boxes of books for a $15.74 gift card plus less clutter. We were able to buy a few books we actually wanted to read and have much more space without all the old books we read once or reference type books that were out of date. The better the condition and newer, the more you get.
Computers
- Sell computers to a computer store.
- Ours: CompuTech- You drop it off, they take a look at it and make an offer.
- We sold: CPU with keyboard from 2011 for $50.
DVDs
- Sell DVDs to a store like GameStop.
- Ours: Rock 30 Games buying, selling, and trading games, dvds, & blurays.
- We made: -$78 credit which is all they were offering at the time. We got rid of a ton of DVDs that we had bought years ago through a ill-advised DVD WholeSaler site in order to resell them online. We've been trying to get rid of them for 5 years. We finally have thanks to Rock 30 Games which helped get rid of the last box. Now we have some TV & Movie DVDs that we actually really want to keep & re watch & much less clutter.
Collectibles
- Sell collectibles to hobby stores & Ebay
- Ours: Gorilla Games
- It's important to do research on what your item(s) are worth so you don't get low balled.
- I bought a vintage Coca Cola metal tray from a local shop a few months ago for $8. I did some research before trying to sell it at our yard sale. Turns out it's a 1929 limited edition tray that's worth $500. Woohoo! Haven't sold it yet. Waiting to move then looking at getting it appraised then either EBay, Ruby Lane, or auction house.
- What we sold: about 1200 Magic the Gathering Cards. We had mostly generic cards but a few worth $20+ a piece that we were advised not sell to them.
- What we made: $40 on the rest
Tax write-off through charitable donations
Other donations
- Ours: Airman's Attic
- No tax write-off for these, but you are helping out military veterans & their families. I've benefited from this service. As we were going around and packing up our home we ran into more things to donate and decided it was more convenient to drive down the street and give back to a place we have gained from rather than make yet another trip downtown to Goodwill.
A caveat: Please if you are not military, either current (regardless of branch) or retired or military dependant, do not go with your buddy & take items from this store even if they have an ID. This service is not for you. It's illegal and immoral to do so. Same goes for the BX or the Commissary.
Hope this helped give you some decluttering and money making ideas. It's so worth it to have less stuff. Only keep what you need & love.
