How to Make Money from Your Excessive Clutter

I was thinking about excessive clutter today. You know, that stuff just didn’t get dropped into your home by the Tooth Fairy. At some point, you walked into a store, put it into a shopping cart, paid for it, and brought it home. Lather, rinse, repeat. And repeat, and repeat. What’s up with that, dear one??

At one point, you felt like all this STUFF was going to make you happy, and it probably did make you happy – for a while. But just like our kids do, we get tired of our toys.

Your STUFF is Worth Real Money

One thing that a lot of people overlook is the resale value of all that stuff. True, some of it is just trash or things that people don’t really want. BUT – a lot of our stuff is worth some pretty good money. And especially if you’re spent a ton of money on your excessive clutter items, you might want to get some of that back by selling it rather than just donating it.

I’m kind of an expert on this. I was a professional seller on eBay for about 5 years. Now, this was years ago, when eBay was brand new and the coolest thing around, but the premise is the same. With the Internet, we’ve got access to a much larger pool of buyers then we could’ve even imagined back then.

And you know how I got started? Selling my Mom’s stuff that was laying around in her garage. She had several of those knitting machines and tons of supplies for them that she’d bought. She’d tried to sell them at a garage sale, but didn’t even have a nibble. But on eBay, people went CRAZY for them and we made hundreds of dollars over a few weeks. It was fun and exciting! And then I sold tons of great items after that. It was a great business and one I enjoyed.

How to Easily Sell Your Excessive Clutter

But you don’t have to start a career as an eBay seller to make some moolah off of your excessive clutter. It’s a win-win – less stuff in your house, more money in your pocket! And it doesn’t have to be a ton of work either, if you do it right.

Here are some easy tips to make the maximum amount of money for your clutter. The first step is to match your items to the correct venue:

Clothes, baby items, kid’s toys, and inexpensive household stuff. Yard sale. Do good advertising and be organized about it. Everything not sold – donate!
Large items like furniture, exercise equipment (you know you are just hanging your clothes on it!), and larger kid’s toys. Your local classified ads. Do a funny ad. Seriously. You will stand out and your item WILL sell for a good price. Also take good pictures and do a great description. Make sure people show up by setting a 2 hour time window. Sorry, gotta pick up the kids or something. People are flaky. Consider your safety when inviting strangers into your home.
Craft supplies, high end clothes, purses, hobby supplies, and anything collectable. Use eBay or other online services. The trick is to bundle similar items together and again, don’t do a boring ad. Then people save on shipping and you have to do less work. Good communication is important as are photos and a complete description.

Now the trick is to take the money you’ve earned and go out and buy a whole bunch of new stuff to clutter up your house, right??? Um, or put it to a better use. Make some fun memories with your kids, start a vacation fund, or buy groceries or something with it. Fun experiences with your family beats EXCESSIVE CLUTTER any day.

Here are some other posts you might enjoy:

Declutter ANYTHING using the Post-It Note Method

How Does Your Clutter Affect Your Children?

Listing Your House for Sale When It’s Messy

4 Tips to Organize Your Messy Craft Room