I recently received several questions from people about what to do with the items they want to let go of. To answer these questions, I wanted to devote time to provide you with information to help you get rid of the thing you are ready to let go of.
First, congratulations on deciding to let go of some of your processions, great job! Here are your main choices:
1. Sell them
2. Give away / Donate them
3. Trash them
I will go through each one of these and give you some great information on what you can do.
Sell them
If you want to sell your items you have several options. I divide them into two categories; do it yourself or have someone do it for you.
If you want to do it yourself you have the following options:
- Garage Sale – hold a garage sale to sell your items. A successful garage sale requires much preparation. The success of a garage sale is fully depending on how many people you get to come to it. Marie’s tip – I only recommend having a garage sale if there are many items you want to sell. To be successful, try to do it together with your neighbors as a neighborhood garage sale; the bigger the garage sale, the more people it will attract. Also, make sure the sale is held on a driveway close to a major road, that way people just driving by can see it, get interested and stop. Another important tip; make sure to clean your items before the garage sale. People don’t want to buy dirty items. Take the extra time to wipe off everything beforehand it will help you sell more items.
- EBay – put up your items for sale at EBay. You will reach people everywhere using EBay. There is a fee to use EBay so make sure that you will make enough money on the transaction to at least cover the fee. Marie’s tip – Before listing something on EBay check if anything similar is for sale and what it is selling for. For instance, if you have a book you want to sell and the same book is selling for $0.75 it may not be worth your time to try to sell it.
- Craigslist – list your items for sale on Craigslist. It’s free, easy to use and you can add photos to your listings as well. Marie’s tip – Craigslist sorts items based on date submitted, so it’s very important to use words in the title that will attract people and describes your item clearly.
If you want someone else to do it for you (will take less time but you will make less money as well) you have the following options:
- EBay resell stores – these stores will post your items on EBay for you. They do charge a commission and decide how to price your items. Marie’s tip – use these services for big ticket items that you don’t want to list yourself. These stores normally don’t take items with low selling prices.
- Consignment stores – there are many consignment stores for clothes, toys and household goods. Consignment stores charge a commission on your items they sell. Make sure to pick up your items that haven’t sold before the due date or the consignment store takes ownership of them. Marie’s tip – use consignment stores when you have a number of smaller value items to get rid of, such as children’s clothes or toys. Also, there are consignment stores that specialize in high end items and they might have an easier time selling these items that you would on your own.
- Hire someone – hire someone to list your items on EBay or Craigslist. Marie’s tip – Get a teenager who wants to earn some extra cash to help you out by taking photos of the items and enter them on the website. Make sure you review everything before posting it though.
Stay tuned for Part 2 where I will cover "Give Away / Donate them" and "Trash them".
