I detest yard sales. There. I said it. I despise going to them and I despise having them. I know some people do very well at them and I have friends who treat a day of scoping out yard sales like an Olympic event. Sadly, I am not one of those people.
We’ve all heard the phrase “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” but I tend to feel that in most cases one man’s trash is still trash and just take his word for it.
I’ve endured my fair share of yard sales. I’ve taken the time to sort items, price and organize them neatly, and track down missing pieces to puzzles and toys that had long been forgotten. I’ve given up entire weekends to watch strangers paw through our belongings only to be told a quarter is too high of a price tag.
In my efforts to dejunk my life, I lean towards donating everything you can and burning the rest if necessary.
In the process of moving and combining households with my parents two years ago, we managed to fill THREE separate construction-sized dumpsters with stuff.
The problem with downsizing, dejunking, and minimizing is that pang of guilt we get that we’re wasting money.
I am clearly no expert on teaching you how to sell your crap, but I have a few suggestions from my experience:
- Sell the big ticket items first – focus on the stuff you know has the best chance of making a decent amount of money.
- Get rid of large items locally – post them individually on Craigslist, in the paper, and spread it by word of mouth.
- Electronics sell well on eBay – this is the best place we’ve found for electronics, but keep in mind the hassle factor of shipping.
- Don’t forget about consignment stores – clothes are a great item to take to consignment stores. Find a well trafficked one in your area and you could do pretty well.
- Take the tax write-off – you might be surprised that the tax write-off you get for your donation ends up being just as fruitful as a weekend spent in your driveway giving your stuff away for pennies.
The Lazy Person’s Guide to Selling Your Stuff
Last but not least, you can sell stuff to Amazon. I love this method because I don’t have to go anywhere, haggle with anyone about prices, or post pictures and descriptions about my stuff in the hopes that someone will want to buy it.
With Amazon’s trade in store I just enter my items, they tell me up front if they want them, and they pay for the shipping to take it away.
I mean seriously…how easy is that?!
I sold most of my books for cash to Amazon a long time ago. It wasn’t until recently that I discovered they would also take my old CD’s, movies, old electronics, and video games. I didn’t think ANYONE would buy back CD’s with everything going digital now. I was happy to find someone would take them.
I managed to trade in enough stuff to buy our family the Coleman Instant tent I’ve had my eye on for months, plus new air mattresses for the whole family. I was SO giddy and excited and I don’t mind tellin’ ya! I don’t love to shop, but when I can get something for FREE that brings a truck load of family fun….well I get excited!
