Turn Clutter Into Cash

We all have "things" we never use that clutter up our homes. Turn your clutter into cash, free up time and earn money while doing it. If you've been in your home (apartment, condo, etc.) for a number of years there's a pretty good chance you've accumulated "clutter" that's worth something. With eBay, Amazon, etc., it's easy to sell things these days and you'll be amazed at what people buy/sell.

I started selling our clutter last year for several reasons...

• Daughter and son need money for college
• Daughter needs money for missions trip
• We have too much stuff
• Want to move in a couple of years
• Wish to live more simply

You likely have other reasons to turn your clutter into cash. Whatever the case may be, it's super easy to get started.

Sell Books First To Get Your Feet Wet

We started out selling books that no one was reading or wanted anymore. We opened an account at Amazon, hooked it up to PayPal and started in. All it took was looking up the title or ISBN number to find the same book on Amazon. Then we looked at comparable prices and priced ours accordingly. After you sell a few dozen books, you develop a knack for pricing them to sell. And you can sell them for WAY more than you would get selling them at a garage sale.

Our little books selling project was so successful that my son partnerned with a friend and started buying books to resell. They head to the local thrift stores and garage sales in the summer and buy books to resell. These two entrepreneurial spirited boys began to profit within 2 weeks! They've also developed a great sense for what books sell for the highest prices and quickest. But... I digress.

Sell Larger, Un-Shippable Items Next

Next project to tackle to turn clutter into cash was selling larger items like exercise equipment, furniture and bikes. We listed these on Craigslist and again had great success selling them. Selling on Craigslist is great for larger items that can't be shipped and therefore need to be sold locally. The downside to Craigslist is having to arrange to show your items to interested buyers but for the most part, people were ready to buy. The more clearly you describe your items, the more informed the buyer which reduces the "let's check it out" types.

Time To Hit eBay!

We moved on to all kinds of things from there...

• Clothes
• Knicknacks
• Cameras
• Dishes
• You name it

We put these items on eBay. We registered for an account and learned our way around a bit. Listing items on eBay is more involved than selling books on Amazon making it a bit more time consuming. You need to provide a description, photo(s) of the item and the worst part is figuring out shipping fees. Shipping fees are all over the map for different size items, boxes, envelopes, weights, etc. However, again you develop a sense for what things will cost to ship with practice and eventually start averaging the fees (it all pretty much evens out in the end).

Photos are a must on eBay. Pricing is a bit tricky, but for us, selling the item at a price that made us happy is all that matters. We stopped laboring over pricing certain items once we returned to the whole reason we started doing this in the first place...

Turn Clutter Into Cash!

Everything we sold on eBay went for prices WAY higher than we could have ever gotten by selling at a garage sale, to a consignment or antique shop.

You Can Turn Clutter Into Cash Too

Look around your home, think about what you can sell and turn clutter into cash. You'll lighten your home, fatten your bank account and have more time to do what's important.