7 Awesome Ways to Sell Your Stuff
7 Awesome Ways to Sell Your Stuff.
Are you having trouble parting with some of your more expensive ticket items? Would being paid some cash motivate you to start purging? Below are some suggestions on what you can do with some of the household items that you would like to part with and get paid for. Enjoy these 7 awesome ways to sell your stuff!
Yard Sale
Have a yard or garage sale. Place an ad on Craigslist.org or the local newspaper advertising your garage/yard sale. Also, put signs in your neighborhood advertising your sale. Let others come and haul away your stuff.
Consignment
There are so many consignment stores these days. Furniture consignment stores, book/CD/DVD/video game consignment stores. There are even sporting good consignments stores. Of course, some ladies’ consignments shops have clothes, shoes, and household and decorative items. I’m visiting a new consignment store, Good Wolf Gear, in Herndon Virginia next week. They are a local outdoor gear exchange. They buy and sell new and used outdoor gear, apparel, and accessories with a focus on backpacking, camping, and hiking. Therefore, be sure to watch for upcoming postings about them.
Here’s a great article on Selling, Donating and Recycling Your Old Clothing.
Estate Sale
If you have many valuable items to sell due to downsizing, death, or a move, consider having an estate sale. MaxSold is a DIY service that you should investigate. We certainly have used this service with our clients and have had good success.
Social Media Posting
Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace will allow you to market and sell your stuff for no cost. Take a picture, write a description and post your ad online. It’s that easy! Additionally, we help clients sell on these sites.
Collection and Antique Sales
eBay and Amazon will help you sell your items to a larger market. There is a learning curve to selling on these sites, so we would suggest you use an expert if you are considering a one-time sale.
Jewelry Consignment
Many local jewelry stores will consign your jewelry pieces or you may mail them to others. Obviously, be sure to insure the package. We have found a great selection of consigned jewelry at Carousel Consignments in Manassas Virginia.
Gold and Silver Dealer
Don’t forget you can get cash for your gold or silver too. We use Steve Gouterman of Paradigm Experts, in Springfield Virginia for our clients.
Would being paid some cash motivate you to start purging? Click To TweetIf you need more ideas?
We are here to help. Also, just know that the market for resale items is finicky and you may not get what you were hoping for those much-loved items.
To assist clients in the sale of their valuables
Basic Organization has obtained membership in The Keys Guild. As professional collectibles advisors, we have learned how to identify and value collectibles with continual training from experts and industry leaders. Our membership includes access to auction houses and dealers to assist our clients in the selling process and it means we are continually learning about industry tools and resources. We work with experts in every category of collectibles, dealers, auction houses, gallerists, and others in all facets of the
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Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
You have many great resources, especially in your local area. I love the Good Wolf Gear place! What a great concept. I’m not aware of anything like that near us, but how cool you have them near you. Carousel Consignments looks terrific too. We used to have more consignment places, but many of them have gone out of business over the years.
We’ve done well with tag/garage sales, but you have to enjoy doing them because they take a lot of work. In the 35 years, we’ve lived in our home, we’ve probably done it 5 or 6 times successfully. And it was always fun to meet people and see what items they liked. But mostly, I donate to local charities. It’s generally more time-efficient. However, if you have many things and items of value, it makes sense to try to sell them.
Donating is usually the easiest way to get things out of your house. Fast and simple, but selling opportunities are so available it’s hard not to try to recoup a few bucks.
I mostly donate as well, since selling is always work. We used to have a terrific ebay reseller who worked with our NAPO chapter, but she has faced medical issues and has since needed to suspend her business. I wish I had another person to handle this because it is a great way to reach a broader market, but it takes time to do it right.
For eBay sales, I use a woman who used to be an organizer in my chapter. Only specific things sell on eBay, but when they do, they usually sell at a good price.
I find that several people don’t get rid of things because of the cost they spent. It’s important to understand that they will most likely not get the value from the item. But, if they are willing to get rid of it, any money is helpful.
I went to a jeweler when I was getting rid of mismatched items, they gave me credit, and I then redesigned my grandmother’s one earring into a ring and spent very little on the transformation because of the credit. Thinking creatively on how to get rid of the unique items is helpful too.
Thanks for sharing your resources.
Great idea to get credit towards something you want. That reminds me of the gift card trade-ins that go on after the holidays. You can trade in a card you don’t want for one at the store where you shop.
Excellent ideas, though of course some take more work than others. Like Sabrina, I find that clients are often tied up in the memories of what something originally cost rather than the current value (what someone is willing to pay) and the current cost (of clutter, or paying for storage), so I encourage donation because it’s more immediate. Here, adult consignment has dried up; we have one or two stores, but generally, only seasonal children’s consignment is a dependable option. I wonder what you think about the online sales options like Gazelle for electronics, Bookscouter, Poshmark or Tradesy or Mercari for clothes, etc.?
And gold dealers are a nifty option. It’s a great way to get rid of “Bad Boyfriend” mojo, I tell my clients. 😉
When I sell something, I think of it not as making money, but not having to pay someone to take it away. Adult consignments have been hard during the pandemic. I hope they don’t disappear. I have used Gazelle with good success and ThredUp for cloth works well. I haven’t had any luck with Bookscouter, but I’ll keep trying. In my area, the local selling apps like LetGo all depend on the neighborhood you are in.
I’ve always done well with Facebook marketplace. Right now, for me it’s hit or miss. The key is making items priced to sell.
I love your tips. I never knew about Amazon as a source to sell items we don’t want. I definitely have to check that out.
Earning money is a serious motivation to declutter. The next few months are an ideal time to have a tag sale, for mask wearing buyers.
I also like Facebook Marketplace for selling items. You certainly can’t think about doing it for the money. As my husband says “ask enough so we can go out to dinner” but sometimes it’s just a burger’s worth.
Never heard of MaxSold before! Definitely need to check that out. Great post, Janet.
Definitely check out MaxSold. We have used them with some success.
I first heard about MaxSold when they had a booth at the 2015 POC Conference. We wanted to use their services after my dad passed away, but we couldn’t afford for them to do all the work, and we didn’t have time to do it ourselves. We ended up contacting an organization called The Furniture Bank. They charge a fee to pick up your items, but issue a tax receipt for the value of the goods. It was the best solution for us at the time.
Good to know to that there are other options available.
If my client says, “I’m saving those things for the yard sale,” I ask them some questions: Have you had a yard sale before? Did you enjoy it? When it is scheduled? (it is never already scheduled, so I help them pick a date.) Do you promise me that whatever doesn’t sell you will pack up and take directly to donation?