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Can you really make money by de-cluttering? You bet! Garage sales, donating, and throwing stuff away aren’t the only ways to de-clutter! You can MAKE a lot of money if you SELL your de-cluttering “treasures” online. It is easy, especially when you sign up with a sellers account with eBay and Amazon.com.
To start listing on eBay –
1. Sign up with a new account- Click here to start.
2. Shop for some items you need and pay promptly in order to build up some positive feedback.
3. Find some clutter to sell. Remember, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure! Anything that you’re not using like name-brand clothing does well. Also, vintage decor and home accents (skip the well-worn items) are good picks.
4. Research current pricing and completed listings of your items to decide how to low to start the bidding. Get an average sell point and start at 25% below that. Or, just knock off a few bucks compared to the average selling prices already listed and use BUY IT NOW and BEST OFFER if you want to sell quickly.
5. Take a lot of pictures. I list my items in the Ebay app directly from my iPhone. I take pictures from the phone and it uploads them to my listing. I speak the description so I don’t have to type it in my phone. It’s super fast and takes just a few minutes. No more transferring pics from a digital camera to the computer and uploading from there and typing out long detailed descriptions!
6. List your item. Use very detailed descriptions and titles. Be specific. Note flaws. Also, note things like “smoke free and pet free home” if applicable. If you smoke, or the item smells like smoke, you MUST list that. If you have pets, be sure to list which animals you have, such as “comes from a cat-friendly home”. People need to know this when deciding to buy and it will cut down on the questions you receive. List all measurements. If you put all of this in the listing ahead of time, you will get less emails asking questions and fewer complaints if people weren’t clear in what they were bidding on. Be clear on when and how you expect payment.
7. Open a Paypal account if you don’t have one. Paypal offers buyer and seller protection, make use of it. It’s worth the fees and you can print shipping labels through them.
8. Ship your items. Save those boxes from Amazon and Thrive Market to re-ship your clutter! You can get packing tape at Staples shipped directly to your house. Use extra grocery bags as packing material. Print out shipping labels from Paypal and then just hang in a bag on your mailbox. Your mailman will take it to the post office for you!
9. Get paid! Just transfer the money from your buyer to your checking account and receive the money in 3-5 business days.
Anything that is too large for eBay, you’ll want to sell on craigslist. Craigslist has many apps available that will let you post directly from your smartphone. You just start a post, fill in the details, take a few pics, price your item and wait to be contacted! It’s best to have people contact you via email and text. That way if you’re away from wifi or data connections, you can still get text responses from interested parties. This is great when you’re out of town because you can respond and schedule accordingly.
Finally, anything that can’t be sold online can be sent to a thrift store for a tax deduction. Take pics of your items, price them accordingly and keep your receipts! I recommend doing your taxes twice, using different programs BEFORE you file to make sure you’re getting to most deductions. Not all tax services are created equally! You can read more about that here:
How do you make money by de-cluttering? Garage sales? Facebook groups? Have you tried the Wallapop app? I’d love to hear from you so please comment with your favorites!
