It has been awhile since I have written my junk series. Probably because I am in the midst of dealing with my junk and am trying not to be too hypocritical. ;-)
So, you have gone through your stuff. You have put all the recycling in recycling and all your garbage into the garbage. Now you are left with all the other stuff that is still useful, just not useful to you at this moment. What do you do? This is a tough question to answer. A lot of this stuff you paid for with hard earned cash. You don't want to simply give it away. Yet sometimes we are so desperate to have it gone, or fear if it doesn't go away that instant it is doomed to be plucked from the giveaway pile and will forever be part of your household.
Here are some ideas.
Take items of good quality/repair to a consignment shop
I do this with my kids clothing that still has a lot of wear left, but my kids just don't want to wear anymore. I am lucky to have a great kids clothing consignment shop just down the street from me. Their store is set up so you get a percentage of what the item sold for. You can either get the money in cash or save it as store credit. Since I buy a lot of my kids clothing there I keep it as store credit. There is nothing as satisfying as walking out of a store with lots of nice clothes and not having to spend an penny on it (ok, a nickel as our penny has gone the way of the dodo).
There are other consignment stores for adult clothes, furniture, or other good quality items. That is the thing with consignment stores. They are more picky about what they take in because they want the item to sell, so, if they turn away your stuff, don't feel bad, it's just not in their niche.
Consignment stores also have different agreements/contracts. Most have a set time they will allow that item to be in the store. And then either you let them dispose of it how they will or you have to go and get it. At the kids consignment store I use, they have the item on their racks for 3 months. After that they slash the price by 50% and have it their for another 3 months. If is still hasn't sold you can come in and get your item or just leave it there (you just won't get a commission for it). I usually just leave my stuff there if it hasn't sold. My mindset if I can get money awesome, if not, well at least it is out of my house!
Host an item swap
This is a great way to get rid of things but still getting something in return. My kids' school just hosted a book, movie and game swap. I got rid of some of the icky children's books I loathe to read, and we got to pick up some that are cool and don't fill me with loathing.
There are many ways you can do a swap. You could make it an item for item thing. So if you bring in three items you can leave with three items. Or you can bring in your items and leave with however many items you want. You can make it for just clothing, or just books, or just toys, or just kitchen gadgets. Or have it be a smorgasbord event.
A church near me has a clothing swap. You bring in a bag of clothes and get a ticket for either a small bag or a big bag depending on what you brought in. This allows you to take that size bag of stuff home for free. If you didn't bring in any items you can still bring stuff home it just costs you $1 for a small bag or $3 for a big bag.
A swap is great because you can either do it on a small scale with friends, or on a huge community scale. It's up to you, but it is a great way to get new to you stuff, for free.
Yard Sale
This is a great way to get cash for your junk without needing a middleman. Sometimes you can get your whole neighbourhood together and have a neighbourhood yard sale. You will get more people coming by and it is fun to do things with others.
Make sure you do yard sales when the weather is warm and people want to be outside. This might not be a big deal for people who live in climates where it doesn't snow, but here in Canada, please wait until May, it will be too cold otherwise.
When you are putting a yard sale together make sure you have clear prices. This doesn't mean you have to label every single item. You could have signs that say, Books $0.25 or Fill a bag of clothes for $1. When you do this people can prepare their money and won't constantly be asking you "how much". Be prepared for hagglers. At the end of the day you are not having a yard sale to make a million dollars, you just want some compensation for your junk, so make some deals.
Another tip is be ready for the early birds. Hardcore yard salers start combing the streets early, like 7ish early. Sacrifice sleeping in and be ready for them. Have money ready to make change. If possible make your sale a rain or shine event, that way you don't have to plan on spending another Saturday with the yard sale, this could mean hosting it in your garage or putting up some sort of shelter.
Put item on Kijiji or another online sale website
My husband is the king of kijiji. He can sell anything, and have it sold fast. His tips are take lots of pictures of the items from a variety of angles. People want to see what you are offering without having to come see it physically. We get lots of contacts because people can see from the comfort of their own home what exactly we are offering.
Another tip is to make your add interesting. My husband comes up with some of the funniest little lines when making up his add. It takes him an hour to put it together, but it gets results. We have never had to wait longer than half a day to get someone interested in our item and usually it is sold within two days.
I have done all those things now what?
If you have done those things and still have items left over this is when you need to make a decision. What is more important, trying to get money back on these items, or having a house with less clutter and junk? At the end of the day it is your decision. There is no right or wrong answer. Though I will admit, having less clutter and junk around definitely helps my blood pressure go down and I can spend more time with my family than worrying about what to do with items that I don't love.
This spring we are going to have a yard sale. I have a closet in the basement where I have been putting various items we want to get rid of. My husband and I have decided that as soon as the yard sale is done we are gathering all the items that haven't sold and donating them to charity. For us having less clutter is the answer for us.
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