Making Money From Your Clutter

Most of us have been stuck at home for the majority of the year due to COVID-19. This has given us a lot of time to look around the house, give it a good clean and generally sort things out. Clutter is perhaps one of the biggest offenders and unless you clean your home on a regular basis, you’ve probably built up quite a lot of useless stuff that is just sitting around with no real purpose.

But as the saying goes, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.

You could potentially be sitting on a huge goldmine if you’re willing to sort out your clutter. So to help you out, here are a couple of ways to make money from your “trash”.

Selling your clutter is the best way to make a profit from it

Selling stuff is a great way to not only clear out your clutter but also make a bit of money from it. This is what the article will be mainly focused on; organizing your clutter and then selling it on a marketplace for money. But first, it’s important to talk about where you can sell your stuff.

This is going to depend heavily on the items you find and the condition they’re in. For instance, an antique vase or lamp is going to sell for a lot more on a speciality website than eBay. Similarly, old vintage clothing might be a lot better to sell on services like eBay and Depop, or even social media. As such, it’s important to do a bit of research by looking up similar items to see where they sell for high prices.

You should also keep in mind that selling on these websites isn’t completely free. You’re going to have to pay some kind of fee to the service, and you might also need to pay a fee to payment processors such as PayPal. Make sure you understand these fees if you’re selling something for a low price because you might end up getting almost nothing from it.

Lastly, you also need to keep in mind how you’re going to send the product to the buyer. In most cases, this will mean packaging it in a box and then mailing it to the buyer. However, some products may need to be shipped in special containers to protect them. This is usually the case for something like antiques that could be damaged in shipping. If an item is too large to send, then you’ll need to specify that it’s a collection-only piece and that the buyer needs to arrange for a courier or to pick it up on their own.

Sort your clutter first before you try to sell things

It can be exciting to rummage through your clutter and find something that’s worth selling. Perhaps you find an old piece of jewellery that you no longer want, or maybe you find an old first-edition Harry Potter book in fantastic condition and want to immediately list it on a marketplace. However, you should always wait a moment to make sure that you sort out all of your clutter first before you decide to stop tidying up.

Remember; selling your clutter is both about tidying up your home and also making a profit. Don’t just pluck the valuable items out of a box and then leave the rest. Make sure you organize everything that you find. You don’t need to have strict categories for everything – there just needs to be some kind of organization. For example, perhaps you can place all of the books you find in a pile and then place all the jewellery into a bag. Maybe you can have a box dedicated to the random electronics you find, and make sure you have a bag or two for bits of clothing that you no longer want or need.

One of the reasons you want to do this is because you might stumble across a collection of items that is worth more than individual pieces. For example, you might have a huge collection of pogs that can sell for quite a lot of money if you have a whole box or bag of them. Selling individual ones can be a little tricky because not all of them are worth money and they might not be in great condition if they’re in your clutter.

Books can also sell for a bit more if they’re included in a collection, such as completing a full set of Harry Potter books. You want to tidy up as much clutter as you can to see what collections you can make from your items. This tends to sell a little better and you’ll also save money on shipping costs.

Check that the item contains everything that it normally should

When selling certain types of items, it’s important to ensure that it’s as close to the retail packaging as possible. For instance, if you’re going to sell something like a video game, make sure that everything is inside of the box. Make sure the manual is in there and, of course, the video game itself. If you have extra sleeves or bonus things that came in the box, make sure you include them as well.

This is especially important for something like board games because the buyer needs all of the pieces and tokens that it comes with in order to play the game. Having a full set means that the item can sell for a much higher price. If it’s missing pieces, then it’s your duty as the seller to take a note of all of the missing pieces and put it in the description of the item to let potential buyers know. Failing to disclose this kind of information can get you in trouble. The buyer might request a refund or you might be in a situation where the marketplace blacklists you or temporarily restricts your permission to sell because you weren’t being truthful.

If you know that it’s a special item, make sure you find the right place to sell it

If you know that you’re holding onto something that is worth a lot of money, then it’s in your interests to make sure that you sell it for the right price instead of getting low offers from people trying to abuse your lack of knowledge.

This is usually the case for collectable items such as toys and video games. You’ll want to do a bit of research if you have a hunch that the item you have is worth quite a bit of money. Don’t be afraid to reach out to experts as well or look at multiple different marketplaces to see what the average price is. However, this doesn’t actually work for certain types of items like antiques because the value is usually down to the buyer. Some people would be willing to pay a huge amount of money for something if it completes their collection.

This is why it’s important to find the right place to sell it. You could get 3 or 4 times the regular asking price if you find a suitable buyer. But to find one, you’ll need to do a bit of digging around and browse marketplaces of different relevant communities to see if there’s anyone willing to buy it. It can take a bit of time to find a suitable buyer, but you’ll be able to sell it for much more than the regular price.