Cashing in on Your Clutter

Yesterday morning I had an appointment with a client in the town where I live. After dropping my boys to school I had about forty minutes to spare and I decided against going home. A hot steamy chai beckoned and just as I headed for the coffee shop I bumped into a friend.

My life has been all go of late so it was nice to stop, even for a half hour and switch off. A complete switch off didn’t happen because the conversation moved onto clutter. My friend had previously attended one of my courses and is now totally sold on the idea of decluttering. Although she has tackled it a little more slowly and less aggressively than I did when I started out on my quest for a Clutter free World.

My Clutterfree Mistake

On the course I told the story of donating all my summer clothes to charity, unintentionally. Living in Ireland we have little use for summer clothes, skirts and dresses get worn one or twice a year. But for my yearly visits to South Africa at the beginning of each year I probably wouldn’t have missed the bag of brightly coloured t-shirts shorts and skirts. So do be careful if you decide to tackle your clutter with gusto, I still feel a little pang when I think of it, but the silly mistake didn’t stop me from continuing to making my life lighter of possessions.

Money from Junk

We also spoke about her idea to make money from her junk. What do they say? One’s man’s junk is another man’s gold and having lived in South Africa, I’ve seen this to be true, time and time again. I always advocate dumping and recycling or donating but I never really put much thought into actually making money from all the stuff I no longer use. I did once bring my more expensive clothes to a second hand clothes shop, but I had such a bad experience with clothes going missing and clothes damaged I decided not to repeat it, even though I did make some money from the whole experience.

Of course when I speak about making money from your junk I’m not talking about your novelty bobble head or your fake china, more like sporting equipment and baby equipment no longer needed.

How to go about it

There are many ways in which you can sell your unwanted stuff:

• Put a note up in your local shop
• Take a picture and post it on eBay
• Post it on donedeal.ie (or a local classified website)
• Go to Gazelle.com an online resource for selling your electronic goods
• Amazon.com another popular option for selling goods online
• Seek out a car-boot sale or an auction centre
• If all else fails you can have a yard sale and sell from your own front garden

It’s a great time of the year to be thinking of making some money from your unwanted possessions. A time when those of you with kids will be contemplating the arrival of more stuff. When the Christmas seasons is around, spare cash is always appreciated.

So give it a go and let me know how you get on. Thank you to my friend for the catch up, the chai and the clutter tips.

If you are interested in clearing the clutter from your life you may be interested in this Free eBook Clear the Clutter Find your Life