Turning household junk into cash is not as hard as you might think as there are now many ways in which you can go about this. While you may look around your house and see nothing but clutter and junk, what you may really be looking at is cold hard cash. Remember, that one person’s junk is another person’s jubilation and one person’s trash is another person’s treasure, so don’t be so hasty to disqualify your clutter for junk.
Before you make any money with the junk that is in and around your house though, you have to first have a game plan. What avenues will you take in order to rid yourself of the junk? You can use as many as you want, but what usually works best is to formulate a game plan that will include selling your junk online and offline as well. This can be done by making three different piles that you can work from, one for junk, one for selling online, and one for selling offline.
The first pile you make will be all junk. This will be only for what is truly junk and can’t be sold. Reserve this pile for broken items or items that are missing parts and piece. Don’t put things in this pile however, that you simply do not use or like anymore. Just because you no longer have a need for an old calculator, doesn’t mean that someone else won’t. This ‘junk pile’ is the only one that you will move to the curb and not get any money for, but it is an important pile to have as it will allow you to have more room for the good stuff.
The second pile you create will be for things that you can sell online. You can use online marketplaces such as eBay, Amazon, Craigslist, and more, but the important thing is to know what will sell online and won’t. To help you determine this, look at some of the outlets in which you will be selling your items on as a guide.
Use the search bars in eBay, Amazon, and Craigslist to see if there is a market for certain things you want to sell online. If there is set it in the ‘online pile’ pile. If not, set it off to the side, you’ll end up coming back to that later. Now decide which online outlet you want to sell with and how much you want to pay for the advertisement end of selling online.
Really, there isn’t an advertisement fee per say, but eBay and Amazon have what are called insertion fees and final value fees. These fees are typically very low, but they are none the less fees that need to be considered. Think of the fees as an opportunity for your junk to be viewed worldwide. Usually items that sell well on eBay and Amazon are ones that are not too heavy for shipping reasons, items that can bring at least a few bucks, and items that are selling already on those sites.
Craigslist is perfect for items that you don’t care about reaching a worldwide market with. Craigslist is also a free of charge resource to use and you can advertise in your local area for free as long as you follow their listing guidelines.
Finally it will come time for you to deal with all the stuff that didn’t make it into the junk pile or the online pile. This will be your offline pile. Your offline pile will consist of items that can’t be easily shipped or that you just don’t feel will do well being sold online. So, how do you turn this household junk into cash? One of the best ways is by having a garage sale.
Before you actually hold a garage sale, there are a few things that you need to go over. The first is what days you will hold it. While garage sales are almost always held on weekend days, you still need to decide if you will have a Saturday only sale, a Sunday only sale, or a combination of both days. It is even common these days to see some people hold garage sales on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
The second consideration is where you live. Certain states, counties, and cities will make you get a temporary permit in order to hold a garage sale and failure to do so can lead to a fine. A fine will not only ruin your day, but it will also defeat the purpose of you trying to turn your household junk into money.
The last consideration is advertisement. You can advertise your garage sale for free in Craigslist under the appropriate section and you can also pay a few bucks to have your garage sale advertised in your local paper. Additionally, you will want to put up signs in and around your neighborhood that will direct people to your garage sale.
Though it is called a garage sale, you will not be selling items out of your garage. Instead, you need to get a couple of tables that you can put in your driveway and use to put all that junk in the offline pile onto. Then you only have to sit back and wait for people who saw your advertisements, or simply saw you passing by, to find your garage sale and sell your heart out.
When it is all said and done, your piles should be all but gone and you will have raised some serious cash. You can either take the leftovers from the piles and repeat the process or you can donate them, but don’t just throw them away. If you do decide to donate them, be sure to get a receipt as you will then be able to write off that donation in part or whole come tax time.
With all the ways to turn your household junk into cash, there is no need to ever look in disgust at the clutter around your house. Instead, look around with dollar signs in your eyes and get to work.
