Guest Blogger: 5 Ways to Make Money from your Home Clutter

 Guest Blogger #746, Entry #1747, October 23, 2012

Have you ever looked around your house and thought, “If I could get a dollar for all of this clutter, I’d be a millionaire”? OK, the reality check is this: You probably won’t be able to retire early due to all of your old clothes, books and CDS, but rather than continue to let that stuff take up the space in your home or instead of simply throwing it out, why not think about some ways that you could make a few dollars off of it? If you need a bit of assistance, we have five cool ideas below:

Get your home organized and make money

Host a yard sale.

The first thing that comes to mind is to host a yard sale. This is a fun idea because you can easily call over some of your friends so that they can bring some of their stuff and make a weekend out of it. All you need are a few tables, some flyers to pass around the neighborhood and some music to play as people shop. The main thing to keep in mind with this idea is to present the stuff in a way where it does look like “clutter” so much as “nicely and gently used items”.

Go online.

Thanks to websites like eBay and Craigslist, you can easily advertise your old stereo system or cherry wood sleigh bed for free. Simply take a picture, provide a brief description of the item and how much you are asking for it. One hint here is that you might want to provide “OBO” (Or Best Offer) as an option as well. For instance, if you are going to sell a large antique wooden trunk for $300, adding “OBO” may actually get you more offers. $250 today is a lot better than $300 six weeks later, right?

Check out Gazelle and Target.

If you have some sort of an Apple product, while you could post it on some free California classifieds (or wherever it is that you currently live), there is another option that is quick and easy. Gazelle is a website that assists owners with iPhones, Macs, iPods so that they can sell their used items online. Also, there are several Targets across the country that will pay you to trade in your electronics. For more information on that, visit TargetTradeInProgram.com.

Make money from your clutter!

Try a consignment shop.

There are a lot of local consignment stores that will take in “like new” items to showcase. Whenever your coat or CD player or chair sells, they will simply take a percentage of the asking price in return for putting your item on display. This option oftentimes requires a bit more patience, but it’s still a good one to keep in mind. Also, if you have a preteen or teen, Plato’s Closet will take gently-used designer clothing and, upon approval, pay for it on the spot.

Use social media.

Whether it’s your own website, your blog, your Facebook page or your Twitter account, it only takes a minute to send out a quick message that you are selling some used purses or sporting equipment. If you really want to attract some “quick attention”, why not post up a video that showcases some of the items that you have available? A website that can assist you with getting the word out to Facebook and Twitter even faster is Yardsellr. Good luck.

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For more home organization ideas on Stagetecture, click here.