Sell Your Unwanted Stuff

The quickest and easiest way to accelerate the process of saving up money is to increase your income. One great way is to sell your unwanted stuff.

Here are some ways to raise extra cash quickly.

De-cluttering

For most people who can’t directly affect how much they get paid, I would say that the first task should be to turn your unwanted stuff into immediate cash. Yes I know it’s not regular income like a salary but it helps in several ways: First you bring in some extra cash that can be seed money for an investment. Second the process of getting rid of unwanted stuff has the important psychological effect of clearing the decks mentally as well as physically; It’s amazing how you get more ideas when your physical world is ordered. Thirdly it will prove to yourself that you can manifest money into your life, when you need it.

Be honest, how much stuff have you got that you don’t need or want? Someone, somewhere needs or wants that stuff. Sell your unwanted stuff and they will pay you cool, hard cash.
When I first started on this process, our loft was a great place to find stuff to make some money. At that time we had been in our current house for about 8 years and the stuff we had accumulated was awesome (and not in the good ‘awesome’ way).
We’d actually brought clutter in from our old house! We all do it; When our living space gets too cluttered we just shove the stuff through that hatch in the ceiling, to be forgotten.

The De-Cluttering Process

Well, the first thing to do is to confront the problem, get in the loft and have a look. I know it can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be cleared in one go. The beauty of the method I learned was that you can just chip away at the issue.
So one by one go through each item and allocate it to one corner of the loft depending on which of the following categories it is:

The first pile can be stuff to keep – have you used this item in the last year? If not, it goes. If its sentimental, why is it stuffed away up in the loft?
Next is stuff to sell on Amazon/eBay – These are smaller items that can be easily posted and are in good condition.
Stuff to sell on a car-boot or jumble sale – These are larger items, bric-a-brac and stuff that might be ‘a bit tired, but in working order’.
Stuff to give away to the charity shop – Old clothes etc.
Then there is fifth category – To throw away and recycle. This category doesn’t have a corner because you will throw it away immediately, if possible, or at least bag it up ready for the trip to the recycle centre.

A great book on this subject is Organizing from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern.

Amazon

Amazon is a surprisingly easy place to sell your unwanted stuff; I prefer it to eBay. The beauty of selling on Amazon is that you only have to list the item once, then sit back a wait for the sale. The downside is that you don’t get the upside of the auction like on eBay. First check the price of similar items listed on Amazon and place yours at what you would reasonable expect to pay. If a lot of the similar items are listed as £0.01 list at your minimum and list on eBay as well.

eBay

Open an account if you don’t already have one. When you list your item, take good photos. Really ‘sell’ the item. Give the item a good descriptive title; think about what people will search for. For instance if you are selling a book, don’t just list the book title and authors name; what is the book about what does it tell you? Write a great description; again do a selling job.

Car-boot Sales

Finally if you like dealing with people face to face, the good old Car-Boot sale can be a lively place to sell your unwanted stuff. Always plan ahead, though. I have done a few car-boot sales and I can tell you from experience that if you turn up unprepared you will get flustered and harassed by people asking you ‘how much is this?’ or ‘Do you have change of a £20 note?’

So get prepared, have an idea of what price you will be prepared to sell each item. You could put price tags on, but I think it’s best to let people ask you how much it is. Also think about your lowest price as well – plan to barter. Do take plenty of spare change and empty plastic bags. Arrive early. This will mean you can set up before the masses arrive and lay out your stall. You can also choose the good spots. Car-boot sales are really fun and addictive as well.

The funny thing about clearing away clutter, physical clutter, is that it seems to stimulate the removal of mental clutter. If you have a clear physical environment, you create clarity of thought. You should now also have some spare cash and lots of space. With that clarity of thought, space and spare cash you can then start to to get creative. It’s time to move onwards and upwards by creating even more income by: Trading In Your Passions. We will cover this in our next chapter.