Getting Rid Of Stuff

by FrugalBabe on March 20, 2009

I sold our old bed frame yesterday, for $20.  I put it on Craig’s List and got about ten responses within the first few hours.  So I guess I could have sold it for more, but I really wanted to get rid of it, and the $20 price did the trick.  It’s nice to have it out of the house, not taking up space anymore.  And the $20 is nice too.

Selling the bed frame made me start to look around at the possibility of selling some of the other stuff that we’re getting rid of in our effort to declutter our house.  I typically just drop everything off at the thrift store, and rarely sell anything.  I thought about the possibility of a garage sale, but my husband pointed out that a garage sale does involve a lot of time and effort compared with just tossing everything in the car and taking it over to the thrift store.  And everything we’d be selling is small stuff – there’s no big ticket items.  This post from the Joy of Frugal Living sums up my thoughts on selling our stuff as opposed to donating it.

A few years ago I tried buying clothes at a low-priced thrift store near our house and then re-selling them at a higher priced consignment store in a nearby town.  It was ok, and I did come out a little bit ahead.  But when I factor in the time and effort, it was a pretty low-paying adventure.  I think that the same would be true of selling the stuff we need to get rid of now.  Most of it is clothes and small household items – things that would mostly sell for $5 or less.  We tried listing some clothes on Craigs List last year, and nobody contacted us at all, even though they were pretty cheap.  I think that a garage sale would be the best way to sell our stuff, and neither of us really wants to put in the time required to set up a good garage sale.

So yesterday I made a trip to the thrift store and dropped off a huge bag full of stuff.  As we continue the decluttering process, we’ll keep making trips to the thrift store.  It’s a Habitat for Humanity store, so the proceeds go to a good cause (as is the case with most thrift stores).  I figure I’ve gotten a lot of benefit from shopping at thrift stores over the years (especially that particular store), and it makes me feel good to be able to donate back to them.

I think that if we had furniture or expensive stuff that we were getting rid of, we’d try to sell it.  But we tend to keep expensive stuff until it reaches the end of its useful life.  I have some friends who sell stuff on eBay and get pretty good money for their stuff.  But their stuff was a lot more expensive than ours in the first place.  Just about everything we have was second hand when we got it, and didn’t cost a lot of money.  Maybe that’s why I’m ok with just donating it when we don’t need it anymore.

What do you think?  If you had a bunch of low-ticket items that you wanted to get rid of, would you hold a garage sale or donate everything to a thrift store?

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  • http://nopinkhere.wordpress.com Gabriel

    Thrift store, definitely. Mostly it’s the effort involved.

  • H

    I donate. Mostly because if I want to sell them, I’d never get around to it. I’ve mostly only sold textbooks online and a new pair of shoes that I bought from an outlet and couldn’t return.

  • AD

    I use a combination of resale shops, thrift stores, and giving away to younger cousins. Can’t say there’s much rhyme or reason, just depends on the item and my mood, and if a cousin is visiting it’ll just go straight to him or her.

  • http://towardsabettertomorrow.blogspot.com/ Kay

    I freecycle. I have used craigslist once for selling the cloth diapers that didn’t work for me. Might do it again for a piece of furniture. but everything else is freecycled usually.

    We are moving soon to a smaller apartment. and I just freecycled my microwave, sewing cabinet and a dining table that was used as extra counter space. I also will have tons of small stuff to get rid off. All these will be going to the nearest Goodwill.

  • http://outofthecrayonbox.blogspot.com Jane

    I love to have a garage sale, but it is soo much work. I have found that there is good money in selling clothes and small items. I bagged up craft odds and ends and sold each bag for 50 cents. Also, I made good money on selling wrapping paper and gift bags. Little stuff that I didn’t want to move into my new apartment. It added up.

    That said, if time is tight and mostly it is, feeding the thrift store is the best. I feel like it’s a Karma thing. If I donate when I can, I will find the things I need in return.

  • http://www.joyoffrugalliving.blogspot.com Jennifer @ Joy of Frugal Living

    Hey, thanks for linking to me. :) Well, you know my feelings on this. I also made some money a while back reselling items from a lower priced thrift store – including on eBay. There was a certain thrill to selling an item I acquired for 50 cents for over $20, but in the end, the earnings per hour were slim. I’ve thought about the garage sale route too, but it’s a lot of work for not a lot of money. The thrift stores and such are equipped to do all of this more efficiently and make money for a good cause. Right now at least, I am very happy with donating.

    You are so lucky having a Habitat store nearby! I visited one before we moved last, and got a great and cheap chandelier there. When we move to a house we own, we will definitely make the trip to see what useful stuff they may have for us. And it is indeed a great cause.

    Enjoy the decluttering! I’m working along with you. :)

  • http://farmhomelife.blogspot.com Trixie

    My husband and I combined two households when we married a couple of years ago and we are STILL ridding ourselves of our excess stuff!

    We do a variety of things to de-clutter. We’ve held two garage sales, donated items, sold on consignment (mostly women’s clothing) and sold stuff via ebay, craig’s list and amazon.

    We’ve found amazon works best for books, ebay for plus sized ladies clothes and smaller things that ship well. Craig’s List is great for the thing’s that aren’t something you would want to bother shipping because the cost of shipping would make it prohibititve for people to buy the item off ebay.

    Recently I was able to buy a new-to-me car by doing some extra things to make money from home. One of those things was selling stuff on Craig’s list, ebay and amazon. One man’s trash is truly another’s treasure. You can read about how I did it here:

    http://farmhomelife.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-i-bought-new-car-debt-free-well.html

    Take Care,

    Trixie

  • http://notesfromthefrugaltrenches.com Frugal Trenches

    Personally I would donate, unless I needed money to put food on the table then I try to think someone else may need that money more than I do!

  • http://thereductionistspeaks.blogspot.com neimanmarxist

    you know, i think the math problems are getting harder! :)
    last summer we were really broke (woops) and we sold some unwanted vintage musical equipment on ebay. it did much better than we ever imagined it would! (hello, rent money!) i think things like that- electronics, antiques- do well on ebay. But for things like clothes or dishes or other misc. household items, i just go to the salvation army. selling things on ebay is a fair amount of work, between taking and positng photos, packing, and shipping. :)

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  • Evie

    Last year we slowly went through the boxes that moved with us to our current house four years ago and never got unpacked. About 95% of the stuff we decided to give to our local Goodwill. I cataloged it for tax deduction purposes and that was it. The time and effort involved for a garage sale just wasn’t worth it to me.

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  • Liz

    For clothing I’ve never thought twice about it and always just donated it. When my husband and I moved to our current location from overseas we had no furniture, and had to acquire everything. We did that via craigslist, garage sales, found items and thrift shops (I think we also bought two relatively low cost items from IKEA and we did buy a new mattress set). Part of my rationale is that we will be here for a total of 2 years (plus or minus) and can resell what we have acquired for close to what we spent. Because the furniture represents a significant amount of money and we will have to re-acquire whatever we get rid of when we do get rid of it, that I will plan to resell whether via craigslist or yard sale. So to me it has to do with scale of cost. As a frequent shopper at thrift shops, there are items that I know they are going to sell for $1 apiece, or $.50 apiece. They won’t be big money-makers for the thrift shop. If I have time and reason to believe that I can net more, I would resell items that fell into that category.

  • Nancy

    I tried selling on Craigslist and all I got was spam!

  • Nancy

    I live in Florida and a nearby apartment complex gets their fair share of “snowbirds” for the winter. I have talked to some of these folks when they were holding a garage sale. They come down every year with only what will fit in their car. They buy what they need for the winter (furniture, dishes, etc.) and then they hold a garage sale and resell the stuff in the spring. They are retired, so they have time to do this.

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