OPTED Magazine

So, you’ve purged your closets, cleaned off shelves, and paired down your belongings.  Many things have gone straight in the trash, some were recycled and others donated.  But decluttering can produce a number of products that are reusable and valuable enough to be resold.

The final step of decluttering  almost always includes selling some unwanted items, but we also need to have the motivation to actually DO it.

Your homework of the day is to gather your unwanted items marked for resale, snap some digital photos and take action.

Here are some valuable places to list your items:

• eBay — for years it’s been a user friendly site to sell items and maybe one of the most well-known.  But what might not be well known is that eBay has a new policy offering you 5 items every 30 days with no insertion fees.  My own strategy is to hold on to that clutter just a tad longer and take advantage of the offer listing 5 new things each month until they’re all gone
• Craigslist — another fantastic way to sell (or give away for free) your unwanted items.  I’ve used Craiglist for setting a firm price and in other instances, said “email me your best offer” and whoever has the best price is the buyer.  The advantage to Craigslist is that it’s local.  You can make arrangements with the buyer to pick it up from your house, or meet you somewhere, and you eliminate shipping fees and a post office visit.

Other great ways to dispose of some categories of unwanted items is making someone’s day with a freebie.  I’ve scored some great furniture pieces in my neighborhood from people placing small items at the end of their driveway with a “free” sign.  Another great site is Freecycle, where you list items you will part with at no cost and arrangements can be made for pickup.

Either way you go, selling or giving away for free, actual disposal of your unwanted items is the final, and perhaps most important, step of decluttering.

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