So far, we’ve made $211 in March selling our junk, yay yay! Let me explain how…
I hate clutter. I cringe when I see someone’s garage overflowing with boxes and things. I take pride in keeping a clean, organized, clutter free home. Although our cabinets and closets are a little too full for my liking, they are orderly enough for me to find everything I need. Eventually I will try some Marie Kondo next-level minimalist organization, but for now, I can’t do it. The idea of throwing away perfectly good items because I don’t use them regularly doesn’t jive with me. Some items will be used again, but not soon, like certain tools, yard stuff, and baby items. For each stage of things my daughter grows out of, I clean and store the items, knowing that in some years we will be doing this all over again. With that being said, I still donate to Goodwill regularly, at least 20 items every 3 months. These are mostly items I don’t want to waste time selling on resale platforms, maybe they’d sell for $10 or less, so I donate them, or I’ve tried to sell them and haven’t had luck. But the money-savvy spirit within me flinches everytime I give away something that could have generated income, so I try my best to sell items I no longer have use for.
My favorite platform is OfferUp. Recently a friend put me on to Poshmark, but I haven’t used it besides buying a $50 hair conditioner for $12 because someone had opened it (and yes, it’s the real product, I’ve used it and can tell it’s legit). I love OfferUp because I can buy and sell things in my local community, so it saves on shipping for the buyer and seller. I’ve purchased many baby items on the app, including a $500 crib for $50, a $400 rocker chair for $100, and a new $20 outfit for $1. I even got a new $100 breast pump for free!
I’ve also sold my fair share of items. Last year I earned approximately $700 in 10 transactions. I love getting rid of things that are just collecting dust, and the fact that I make money while doing it just adds frosting on the cake. I love cake. Moving on…
Last week, I made $191 on OfferUp in two transactions. First, my husband was one of the lucky few who was able to get his hands on a PS5 when it was first released. For months his old PS4 collected dust. I asked him to list it but he didn’t think someone would want to buy a console that was pretty much obsolete since a new system was out. We figured the market would be flooded with PS4’s. 3 days ago we finally listed it and it sold for $170 within 3 hours. Last week I also listed a Marc Jacobs perfume I didn’t like. What’s funny is that I actually purchased the perfume on OfferUp a year before for $20. The day after I listed it, it sold for $25, $5 more than I bought it for with less perfume in the bottle. Since I am shipping the item, OfferUp took it’s percentage out (about $3.20), so I made a little more than $21 from it. That’s pretty good for less than a week. Two weeks ago I sold a pair of newborn Ugg boots for $20, I would’ve kept them for our next baby but the boots kept falling off so I figured it was best to sell them before one got lost.
The thing with resale is you never know what’s going to work out. Like the time two months ago I took over 60 clothing items to Buffalo Exchange and they only accepted one item, a white T shirt for $6. I think my wardrobe isn’t youthful enough for that kind of store. My items were things like slacks, blazers, and cashmere sweaters…they told me to come back when I had some high waist Levis…sigh.
March has been a good month for resale. Next I’m going to list a couple appliances, some board games we purchased for $50 and only used once, a couple of electronics, some jewelry, and some shoes. Hopefully I can make it to $300 before the end of March! My goal is to make $1000 selling my stuff this year. I sold $100 worth of stuff the past couple months so I have to make almost $600 more to meet my goal. Game on!
Side Note:
I’m also on the lookout for a high quality pressure washer. I’m scouring OfferUp, lowballing hither and yonder, patiently waiting until I find someone willing to sell me a washer worth over $500 for $50 or less. I know I can make it happen, I just have to be patient and persistent. I love getting good deals like this because I know that if I ever resell it, I can easily get $100 for it.
If you haven’t tried OfferUp I highly recommend it. Even if you don’t want to go through the hassle of selling something, you can get really good deals on purchases.
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