Decluttering – How to help your old stuff find a new home!

Ok, so you did the hard part, you made the choice to declutter.  You went through your house and decided to part with all the stuff which no longer brings you joy or which you find to be beautiful or useful.  (To read more about my decluttering process, check out this post.)  And now you have a giant pile of stuff to get rid of and are wondering what the best way is to do that.

As someone who moves often, I am regularly decluttering.  It seems like I am regularly either wishing I hadn’t moved something or deciding I don’t want to move it again.  (For months before and after a move I actually view our stuff in terms of small uhaul box quantity – that stack of books – one small uhaul box, the mixing bowls, another small uhaul box, etc.)  So I have gotten good at finding ways to rehome all of the stuff we no longer want to live with.

You could drop everything off at a thrift store, but I would encourage you to spend a little time deciding if that is the right destination for all of your stuff before loading up your car and making the single drop.

Three categories

As I declutter, I divide everything into three categories – sell, donate, trash.  Here is how I determine what goes into each pile:

Sell: these are items that still have life in them but which I no longer want to live with.  For example – furniture, small appliances, home decor, craft supplies, toys and games, etc.  

Donate: these are also items that still have life in them and which I no longer want to live with.  The difference between donate and sell is the amount I believe I could sell them for. It is not worth my time to sell anything for less than $10, if I think it will bring less than that (or I don’t think there is a market for an item where I live), I donate it.  (Adjust this minimum sale amount based on your own threshold – if you are new to reselling your items, you may need to adjust over time as you learn what does and does not work for you.)

Trash: these are items which have lived out their useful life.  This includes things like broken electronics, worn out clothing, falling apart shoes, and pretty much anything else which includes the word “broken” and doesn’t seem to be fixable.

Sell

There are several ways to sell the items you have decided to let go of during your decluttering process.  I like to go through the extra effort of selling much of what I declutter for several reasons.  

First, it gives me a little extra spending money I would not otherwise have.  I like to use this money to buy special treats I might not have considered without this “extra” money.  

Second, when you sell something, you know the person receiving it really wants it. That helps me in decluttering – if I know something is going to a home where it will be enjoyed and appreciated, it is a lot easier for me to let it go.

Here are some of my favorite options for selling online (I do not have the patience for a yard sale – again, your threshold may be different):

OfferUp: I like OfferUp not only because it provides me with a way to sell my items locally without sharing my personal contact information, but it also has an option to sell and ship items online.  I use OfferUp for almost everything I sell except clothing and books.  

The app is easy to use and you can have items listed in just a few minutes.  I also find there is a consistently larger buyer pool on OfferUp than on other selling apps I have tried.  The shipping option is also easy to use – once you and a buyer reach an agreement to sell an item, OfferUp will send you a prepaid label.  You just need to safely package the item and drop it off at the post office. OfferUp essentially holds the payment in escrow until the buyer has received the item, then 48 hours after receipt, the funds are transferred to your account.  The fees are laid out when you accept the sale, and I find it much easier to post and sell on OfferUp than eBay.  

Craigslist: I will occasionally use Craigslist for items which I am also listing on OfferUp.  Sometimes I have great luck selling quickly on Craigslist, sometimes I don’t. The downside to using Craigslist is it is much harder to keep your personal contact information private.  Frequently you need to share at least your phone number to arrange contact with the buyer. However, if you live in an area with a lower population density, Craigslist might get you a wider audience for items which can not be shipped (like furniture) and therefore would be harder to sell on OfferUp.

ThredUp: I have mixed feelings about ThredUp.  It is important to note that when selling clothing through ThredUp, they offer you two different purchase options.  They will buy from you outright (at a lower price), or offer you a commission once an item sells (at a higher price).  The commission price is based on the assumption that your items will sell, which in my experience is not always the case.

ThredUp will email you a prepaid shipping label, you pack a box full of clothing and send it off to them.  In a few days/weeks, they will email you the two different buyout options. You can request items that are not sold be returned (you pay return shipping), or you can have ThredUp responsibly recycle/donate them.  

Unless you have a closet full of designer clothing, it is unlikely you will make much money from ThredUp.  However, I do not have the patience to sell my clothing either through OfferUp or something like PoshMark where you need to list each item separately.  So if I didn’t use ThredUp, after decluttering, I would be donating the clothing and receiving nothing. It is worth it to me to pack everything into a box and take the initial payout offered – this takes the minimum time commitment from me and helps clothing which I no longer wear find a new home where they will be enjoyed.

PaperBackSwap (books, DVDs and CDs): You won’t actually receive a cash payment if you use PaperBackSwap, but if you have a collection of books, DVDs, or CDs you are ready to let go of, this is a great way to help them find a new home while providing you with the opportunity to get new reading, viewing, and listening material.  

Once you sign-up, you can list all items you are ready to let go of.  When someone requests something from your list, you pay the media mail rate to ship them out and you receive one credit.  (You can print postage right from PaperBackSwap and drop your package in a mailbox so you don’t even need to go to the post office.) When you find a book, DVD or CD you would like, you request that item, and use your credit to “pay” for it.  

This is one of my favorite techniques for lightening the load during pre-move decluttering.  Before I move, I place all the books I no longer want to hang onto on PaperBackSwap and put my wishlist on hold (a wishlist hold prevents you from being offered books and also preserves your place in line if multiple people are wishing for a book).  I ship my old books out and bank the credits. Once I am settled into my new place, I take my wishlist off hold, and use all the credits I banked to get new books I have been waiting to read shipped right to my home at no additional cost!

It is important to note that books, DVDs and CDs are housed on three different sites under the PaperBackSwap family, but credits can be transferred one-for-one between sites.

Donate

The items in this category are pretty straightforward to get rid of.  You load up your car and drop everything off at a convenient thrift store.  If you live in a metropolitan area, you will have several to choose from. Be aware that many are affiliated with non-profit organizations and you may want to determine what organization you would like to support with your donation.

Also be aware that if you would like to receive a tax benefit for your donation, you must donate your items to an organization which can issue a tax donation receipt.  A quick online search or phone call should confirm both who will benefit from your donation and if a tax receipt can be provided.

One more note is that several thrift stores will pick up at your home.  This is especially useful if you have large items or enough to donate that you will need to make multiple trips.

Trash

I try really hard to recycle anything that falls into the trash category.  If it can be recycled with your regular municipal recycling, that is as easy as putting it in the correct bin on trash day.  Some items you need to work a little harder at recycling.

Old electronics get dropped off at an ewaste recycling center.  Used contacts and blister packs can be dropped off for recycling by Terracycle (there are dozens of brands which have partnered with Terracycle for free recycling of their packaging – check out all the programs here).  If you are not sure where to start, check out Earth911 which provides a searchable database of locations around the US to recycle things you might not even think about recycling.

Finally, I always try to determine if something that I think is trash might be treasure to someone else.  I am not encouraging you to donate garbage to your thrift store – it cost them money to dispose of your trash if they can not resell it.  This means they have fewer funds to carry out their charitable work.  But do a little out-of-the box thinking before dropping something in the garbage or recycling bin.  

For instance, I subscribe to several magazines.  As I read them, I pull out any pages I want to refer to in the future.  I used to recycle the magazines once I finished reading them until I realized that teachers and after-school programs are always looking for magazines for kids to cut up and create art projects with.  Now when I have a big stack ready to go, I cut off my address, list them for free on OfferUp, and usually within a few days I can meet a grateful teacher and hand them off to become countless school projects.

The exception to the rule

I want to note one exception to everything I have just said.  If you have already done a massive decluttering of your home and have a garage, basement or spare room full of items to get rid of, please know that you have permission to just donate everything you pulled to get rid of.  Do not put yourself through the process of going through everything again to decide what is worth selling.

Sorting sell, donate and trash is something that is best done as you declutter, not after.  Once you have decided to let something go, the last thing you want to do is look at it again.  Please also know that what might be easy to sell in a major metropolitan area may not be as easy to sell in a more rural location.  I was able to sell a larger variety of items and make sales much faster when I lived in an urban location than I am in the suburbs.  

It will take some experimentation to find out what works for you and in your location, but I suggest setting a time limit on items you have listed for sale.  If they don’t sell in a specific number of weeks or months, then load them up for your next trip to the thrift store to donate them.  

Wishing you a home filled with only things you love, and a loving new home for all the items you declutter.