Is Reselling Your Stuff Worth Your Time?

Should you take time listing the items you purged and resell them to earn some extra cash? Find out when it’s worth it and when it’s not.

So you’ve finally taken the step to start decluttering your home. Woop Woop, happy dance time! But now you’re left with four big boxes of stuff you’re ready to say goodbye to and you have no idea what to do with it. Sure, you could donate, but you’re also wondering if any of it is worth reselling for some extra cash in your pocket.

Before you go wasting your precious time and energy just to get a few bucks back, follow these guidelines to make a logical decision.

Evaluate The Money Vs. Your Time

When you’re first thinking about selling that rug you replaced in the dining room, all you’re thinking about making some of the money back that you spent on the new one you just put down.

But what you don’t think about is the amount of effort it will take to get to the point where someone is handing you a wad of cash.

Factor in time cleaning the items, photographing the items, prepping the listing, negotiations with hagglers, storage for items until they sell, rearranging your schedule to meet people, driving to meet people, packing for shipping, and postage.

After you’ve considered all of these time suckers, and you still think the amount you’ll make warrants all that effort, then that’s your cue to start the process.

Consider Resale Value

Just because an item was expensive when you bought it doesn’t always mean it still holds value now. Remember Beanie Babies from the 90’s? Everyone thought they would be rich by hanging onto their collections (me included!) but now you can’t even give those guys away!

Take a minute to look up the item you want to sell on the platform you want to sell it on. See what the common pricing is and look at how long the items have been listed. If you’re seeing high prices but long listing times, or drastically reduced pricing, you may want to reconsider.

Consider Transportation

If you want to get rid of a big item like furniture or large appliances, you should try to opt to sell or even list for free with the requirement of the buyer picking it up.

Unless you’ve got a big truck that you don’t mind scratching up the bed, and some extra muscles that can help you load it, it’s often smarter to sell or give away at a lower price than have to deal with transporting it somewhere yourself.

If you’re dead-set on donating, or if you don’t want strangers coming to your house, Habitat For Humanity ReStore has a pickup service and will come get large items at no cost to you. But the item must be approved by them first and proven to turn a profit for them. Call your local store for details.

What If You Decide To Donate Instead?

When it comes to choosing donation centers, pick one or two places ONLY. My two are Goodwill and SPCA. It isn’t worth your time to make ten deliveries to ten different facilities. If it’s trash I trash it, if it’s a donation, it goes to one of these 2 places.

My Personal Resale Rules

I have recently decided to stop selling items that are under $100 resale value. This narrows it down to mostly furniture and appliances only. In the past, I have sold clothes, shoes, home decor, and other miscellaneous items, but when I really sat down and looked at the time versus money, I basically made about a dollar an hour. PASS!

My only exception is if it’s something too big to fit in my car. At that point, I’ll list it a lower price, or even free, just to have someone come get it from me.

Implementing this rule helps me with more intentional shopping. Before I had a mindset that I could just sell it later. Now before I buy something frivolous that I don’t NEED, I ask myself, am I willing to “give this away” for no money later when I’m done with it? If I want it enough now that I’m willing to donate for no profit later, then I’ll buy it.

Want More Purging Tips?

This post walks you through how I got rid of over half of my stuff before we moved. It’s got lots of great tips and ideas on how to purge, trash, donate, and deal with acceptance of letting go.