Turning household trash into cash isn’t as difficult as you might think, as there are now plenty of ways to do it. While you may look around your home and see nothing but clutter and junk, what you may really be looking at is cash. Remember, one person’s trash is another person’s joy and one person’s trash is another person’s treasure, so don’t be too quick to dismiss her clutter as trash.
However, before you can make money from the junk that is in and around your house, you must first have a game plan. What paths are you going to take to get rid of the garbage? You can use as many as you want, but what usually works best is to formulate a game plan that will include selling your scrap online as well as offline. This can be done by making three different stacks that you can work from, one for junk, one for selling online, and one for selling offline.
The first pile you make will be all junk. This will only be for what is truly junk and cannot be sold. Reserve this pile for broken items or items with bits and pieces missing. However, don’t put things in this pile that you simply don’t use or like anymore. Just because you no longer need an old calculator doesn’t mean someone else doesn’t need it. This ‘junk pile’ is the only one you will move to the curb and receive no money, but it is an important pile as it will allow you more room for the good stuff.
The second stack you create will be for things you can sell online. You can use online marketplaces like eBay, Amazon, Craigslist, and more, but the important thing is to know what will and won’t sell online. To help you determine this, look at some of the outlets you will be selling your items at as a guide.
Use the search bars on eBay, Amazon, and Craigslist to see if there’s a market for certain things you want to sell online. If there is, put it on the ‘inline stack’ stack. If not, put it aside, you’ll end up coming back to it later. Now decide which online outlet you want to sell with and how much you want to pay for the final advertising of the online sale.
Really, there isn’t an advertising fee per say, but eBay and Amazon have what are called insertion fees and final value fees. These fees are usually very low, but are nonetheless fees to be considered. Think of fees as an opportunity to get your trash seen around the world. Typically, the items that sell well on eBay and Amazon are the ones that aren’t too heavy for shipping reasons, the items that can fetch at least a few bucks, and the items that are already selling on those sites.
Craigslist is perfect for items you don’t mind reaching a global marketplace with. Craigslist is also a free to use resource and you can advertise in your local area for free as long as you follow their listing guidelines.
Eventually, the time will come for you to deal with all the stuff that didn’t make it to the junk pile or the online pile. This will be your offline stack. Your offline pile will consist of items that cannot be easily shipped or that you simply don’t think will sell well online. So how do you turn this household garbage into cash? One of the best ways is to have a garage sale.
Before you hold a garage sale, there are a few things to go over. The first is what days you will hold it. Although garage sales are almost always held on weekend days, you still need to decide if you will have a Saturday-only sale, a Sunday-only sale, or a combination of both days. It’s even common these days to see some people hold garage sales on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
The second consideration is where you live. Certain states, counties, and cities will require you to obtain a temporary permit to hold a garage sale, and failure to do so can result in a fine. A ticket will not only ruin your day, but it will also defeat your purpose in trying to turn household trash into money.
The last consideration is advertising. You can advertise your garage sale for free on Craigslist under the Craigslist section, and you can also pay a few bucks to have your garage sale advertised in your local newspaper. Additionally, you will need to post signs in and around your neighborhood directing people to your garage sale.
Although it’s called a garage sale, you won’t be selling items outside of your garage. Instead, you need to get a couple of tables that you can put in your driveway and use to put all that junk in the offline pile. Then you just have to sit back and wait for the people who saw your ads, or just saw you walk by, to find your garage sale and sell their hearts.
When all is said and done, your stacks should be gone and you will have raised a lot of cash. You can take the leftover piles and repeat the process or you can donate them, but don’t throw them away. If you decide to donate them, be sure to get a receipt, as you will be able to pay off some or all of that donation come tax time.
With all the ways to turn household trash into cash, there’s no need to look in disgust at the clutter around your home. Instead, look around you with dollar signs in your eyes and get to work.
