Make and Save Money by Getting Rid of Your Junk

I've noted previously that selling stuff you own is a great way to earn some extra money. There are actually three ways you can both make and save money around this idea, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start with the facts.

According to the book A Whole New Mind, self-storage – a business devoted to providing people a place to house their extra stuff – has become a $17 billion annual industry in the United States, larger than the motion picture business.

And what’s in self-storage? No one knows. Why? Because we take it there and never visit again.

I’ll tell you what most of it is – junk you don’t need. Excess stuff. This video kind of summarizes it all (note: if you can't see video, click here to play it):

And here's another one:

Do you really want to keep paying to store your dog poker picture and your set of clown plates?

Given the information above, here are three ways Americans can make and save money by getting rid of their junk:

• Throw it away. If Americans simply threw away the stuff in the storage bins, they’d save themselves $17 billion a year! Even if you assume 50% (which is probably a high figure) of it is for legitimate, non-junk storage purposes (like students in transition, career moves, etc.), that’s still $8.5 billion that could be saved per year by just throwing stuff away. Imagine what that money could do for the paycheck-to-paycheck and further-in-debt crowds.

• Sell your junk! But why just throw it away when there's good money to be made? No, there’s more to be had! Sell your excess stuff/junk. Then you save yourself the storage fee and make some extra money to boot. Now who do you sell it to? Everybody else! After all, they need stuff to fill up their storage units!!! (BTW, eBay and Craigslist are tailor-made for selling junk.)

• Rent out your home. Now that you've made money by selling the stuff in your storage bin and saved money by closing it down, now consider renting out parts of your home -- basement, shed, garage, spare room, etc. to others who want to store their junk. There's more money to be made helping others find a place for their dog poker pics and clown plates!

And for those of you who don't have a storage unit, don’t become smug. Excess stuff isn’t limited to storage bins. We all have it in our basements, garages, sheds, barns, and all over our homes. If you look hard enough, you’ll find lots of stuff you don’t use and that you won’t miss -- stuff that you can sell and make some extra income. Oh, and clear up the clutter in your home/life as well. Nice benefits all the way around.

Hat tip to Lazy Man and Money for pointing me to the video.

Comments

[KH]

I agree, we all probably have too much stuff, me included. However, I'm always baffled by websites such as this one who claim you can make money by selling it. Really?

I've tried holding garage sales, and after a tremendous amount of work and a waste of an entire weekend, I've netted a big $20 and had to take almost all of it to Goodwill to dump anyway. And I have good stuff! Working electronics, toys still in the packaging, a set of dishes with no chips or dings etc. I can't believe ebay is much better---after paying the fees for set up and mailing, does anyone really come out ahead? I mean, unless you have rare pokemon cards or hummel figurines in your basement? Honestly?

I think your junk is just that--junk. Yeah we should get rid of it, but please stop implying that people can raise actual cash money by selling their broken lamps and velvet paintings.

[Jessica]

I've sold tons of collectible/old/vintage stuff on eBay. Sure it's a bit of work, but if you sell enough stuff, it's worthwhile. It helps to have a postal scale and labels. You can do everything from your desk, and either drop the packages off at the post office or have them pick them up. My best return was an old, steel, cone-top beer can that I listed for $0.99 and sold for $95.

Anything that I have that is usable but not worthy of a Goodwill run is freecycled, or listed on CraigsList in the "free" section.

Larger items or things that cannot be eBay (like software I no longer use), I sell on CraigsList.

Broken items are pitched or recycled.

I seldom have yard sales anymore since I have de-cluttered. The last one was after I did a trash-out on a soon-to-be foreclosed home. I live in Arizona, so maybe the demographic is different for yard sales, as it is not uncommon to see Mexican pick-up trucks full of stuff heading south.

The key to selling stuff is to be cheap.

[FMF]

KH --

I think that yard sales are probably the worst way to try and earn anything. eBay or Craigslist would be better IMO.

[BibleDebt]

We have found success with Amazon.com, where you can simply add your item without posting a picture or describing the item. All you need to do is state the condition of the item and mail it once it is sold.

Another simple option is half.com for books. Simply post the ISBN number, state the condition and your price. Once it is sold, ship it and wait for the funds to arrive.

[Lynn]

I think it depends on your mind set. My hubby and I like keeping the clutter down. We check the house for items that we no longer use 2-3 times a year. Sometimes we sell the items, more often we give it away. We recently sold an old cell phone for $26. I know $26 is far less than the phone was ORIGINALLY worth; but its an older model and it had no value sitting in a box in my closet.

Garage sales can be great ideas (especially if you have a lot of items), but you have to price things to move and your success can be highly dependent on your location (how easy it is to get to your house). I think often times people focus on how much they originally paid for the item, not its current worth, or setting a motiving price. I think we feel as if we are losing money if we sell too low; but truth is you've already lost money if you paid for and you're not using it.

[Olivia]

When it comes to garage sales, a lot of your success depends on your area. Some places are huge on garage sales and others are not. We have had a great deal of success with them. I also spent a summer selling on Ebay and my mom sells on Ebay for a living. It is a great way to earn money. It's even more fun when you start going to auctions and getting great deals on things you can sell for much more money online.

[Old Limey]

I give my unwanted, but still useful, items to the Goodwill because I don't want to be bothered with trying to sell them and since I don't itemize I don't need a tax writeoff.
However my two daughters make a substantial amount, every single month, by selling other people's castoffs on eBay and Amazon.com.

The 51 year old daughter that uses eBay (a milionaire plus) has two young adopted children but she goes to her local Thrift store every day and buys anything that she knows she can sell for a nice profit. I am really amazed at the items that she gets from the Thrift store, evidently the people that drop them off there have no idea of their value. If I have something that I know is valuable but I no longer want it then I give it to her and it ends up on eBay where she is now a Power Seller with a 100% feedback record.

The 49 year old daughter (a multi-millionaire) has a portable barcode scanner that she downloads every week with the prices of all the used books on Amazon.com. Then when she goes to her sources (which I won't divulge) she can quickly ignore all the used books that are only worth $1-$2 and grab the ones that are worth anywhere from $10 to well over $100. Amazon customers also pay the postage so it is very lucrative. She is recently divorced (but has been in a relationship since September with a great guy, also recently divorced that she met through eharmony.com) and is living by herself in a condo and able to make her rent every month just on used books. The reason for not having a job is that her very large alimony puts her into the very highest tax bracket and combining the highest federal and state tax brackets it's just smarter for her to get non taxable extra income and save a lot of the alimony while it lasts for 7 more years. She has a teaching credential but teaching jobs are hard to find these days.

I am proud of my daughters' resourcefulness, especially after reading posts by an occasional poster that constantly gripes that he's stuck in a miserable low paying menial job while sharing accomodation with 4 other men. In tough times you have to be resourceful and good computer skills can be very helpful.

[Andrea Dickson]

I haven't had much luck selling my stuff lately, but just getting rid of it is a cheaper option than keeping it in storage. The hard part is convincing significant others that it's a good idea to part with unused items. :)

[Budgeting in the Fun Stuff (aka Crystal)]

In the last year, I've used Craigslist to sell a 7 year old particle board dresser for $30, a plastic rolling storage container for $20, an old digital camera for $50, and a 4 year old Posturepedic mattress for $100.

I use Ebay to sell Magic: The Gathering repacks for $5-$7 each since MtG buyers flock to Ebay.

I’ve Freecycled a bent bedframe, an entertainment unit with a missing door, throw rugs, a baby palm tree, and some fixtures we no longer needed.

We donate all clothing to the Goodwill near our house. Last year we donated two huge bags of jeans that we "outgrew" and three other big bags of shirts...that's a great tax deduction.

The only trick is picking the right place for the right thing.

We started getting rid of our excess stuff last year and completed our bottom floor. I hope to go through our 2nd floor closets this summer and finally have the whole house de-junkified.

[Jo]

My hubby and I got married 4 months ago, and the biggest challenge as been downsizing and de-junkifying. I learned we need to do it in phases. The plates and towels I had problem letting go of just recently went to Goodwill.

I had a storage unit for a year when I moved from a one-bedroom apartment to my parents to a 3-bedroom apartment with roommates. But I moved into another 1-bedroom 18months ago so all my stuff plus all my childhood "memories" from my parents got brought back to me...it was a good thing that I had tons of storage at my apartment, and now my hubby and I have tons of storage (that we have filled!!!) at our 2-bedroom. Personally, I agree, if you are in transition it's fine to have a storage unit, but if you have just outgrown your storage at your place...something needs to be done.

I do have an eBay box (okay more like two plastic tubs) of things that I want to sell online but haven't gotten around to it. Our goal is to get it done by summer. I don't know how much we will actually make, but the items seem too nice to give away or throw. My SIL and brother use to do eBay all the time, and did pretty good.

[Josh]

@Old Limey,

Sorry to tell you this, but your daughters profits are taxable. She is committing tax fraud is she does not report her profits from her used book sales.

I'm not saying I agree with that, it's just the way it is.

[theora55]

Please don't just throw it out. If it can still be used, Take it to Goodwill, Salvation Army or freecycle.com it.

And the easiest way to save money on storing crap is to buy less crap. Save the money upfront.

[Old Limey]

@Josh
Boy! I think I had better hurry up and file an adjusted tax return - I just remembered that my wife did some babysitting for a couple of hours last year and I never reported her earnings!

[Budgeting in the Fun Stuff (aka Crystal)]

@Old Limey
I appreciate the sarcasm, but you can obviously see the difference between occasional babysitting and making a living wage off of Ebay, right?

My husband doesn't have to report his ref earnings if it's less than $600 a year (which means we report everything)...I'm assuming that would put your wife in the clear. :-)

[Old Limey]

@Crystal
My last comment was because it reminded of a programmer that was in our department for a while in the 70's. He was the most devout Christian I have ever met. Amazingly, you could give him a book, chapter, and verse, bible reference and he could tell you what it was all about. I tested him on that many times and he was never wrong. He was extraordinary nice but also so meek and mild that unfortunately he came in for a lot of ribbing and teasing, especially on the day he came in and told us that he had filed an amended return because he had forgotten to disclose that his wife had made $25 in babysitting income from their next door neighbor.
As for eBay and Amazon, on eBay some sellers collect sales tax on purchases within their own state while most do not. Amazon collects zero sales tax from all purchases. There's a huge amount of money being made on the Internet that never gets reported - that was my real point.

[Josh]

@Old Limey

You better just hope your daughter never gets audited then.

I think it is terrible that your daughter needs to commit tax fraud when she is already mooching off of alimony that puts her in the top tax bracket.

[Budgeting in the Fun Stuff]

@Old Limey
I know that most people don't report their "cash" incomes, but that doesn't make it right...and that leads to a conversation we already had. :-)

Anyway, I love your daughter's method with the scanner...that sounds ingenious. She already has enough to live off of and the Ebay money is just a side job...she'd be better off reporting it. She has too much to lose if she gets audited...she'd feel really stupid if she gets in trouble with the IRS over some used book sales...

[ctreit]

You are so right. We have so much stuff that we don't need, not just in storage or basements but also in our dressers, kitchens, etc. I think I will take your post as an incentive and put a date on the calendar when my wife and I will clean out the basement.

[Old Limey]

@Josh
Your phrase "mooching off of alimony" is very disrespectful to all women.
I guess you don't believe that women should have equal rights in this country.
You are no doubt also against community property laws that women fought very hard to get.
My daughter actually had an excellent job when she got married. She worked for a large real estate developer and was earning a very high salary as the manager of a large high rise office building, however her husband made her give up her job and become a stay at home mother. I guess you also are of the opinion that the duties and responsibilities of a well educated wife and mother in the home have no financial value whatsoever. I feel sorry for you!

[Josh]

@Old Limey

Sorry you are correct I should not have used that term, but at the same time I do not feel sorry for anyone who is receiving over $373,650 per year to sit at home and do nothing (the minimum amount to get into the highest tax bracket) and then doesn't think they need to pay their full share of taxes.

But saying stuff like her husband forced her to give up her job like she was a poor helpless woman is wrong. She CHOSE to quit her job and stay home. Maybe her husband influenced that decision but she still had a choice. Or is this just another case of equality only when it helps the woman and shouts of inequality when it doesn't?

[Old Limey]

@Josh
The alimony is actually $20K/month for 9 years which puts her in the 35% bracket for federal and the 9% bracket for state so there's lots of taxes to pay. The attorney husband who grosses $4M/year and kept the home worth $3.5M actually got off lightly. I negotiated the settlement with him and we settled it amicably without ever going to litigation. The litigation in the same court where he operated would have been bad publicity for him, dragged on for several years, required the use of forensic accountants on both sides, and cost a huge amount in legal fees. Our attorney wanted us to go for 50% of everything and for $35K alimony but we settled for considerably less just to get it over with. It would take many pages to discuss all the reasons that led up to the divorce but infidelity wasn't an issue on either side, it was just total incompatibilty. It makes me happy that my wife and I will be celebrating our 54th wedding anniversary in July.

[Too Much Stuff]

For those who stumble across this post and think "I have too much stuff, but it just seems so overwhelming to sort through it" -- and it really starts to impact your life, to the point where you are afraid to invite people over to your home, yet you never seem to be able to tackle it -- do not despair. You are not lazy, slovenly, or irresponsible.

It may be a condition called "compulsive hoarding," often caused by an information processing deficiency. (Ironically, you may keep giant piles of stuff because you are too much of a perfectionist.) There are some great books on Amazon which can help you understand yourself better.

It is a lot of work to overcome these tendencies, but once you understand why you are doing the things you are doing, it helps a lot.