Declutter Challenge April Update: The Big Report

April may be the biggest report of the year, due to my wild idea to prepare items for a consignment sale AND hold a yard sale at the same time! If that was not enough, I also had some books sell on Half.com, AND couldn't stop myself from listing just a few items on Ebay. It's been a busy month!

This month I decided to try out Ebay's 'Buy It Now' selling feature: putting some items up for sale at a flat price and making them available for 30 days. I have some nice items I thought might sell well, but that were not necessarily something that people would be excited enough to bid on and wait for an auction to end. Sometimes when I've been shopping on Ebay I've been drawn to items that I could just buy instantly--when I didn't have time or patience to wait for the auction to end to see if I won the item... or not. I sold two of the items within the first week, making at total of $20.05 after fees and shipping. Two additional items are still listed for sale for another week or so, and one of them has already sold so I will count that one in my total for May.

One of these items was a Pampered Chef Tool Turn-About that I never ended up using. I tried to sell it at a yard sale three years ago for $5, and it didn't sell. On Ebay it sold for $15! This is a great example of how certain items are more in demand depending on the marketplace. Probably few of the people at the yard sale were interested in Pampered Chef, but online I had access to many more people who were looking for brand-specific items.

I also sold two additional books at Half.com. My current inventory there is 4 books, so selling two is a big deal! I earned $15.05.

Our Yard Sale was a fun event, and profitable, too! Most of the items we sold were small household things that we no longer needed, plus a few larger items: a crib, 3 vacuum cleaners of varying functionality, an old large television set, old computer speakers, etc. Amazingly, we made $270.25! I will subtract $10 to cover costs for posterboard, marker, and stickers that I bought. This was the only cost as the advertising was all free!

Lastly, I received my check from the consignment sale, and it's time to announce the winner of my Giveaway. After many hours of preparation of our nicest reusable kid and baby items (and a bunch of cheap books), I was thrilled to recieve a total of $263.63 from the sale! This means that Alyssa is the lucky winner of a $25 Amazon Gift Card! (She guessed $261.00, long before my check arrived in the mail. Amazing!) Alyssa has been emailed to announce the win, and I need to hear back from her in the next 48 hours to issue the prize. Thanks to everyone who guessed!

April Declutter Challenge Grand Total: $558.98

As always, this amount will be applied to my loan. I'm thrilled with my progress as I have paid a total of $1,185.93 so far this year.

Does this mean that my goal to earn at least $100 per month is too low? I've been thinking about this, and I've decided that it doesn't need to be higher. The goal is enough to motivate me to sell a few things each month without feeling extreme pressure. I think I will be happy to earn a smaller amount for the month of May. I still need to finish putting my basement back together. I'm also trying to focus on a few other projects this month and we have a lot of weekend activities. I like that my goal gives me some flexibility to have a lighter month when I need it!

ETA: You can read about other's decluttering progress over at The Finer Things in Life!

Consignment Sale Prep: Done! (And a Giveaway Contest!)

I am so excited to report that my consignment items have left the building. Despite only purging half of my clutter/storage areas, I managed to price 275 items for the big sale!

Here's a breakdown of the types of items I sent to the sale:

• 125 Books (with a few DVDs and VHS tapes thrown in for good measure)- This sale accepts any and all books, DVDs, and videos, so I got rid of our remaining stack of books. These are books that weren't worth selling using my other methods, mostly small paperback children's books in used condition. We also had some really old adult fiction books and some baby board books in decent condition. I priced everything very affordably and I hope many of them make it to good homes!
• 75 Kid's clothing items. These were summer clothes ranging in size from 3 months to size 5. (I haven't had a baby in over 3 years, but I keep finding little clothes that weren't previously decluttered.)
• 12 Maternity Items. Again, I keep finding maternity things in the back of the closet, and people have returned items I gave them, too. (No need! If I've given you any baby/maternity gear, please keep it or pass it on!)
• 9 Pairs of Kids' Shoes. Again, several year's worth, including like-new water shoes my kids decided they didn't want to wear. I cleaned some of them before pricing, too!
• 43 Baby and Bath toy items. Just a variety of little toys that have plenty of wear left in them.
• 11 Baby gear items. Pottys, bath tubs, unopened safety gear, and a vibrating baby chair that my kids hardly ever used.

 The alarming new is: I still have plenty of items to sell at my yard sale this weekend. I'm glad that I sent so many items to the sale; clothing and books in particular, because those things haven't sold well at our previous sale. I am a little daunted that I still have a lot of work to do to get ready for the yard sale. Whose idea was it to do all of this at once? Oh yeah. Mine. :)

I'm so excited about getting rid of so much stuff that I've decided to hold Giveaway Contest! Leave a comment on this post and guess how much I money I will receive for my items. The person who guesses the closest to the final total without going over will win a $25 Amazon Gift Card. **If you are posting anonymously, be sure to leave a name and contact information so that I can contact you if win!**

I want to disclose that I have no clear idea how much money to expect. I didn't add up the total amount I was charging or anything like that, but here are some tips that will maybe influence your guess:

• I priced my items to sell! That means most of them are really affordable, low prices. It's more important to me that items get to people who need and want them than making a huge profit.
• Sunday is half-price day, so some of my items will sell for half of what I priced them. (Historically most of my items sell the first day of the sale.)
• The Sale keeps 50% of the sale price of each item.
• Some items may not sell, in that case I have the option to pick them up or leave them behind to be donated. (I haven't decided yet.)

 This Giveaway Contest will be open until Noon on April 22nd. I should receive my consignor check by the first week of May, so I will announce the winner at that point, hopefully in time to report my Declutter Challenge results for April!

In Addition: I have two free tickets to the sale good for this Saturday, April 17th!  (Value: $10 each)If you live in the Northern Virginia area and would like to go to the sale for free, email me at dflanag2 @ gmail.com (remove spaces) and we'll see if we can arrange for you to pick one up. First come, first serve!