Yard Sale and Consignment Deja Vu

I'm having somewhat of a deja vu experience this month. Just like this past spring, I am participating in a consignment sale and a yard sale all in the same week!

The consignment sale is a set event that occurs twice a year, and I am exhaustedly pleased to report that I pulled together just under 100 items to take to the sale: kids' clothing, snow bibs/boots, videos/DVDs/toys, and a few other miscellaneous items, including those items pictured above--except for the 18-wheeler truck, which was withdrawn from the sale by my packrat son. (Has he played with this truck in the past 2 years? No! Will he play with it again after today? No! Sigh.)

The Yard Sale is actually something a friend of mine is putting together, and she has kindly invited others to sell items at her sale. I have just a few larger items in mind to add to the sale, but it will save me having to list items on Craigslist and arrange individual pickups, etc.

I'm glad to have these extra motivators to keep me focused on Stuff Elimination, because I've been looking at my calendar and there is a lot going on in the next few months. I want to continue purging through the end of the year to complete my Declutter Challenge, but I have to be realistic about the lack of available time and energy I'm going to have to devote to the project. It is probably realistic to predict that October is going to be my last 'big' selling month of the year.

Summer Recap and Back to School... and Work

Our full school schedule is now starting its third week (we start school late around here, and preschool starts even later), so it's time for life to return to some semblance of normal.

I was expecting my summer to be productive time spent continuing my decluttering quest, in addition to keeping my kids entertained with fun summer activities. Based on the amount of decluttering I completed (very little), I need to adjust my expectations.

All I wanted to do this summer was hang out with my kids. We did numerous non-productive mundane activities, including swinging on our rope swing, chewing bubble gum and learning to blow bubbles, and occasionally making it all the way to the swimming pool. We also celebrated both kids' birthdays and went to the beach twice. For some reason I was expecting to get more done despite the fact that my kids were involved in fewer activities during the day. They were always around, standing between me and their coveted piles of stuff saying, "MOM, DON'T SELL MY BABIES!"

I did have some house projects going on; our masonry and landscaping project took most of the summer, and we had some electrical work done. It took a lot of time and effort to stay on top of these projects (which were hired out to contractors, I wasn't even doing the work myself!) as well as doing the regular tasks that need to be done around the house.

Now, at least I know what to expect of myself next summer: not very much! After my declutter challenge is over, I'll change to a different focus; instead of getting rid of items year round, I'll focus on purging once in the spring and once in the fall.

This means that I need to focus on October as my next big declutter month. My basement is filling up as I recently did Birthday Declutters on my son's room (1 large container full) and my daughter's room (4 boxes!). If it doesn't get decluttered in October, it probably won't leave the house until next year, as I already know I won't have a lot of spare time to work on the project in November and December.

So, we'll see what I can complete next month!

Declutter Challenge June Update: Zip Zero

This is the most depressing post I've been procrastinating about writing.

I've been overwhelmed by the rest of my life, so I didn't get around to selling or donating anything during the month of June. Things are not looking too great for July, either, seeing that we are almost midway through the month and I haven't sold anything. We did send a carload of items to Goodwill, so at least that's something to offset the huge amount of artwork that my kids brought into the house at the end of the school year. (I don't even know where to start with that project! What am I going to do with all of this stuff? How on Earth do I decide what to keep and what to get rid of? How many of my daughter's identical pictures of puppies do I need to keep? According to her, we need to keep them all. Ack!)

I've got about a week to work with sale-wise, so maybe with some focus I can do a little something. I was doing so well with this and I would like to get back in the groove and continue meeting my monthly goal.

I'm learning new insights about myself, though. I can see that I had an expectation that I would be just as productive in the summer, and now I am realizing that I just want to take my kids to the pool. I hope to keep this new insight in mind for future summers.

Declutter Challenge May Update: Nothing Much

Decluttering activities got a bit derailed this past month. In fact, I didn't do hardly anything to try to reach my goal this month, and my numbers reflect my lack of initiative!

I sold a nice maternity dress on Ebay, using the Buy it Now 30-day listing feature, which gave me $15.93.  The fees for this type of transaction are higher than for the auction. I think I should have auctioned the dress instead.

The exciting thing about this transaction was that it took place right after I left town for a few days. The timing was amazing. (Thanks to my sister for helping me out with shipping the item!) Lesson Learned: Don't forget to put your selling items on vacation when you are on vacation!

Here's a photo tip I discovered for my dress pictured above: I stuffed the bosom of the dress with crumpled paper towels to make a more flattering shape on the hanger (then used the towels for other purposes afterwards, of course). Another neat thing: a dress made of thin material can be carefully folded and fitted into a flat rate shipping envelope. I tucked it carefully inside a gallon-size resealable bag and pressed the air out first.

I also managed to sell two books on Half.com, netting a total of $12.89 after shipping costs and fees. I'm fudging a little here because I haven't recieved payment of one of these books yet; one just sold last week. My total book inventory on Half.com is still a grand total of two books, and I've been selling approximately one per month. I'll have to look around and see if I have anything else to list; these transactions are really easy to do!

We have a large outdoor shed that we are not going to use, so I made a half-hearted end-of-the-month attempt to sell it on Craigslist. It didn't sell yet.

And... that's it! My Grand Total for the month of inertia is $28.82. It's better than nothing, but nowhere near my $100 goal. I will have to use other funds to cover my minimum payment for my loan this month, and hope for better results next month.

The best part about getting derailed is picking yourself up and getting back on track. I have plenty of ideas on items to sell for the month of June and beyond, as well as two piles of items that have yet to make their way out the door to Goodwill. I have a variety of larger furniture items to offer on Craigslist, and some items to auction on Ebay as well... including the final batches of cloth diapers that we own. Somehow the toy situation that I thought I had under control is NOT under control. I think the toys are replicating exponentially when we are asleep! I'm hoping to get a better handle on the volume, location, and storage challenges this summer.

I'm linked up to decluttering progress reports at Amy's Finer Things In Life. Be sure to stop by and check out others' decluttering progress, which is hopefully more inspiring than mine!

Consignment Sale Wrap-Up

Along with my consignment sale check, I received a stack of index cards--the cards I used to price my items. Before I did my pricing, I numbered the cards on the back with my own personal numbering system. This was my experiment to see if this would help me to analyze what sold and what didn't sell well at the sale.

I think it worked! I sorted the cards back into numerical order and this is what I've determined so far:

• Out of 124 books/videos/DVDs, I sold 84.
• Out of 75 kid clothing items, I sold 66.
• Out of 12 Maternity items, I sold 6.
• Out of 9 pairs of kids' shoes, I sold 7.
• Out of 43 baby/toddler toys, I sold 28.
• I also sold 5 items that were left over from a previous year's consignment sale. They weren't included in my new numbering system.

I also had a 10-item category for baby gear, but the numbers are messed up because I forgot to take a few of the items to the sale. I sold only 3 items from that category but I'm not exactly sure how many of the items made it to the sale. Seven?

Now I know what categories to focus on for the next sale this fall! Clearly the kids' clothing and shoes sell well. The toys sell okay, and I should forget about the maternity items and baby gear (which works out well since I don't have much left!)

The other great thing about this list is that I can fill out the form in the bottom center of the picture above, which is a receipt for donated goods. Any of my items that didn't sell were donated, mostly to the Salvation Army. I had the option to pick them up, but decided to let them go. It was hard to do, but I know they are going to a better place. Because I have a clear picture of how many of my items were donated, I can fill out my receipt and keep it with our 2010 tax records, therefore gaining even further financial benefit from participating in the consignment sale.

In conclusion, I sold exactly 200 items at the sale, meaning that a huge pile of stuff we don't need anymore has been united with people who need and want it. In addition, I donated 77 items to charity, and hopefully those items will be connected with people who need and want them soon.

I don't know if this is good news or bad news, but I haven't started running out of items to sell yet! I had no idea we had so much stuff. I'll just keep plugging away at it, and hopefully a cleaner, simplified household will emerge from underneath the clutter at some point. I hope...

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!

Yard Sale Wrap-up

I am so glad to report that we held our yard sale over the weekend, and everything went well!

What I achieved:

• I didn't finish the final declutter areas in my Purge Process, but we still managed to sell over 200 items in our sale, including a large old TV (not digital!) that I would have had to pay $20 to recycle. We gave it away for $10, and I hope that it holds together for a few more years for the lucky purchaser!
• Most of the remaining items we carted off to Goodwill. It's a mess, but we have lots more space in the basement now.

What I learned:

• You don't need to pay for advertising! I posted a free advertisement on CraigsList three days before the sale. We also hung up a total of 9 signs in our neighborhood, leading people from two major roads to our street. I was really nervous that this wasn't going to be enough advertising, but it was fine! We had consistent traffic to our sale all morning, and continued to make a few sales after Noon while my husband was taking down the sale (after we had taken down our signs!)
• Stuff will get stolen. We had a few small items stolen: cheap jewelry and some colorful plastic cups. They weren't worth  much, but it gave me an uncomfortable feeling, that people had interacted with me and my family and had chosen to take an item rather than pay $1 for it. I tried not to let it get to me. If you're going to have a sale, keep a close watch on your valuable items! (Or sell them another way. Most of the stuff we sold was not very valuable.)
• The more the merrier. Our niece brought over her items to sell at our sale, and my friend brought some larger bikes and furniture to sell. A few neighbors brought over a few items, too. Still more neighbors stopped by to socialize, and a friend of mine was visiting from out of town, so she came over for a while, too. My son's friend came over with his dad, and the dad ended up taking the boys to the park after hanging out for a while. It was a nice community-building event that was much more fun than I expected! If you're planning a sale, get some people together to make it a more festive event!

What I recommend:

• Carry your money on your person. I made sure to have lots of small bills, and I wore them in my jacket, which has four zip-pockets total. I put $10s and $20s in one pocket, $5s, in another, and put $1 and quarters/change in the other two pockets. It worked well, although I got a little hot near midday.
• Be willing to bargain. I had some impressive hagglers come to the sale. I had to really concentrate to keep up with the offers she was making. I gave her great prices and she bought a lot of stuff. She even came back later and bought more. (I wonder what she plans to do with it all? Hold her own sale, perhaps?) I think she really liked that I was willing to haggle with her. I recommend coffee to help you keep up with the math. But if you are set on a price, stick with it. I held firm on certain items that I had decided on in advance.
• Be willing to hold items. One purchaser had a $100 bill which I was unwilling to break so that she could purchase $7 worth of items. I told her I could hold her items for an hour. She returned and ended up buying $5 of additional stuff once she broke her hundred at a nearby fast food restaurant.
• Put out an extension cord so that people can test the small appliances. This led to several sales when we could confirm that the items still worked.
• Enlist help to watch your children. (See community building above!)

How much did I make, you ask? I'm not going to say yet, as I want to wait and report all my results for the month in my April Declutter Challenge Report. I'm waiting for my consignment check to be mailed, too, and you can guess how much that total will be. The person who guesses the closest without going over the total will win a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

I'm so glad that so much of my stuff has made it to a new home, where hopefully someone is getting good use out of it! I don't think I could have a yard sale every year, but maybe in 2-3 years we'll consider holding another one. It was fun!

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!

Consignment Sale Preparation Tips

Sorting through piles of your family's old clothing, toys, gear, and books can be a lot of work, especially if you have allowed it to pile up in your basement for multiple years like I have. Fortunately, a lot of this stuff is on its way out of here in just a few days. I can't wait!

Right now I'm focusing on preparing items to drop off at the consignment sale. Here is how I do it:

• First of all, I recognize that most of our used clothing will NOT be consigned as they are too worn, stained, or damaged. The people at the sale inspect the incoming items and only items in good condition will be accepted. It saves me a ton of time up front if I am carefully selective as to what I prepare for the sale. This is very important, as it is painful to have your items rejected after you have spent time getting them ready.
• I price to sell. When I am setting prices for these clothes, I have to remember that I will only receive a percentage of the paid price (this percentage varies depending on the sale). I also have to remember that some money is better than no money, so I try to price my items affordably. This means that you have to forget what you paid when the item was new(er). Imagine what you would pay for the item in the condition it's in right now. I want someone to pick up the nice shirt that my son refused to ever wear and think, "Wow! This is a great shirt for a great price!" then buy it, take it home, and do a happy dance while showing off all her great deals to her husband, who thinks she has gone mildly insane (or maybe I'm the only person who does this?). My goal is to have as little as possible left over after the sale.
• Make a tracking system for yourself. I have tried various things in the past to help me keep track of my consignment items, and this year I have a new plan. I have to attach an index card to each item, describing the item, the price, and my consignor number. I have numbered the back of the index cards from 1 to 310, so that when they mail my index cards back to me with my payment, I can get a better idea of what sold and what didn't. As I attach cards to items, I'll create a list like this:

1-100 Children's clothes

101-120 Maternity clothes

121-150 Books/DVDs/Videos

When the cards are returned to me I can put them in order and see how many items didn't sell, and have an general idea of what the item was. If I'm missing #130, I'll know it was a book or DVD that didn't sell. I have the option to pick up the items that don't sell, but this time I'm going to allow them to be donated. I still want to know how much sold vs. how much was donated, though! I'm hoping this system will work.

At this point I've finished sorting, and now I need to focus on pricing and packaging toys and gear up to transport to the sale on Thursday morning. The remainder of the clothing items will be donated to Goodwill, where they will make good use of them.  Unless someone at the yard sale wants to buy something, I won't stop them!

I should explain that we've tried to sell clothes and books at past yard sales, and we don't have much luck, which is why we're sending the kids' clothes, books, gear, and toys off to the consignment sale, where there will be many more shoppers, and focusing the yard sale on household items and larger items. We won't get as much of the profit, but we will connect our items with people who want and need them.

Declutter Challenge March Update: Building Ebay Experience

I haven't forgotten that it's past time to report on my decluttering progress in March. After a busy month in February... blah blah blah. I toyed with the idea of listing some items on Craig's List, but ultimately I decided to focus on Ebay listings.

I followed the strategy I had worked out and it went well. Listing auctions with no reserve on Ebay makes me anxious, and many people prefer to avoid the fear of an item selling for a low price by raising the starting bid price or pricing the item as Buy it Now. I've observed that auctions with higher starting bid prices appear to attract fewer bidders. I could sell items using the Buy it Now feature, but I wasn't sure exactly how much my items would be worth in the end. One buyer actually contacted me about an auction, wondering if I would be willing to change it to a Buy it Now transaction. I'm glad I didn't because the item ended up selling for more than the buyer would have offered.

I also struggled with the mail rates. The cost to mail the larger items were easy to justify, but the cost to mail some of the smaller items across the country was exhorbitant. In some cases the flat rate envelopes and boxes worked well, but in other cases the value of the item I was trying to sell wasn't worth how much it would cost to safely ship it anywhere in the country. I ended up added additional shipping options on several transactions.

In the end, I sold 7 of the 11 items, resulting in $155.47 in sales after Ebay and Paypal commissions and fees, which I've finally figured out!* Several of the small items sold for only $.99, so I'm not always right about what items will be in demand. I didn't mind very much because I had great success on other transactions, and I still moved items that were no longer useful to my family out of my house and into a home where the item is needed.

I also sold an additional book through Half.com, making $5.59 after commissions and fees. I only have a small handful of books listed, but it's nice to every once in a while pop a book in the mail to someone who would like to own it.

That's all I sold! It was a smaller month, but still well ahead of my earning goal--I earned a total of $161.06.

As for my other decluttering projects, I could have made more progress. The pile for Goodwill that I made when decluttering the basement laundry room is still in the house, unfortunately. I did successfully recycle my worn, flaking, non-stick cookware. April is set to be a high export month due to the yard/consignment sale strategy.

*You might recall from last month that I wasn't sure what my Ebay fees were. After a bit of research, I figured out that my Ebay fees totaled $18.26, and were not paid before I posted my numbers for last month. Paypal must also be paid when you are a seller--I'm learning so much!--and their total fees were $8.60, but these fees were deducted from each transaction as they were processed. This all means that I overstated my Ebay earnings for February by $18.26, so I've deducted that amount from the loan payment that I'm sending for March. This is a bit complex to keep track of, yet another reason I am limiting my Ebay activity to 1 week per month! I don't know how accountants keep up with this stuff!

Consignment Sale Preparation Tips

I'm really looking forward to my Yard Sale/Consignment Sale plan for next month. (Okay, really I am a little nervous about pulling this all off... I'm a little overwhelmed when I think about it all!) By planning well in advance, I am giving myself plenty of time to prepare for both sales, rather than scrambling to prepare and price items at the last minute, which has been my method in the past.

 Here are a few tips that I am trying to follow when preparing items for yard and/or consignment sales: 

• Think outside the box when assembling items for sale. Something that isn't useful to you may be exactly what someone else is looking for. I find this especially true at yard sales. In the past I've been amazed to see what people are willing to pay for--items that to me held little to no value!
• Think small. One of the small items I priced the other day was an almost-full box of breast milk storage bags I happened to have left over. A box like this typically retails for $5 or more, so I am giving someone a great savings if I price it at $2. I will only earn $1 if I sell it at the consignment sale, which doesn't seem like a lot until I price 49 additional items at a similar price and earn $50. The little things add up!
• If an item isn't in good enough condition, don't sell it! The consignment sale I participate with requests good quality items and volunteers inspect them when you deliver them to the sale. If the item isn't something that you would feel good about buying, don't waste your time pricing it for consignment--chances are no one will buy it. Sell it at a yard sale or donate it instead.
• Price items to sell! It's very tempting to look at your item and remember how much you paid for it when it was new. Try to avoid letting the past value of the item influence the current price you are placing on the item. I try to think like a buyer when I am pricing: I ask myself, "What would I pay for this and feel like I was getting a great deal?" I'm as glad as anyone to make money selling, but my primary goal is to connect my stuff with a new home where my items are wanted, needed, and valued. I like to imagine the people who take my stuff home; I hope they feel good about their purchase! The added benefit is that more of your items will sell.

I have the option to pick my items up after the consignment sale, and my hope is to collect very few items--usually the few items I felt emotionally attached to when pricing and therefore over-priced.

Anything not picked up from the consignment sale will be donated. Leftover yard sale items not headed for the consignment sale will also be donated. It's not like the donated items will go into the trash, but I'd rather connect the items with someone who needs them right away; maybe save the donation organizations a little time and effort (and fossil fuels!)

Consignment and Yard Sale Plans

I am starting to focus on some other Decluttering strategies because if you caught a glimpse of my basement, you'll notice that selling a handful on items on Ebay each month is not going to make much of a dent in our mountain of stuff! At least it's a bit more under control now, and I have a space to work.

I have had a lot of success in the past selling baby items at a local consignment sale held in our area twice annually. I also had success selling our unneeded stuff at a yard sale we held a few years ago. Our stuff has built up again since that time, which is why I've found it necessary to set myself a personal Declutter Challenge for this year; to minimize and organize our possessions while taking the responsibility to find good homes for the items we no longer need.

The problem is, preparing items for consigment or yard sales can be a lot of work for not a lot of profit. I have to prepare index cards for each item I'm planning to sell at the consignment sale, and the sale organizers keep a portion of the sale (in the case of the sale I participate with, the amount is 50%). A yard sale will require pricing, advertising, coordinating with neighbors, etc.

I think that we have enough stuff to consider taking on the work. To make the most of our time commitment, I've decided to do something I haven't done before: I'm going to hold a Yard Sale the week before the Consignment Sale.

I have a number of items that I can't sell at the consignment sale, because the sale is particularly for children and baby items. Whatever remains of the children and baby items after the Yard Sale (where I keep 100% of the earnings) can be taken to the Consigment Sale (where I keep 50% of the earnings), and if I don't pick my unsold items up at the end of the sale, the items will be donated for me!

Both of these events will be held in April. Planning for them now will give me time to thoroughly search my house for saleable items. I'm looking forward to a significantly decluttered house by the end of April!

To Ebay or Not to Ebay... An Update

As I mentioned last month, I'm still trying to decide whether it is worth it to sell on Ebay as a very small-time seller. I've made a handful of sales now that have contributed nicely to my personal Declutter Challenge, and have a bit more perspective on the whole process.

I'm continuing to select items to sell on Ebay following a strict criteria. The item must:

• Have Value If I look up a book on Half.com and someone is selling a copy for 75 cents, I don't list my book. If there are a number of auctions on Ebay for an item I am considering selling, and no one is bidding on the items, I don't list my item. It is not worth it to me to ship an item that is worth only 75 cents or 99 cents across the country, and I want to avoid doing that as much as possible. (On the other hand, it's important to be prepared to sell your item for $.99 if only one person bids on your item. If your item does sell for $.99, ship it gracefully and tell yourself that you have provided a much-needed item to a cash-strapped family who desperately needed a great deal. That's what I did when it happened to me last month!)
• Be hard to find in stores (or no longer sold): Be sure the item hasn't been recalled, of course.
• Be easy to ship:  I am trying to avoid selling bulky or breakable items
• Be in demand for a hard-to-reach group of people who shop on Ebay: To find out if my item is a potential 'hot item', I just do a search for it as if I am trying to purchase it myself, and see what turns up. I keep in mind that certain items probably sell better at different times of the year. You can also do a search here to find out whether items similar to yours have recently sold.

Following this criteria is working well for me so far. What it means is that I have only a handful of items each month to sell! I see this as a good thing--I can focus my energy on preparing a small group of items for sale, and have a better chance of actually selling each item, maximizing my profit for the time I am putting into the project. I'm managing my time on Ebay by following this process:

• First Week: Collect and assess items to sell. Does it meet my criteria above?
• Second Week: Prepare items for listing: cleaning, selecting shipping box, photographing, and deciding how to list the item (Auction vs. Buy it Now? More than one photograph? Additional services?)
• Third Week: List Items for sale. I'm listing all of my items for the month at once. This means that there is only one week out of the month that I have active listings on Ebay, and they all close around the same time. I can focus on tracking the listings, respond to questions asked by buyers, etc. Buyers can win more than one of my auctions and request to combine shipping.
• Fourth Week: Collect payments and ship items. I have figured out how to process all my shipping transactions from home. If you use flat rate shipping boxes and envelopes, you can ship all over the U.S. for the same rate, whether the item is traveling 300 miles or 3,000 miles. By ordering USPS shipping boxes online for free, purchasing and printing shipping labels online, and arranging pickup with your local postal carrier, you can completely avoid having to take your kids to the post office!

This is probably old information to all the Ebay experts out there, but it has been really helpful to determine how this process can work most effectively for me and my family. By managing the time I spend selling on Ebay, I can free time to focus on some of the other decluttering projects going on around the house.

Declutter Challenge February Update: Building Momentum

My Declutter Challenge really picked up some momentum this month! I felt like I barely got my feet wet in January with the two larger transactions I completed. This month I branched out a bit and had income coming in from all sorts of places!

• My first book shipment to Powell's Books in January went so well that I decided to put together a second shipment. This box contained fewer, less valuable books, but I made $19.75. Another easy transaction!
• I had a few books that Powell's was unwilling to purchase, but that I noticed were selling for worthwhile prices on Half.com. I listed three books, and one book sold, providing me $7.33
• I also got my feet wet with my very first listings on Ebay, which I was a little nervous about, but everything has gone smoothly thus far. I sold four small items as well as two dozen cloth diapers, which were in high demand and ended up selling for quite competitive costs. Total sales for February: $198.81 (I am so new I don't even know if Ebay has extracted their commission/payment from this amount. I may be accounting for that next month when I have more of a clue what I am doing!)
• I also had an unexpected opportunity to clear some broken bits out of my jewelry box and earn some cash for gold as described here. My total earnings to report: $140.00

 Total for February: $365.89!!!

The little things sure do add up! This total amount will be applied to my loan payment this month--over 3 times my goal payment.

 I'm hoping this momentum will continue into March, as I have a beautiful new basement workspace in which to organizing my declutter projects (I will reveal this soon!). I have some recycling research projects to complete, as well as a few more thoughts to share about selling on Ebay. A yard sale project is in the works, as well as a consignment sale.

These projects are keeping me busy, but it is very satisfying to connect all of these items to people and places where they will be needed and used. And not only did we gid rid of the sale items listed above, we also compiled a Goodwill donation, and I found a good home for a few small items.

Decluttering: Sell Your Gold!

Maybe one of the themes for my Declutter Challenge in February should be Super Small Items because this week I donated my unused contact lenses in addition to selling some old and broken bits of jewelry for cash!

What happened was this: I have a friend who has been out of work for a long while due to health problems. She is a single mother helping to finance her son's college education, so she is always trying to come up with strategies to come up with a little additional money to help make ends meet (at least make the ends come a bit closer anyway!).

She knows that I am trying to find a useful home for my unneeded stuff, so she suggested that I accompany her to sell some gold jewelry and other precious metals (sliver, pewter, etc.). I had a schedule conflict, so I found some broken gold necklaces and a few other items, popped them in a plastic bag, and sent them off with my friend to see what she could sell them for.

My friend has sold gold several different times now, and she has a few tips to share:

• Avoid offers that require you to send your gold through the mail. If at all possible, find a place where you can go in person to sell your gold. The buyers can make an offer for your pieces, and you can decide on the spot whether you want to sell them or not. You have less control over this process if you are sending your pieces through the mail, and could be more vulnerable to scams.
• Bring a friend. Some buyers offer to pay you an additional percentage for your pieces if you bring additional people with you. Your friends can also help you decide whether to accept the purchase offers or not. A third benefit of bringing your friends is that they can look over your unwanted items and perhaps offer them a new home. I had two pair of earrings that I sent which were too large for me and not my style at all. I wasn't even sure if they were made of gold or not. The type of gold they were made of was low quality, so the buyers declined to purchase them, but my friend really liked them, so I gave them to her. Better than having them return to clutter my jewelry box! Which leads to our next tip:
• Bring your items even if you aren't sure they are made of gold. You never know! On the other hand,
• Avoid selling sentimental items if you think you will regret it later. For several of my broken necklaces, I kept the pendant, but sold the broken chain. The pendants carry the sentiment, so I kept those. I avoided selling items that have sentimental value to our family. I may not use them right now, but my daughter may be interested in them when she is older.
• Think 'outside' the box when locating items to sell. My friend did this literally when she was looking through a small jewelry box one day for potential gold pieces. Suddenly it hit her that the actual jewelry box was made of sterling silver, and could be a sellable item! (She kept it for now, but she may sell it in the future if silver prices go up.)

We had a sucessful gold sale; the results of which will be included in my Declutter Challenge Report for February. I am still tallying up the rest of the items I sold this month, and I will put the February results up next week. Stay tuned!

Ebay Update: Take Note if You Plan to Sell Cloth Diapers

When I mentioned my plans to sell cloth diapers on Ebay, a commenter observed that some people have had their cloth diaper listings removed with no notice. I didn't want this to happen to me, so I decided to do a little research and find out what the regulations are regarding cloth diaper sales.

The answer: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/used-clothing.html

"Used cloth diapers can be sold, as long as the listing states clearly that the item has been cleaned per manufacturer standards."

I'm really glad that I checked this out in advance; otherwise my listings may have been pulled! I appreciate the heads up about this potential problem, and I hope this info is useful to my cloth diaper selling competitiors out there as well.

Happy Selling!

To Ebay or not to Ebay... That is the Question

I have used Ebay occasionally over the years to purchase various items, and have had great experiences most of the time, but I've never tried selling before. I finally worked up the nerve and posted some items for sale last week. The good news is that I sold 3 items! The bad news... I didn't make very much money. I find myself wondering whether selling items on Ebay is worth it.

Not that I am trying to make a big profit, but I do want it to be at least somewhat financially worthwhile to count towards my challenge. The thought of profit helps especially when I have to go to the post office with two kids in tow. (They were very helpful and liked sliding the packages through the slot... they liked it so much they started trying to 'mail' everything in the room that wasn't nailed to the floor. Very exciting!)

The entire process of listing items on Ebay takes some getting used to. There are many decisions to make and many added features to decline so that you don't pay more for listing and shipping than you need to. I feel like I am wandering through the dark sometimes, unsure exactly what I need to do next, but ultimately I've been able to figure everything out in time. These first listings were guinea pigs; I wasn't really expecting them to do amazingly well. They did fine for practice purposes.

My hope is that I will become comfortable with the selling process so that whenever I accumulate a small pile of items to sell, I can list them without all the deliberation that I'm going through right now, and process the transactions more quickly. If I can get to this place (and make some profit!) I will be sure to let you know. Right now, I'm just not sure.

What I do know is that I am only going to sell items on Ebay when it seems to make sense. If I have an item that has particular value, is hard to find in stores (or no longer sold), is easy to ship, and is in demand for a hard-to-reach group of people who shop on Ebay, I will attempt to sell the item.

The perfect example of items that meet these criteria are our cloth diapers. Most are in nice condition, cannot be found in stores, will be easy to ship (stuff in box and go!), and I can reach a larger portion of the cloth diapering demographic on Ebay than say, at a yard sale. The yard sale would be a better location to sell, for example, a used baby toy that is available all over town. That sort of item is probably not worth shipping.

The one area that I feel like I am on top of the process for selling online is packaging!

This is my packaging material and envelope stockpile. Hopefully I'll be putting these items to good use in the new few months. I'll check in periodically and report how things are going. My decluttering/selling results for January are posted here.