Spring Cleaning: Defeating the "It's in Storage" Monster

Our blog today is about "Storage", and how to part with it effectively.

If you make this face every time you open your hall closet
or "spare room" this column is for you.

There is no reason on earth that a person needs to pay out of pocket in any way in order to save things they cannot comfortably fit into their house. If you have a storage unit, and you can't put those things into a place that you live, you officially have too much stuff. 

If you don't have room for "your things" around you, you must not really need those things, since you are obviously living without them already.

If you are at all concerned about money, immediately look to eliminate things from your life you don't use. Knick knacks, clothes, appliances, exercise and sports equipment, hobby materials that have lost their luster, dishes, family heirlooms you don't like, what have you, and liquidate it into much needed cash.

~Yard sales have been popular for decades, but they've taken a serious dip in success as people have less free cash to drive around looking for sale signs and deals to be had there. (Some cities and counties don't even allow sale signs at street corners anymore.) 

"It looked like they might have had a treadmill out there, did you want to turn around?"

In other words, far fewer people drop by a yard sale just to see what's there. The majority of sale shoppers are looking for a deal on something very specific, and they won't drive far out of their way to find it. 

A successful yard sale takes far more planning, effort and promoting than ever before. 

-If you want to have a yard sale you have to promote your "main attraction items". Your add must mention items people are looking for to get people interested in buying your stuff out to see it. Furniture, antiques, vintage clothes, appliances, children's clothes, baby items, camping equipment, bunk beds, etc are all big draw items and will attract people with cash in their pocket and a truck to take it away versus lookie loos and just browsing Betties.

If you live in a rural area count on only your neighbors showing up to a yard sale. 

You should probably look at joining or organizing a "community rummage sale" with a church, charity or large group of families to attract a large enough collection of items to draw customers to your location (again, think main attraction items)

I'll be honest... even this stock photo from
google images excites *my* inner bargain hunter. 

Rummage sales don't have to donate all sale proceeds to do good-- you can get rid of your clutter and get paid too by charging a "space rent" and donating those proceeds- a sure thing in terms of raising money for a good cause as opposed to being capped by potential sales and talking people into giving away their stuff. 

Selling items online is always a viable choice. 

Ebay is good for listing very specific items that people ordinarily go there to look for, like clothing lots, collectibles and current or retro electronics, but not so good for average or mundane items-- new home made crafts generally have a disappointing return on ebay, and pass on listing items on ebay that are so saturated that you won't get an acceptable price. Know how much it will cost to ship your item too... under estimating what to charge for shipping, plus your listing and pay pal fees is a sure way to get skunked. Paying to get rid of your things is very counter productive to earning money.

Craigslist and Ebay Classifieds are good for large items that need to be picked up locally rather than shipped, depending on how active your area is. There is usually some local classified listing available through a local paper, radio station or even facebook group. 

Etsy is a great specific site for listing craft supplies, vintage items, and homemade crafts because that is what the site users are looking for, the listing periods are months long, and listing fees are cheap.

If money doesn't concern you, there are many ways to offload excess without having to wait for someone with cold hard cash to come along. There are many forum communities with "barter boards" where items you don't need are mailed off to someone in exchange for items you want and ebusinesses that specialize in swapping DvDs, electronics and small appliances you don't want for those that you do-- usually involving a credit or points system. 

It's well known that charities will accept donations of items in exchange for a tax credit-- before you do that there are some things to consider:

First, how you want the item to be used by the charity should dictate how and where you donate it. If you want to donate clothes, furniture or nessecities directly to the needy or a shelter to be given to people at no cost to those who need them, donate to a shelter group and state your intentions-- many groups also have a thrift store that your things could also end up in storage for, and if that's not how you want your things used, you need to make sure it gets to the right place. 

If you're fine with your old stuff being sold by an organization to raise cash, you can drop stuff off at a drop point at the thrift store, and some groups will come to your house to pick up a substantial amount of stuff. 

If you are looking at one of these,
take note of the charity that owns the box,
and google it to make sure  it's both a legitimate cause,
and one you can fully support before donating. 

Look long and hard at those drop boxes you see in parking lots. Some of them are for legit charities, and others may only collect your items to sell for profit. The only "service" those boxes offer is keeping items out of land fills and the government has cracked down on some of these imitation charities lately. Some of them only work with drop boxes because they don't have true charity status and thus can't give tax write off receipts. 

Something a lot of people who donate items don't seem to be aware of is the fact that even thrift stores have a  sorting process, and only items that meet certain standards will reach the shelves, and the rest will end up in the trash anyway. 

In short, only donate items in good enough condition that someone would actually want to buy. Old electronics should work, clothes should not be ripped or stained, puzzles and games should have all their pieces. If donations don't meet these criteria, not only are you wasting the charity thrift store's time spent in sorting unusable items, you're actually costing them money in disposal. 

You can also take the charity of donating into your own hands by listing items on Freecycle.org for local pickup, or by listing on Craigslist in the "free" section, a poster on a bulletin board, or sharing your things with someone around you in day to day life that needs or would enjoy items you don't want like outgrown children's clothes, food in the freezer or pantry your family won't touch, or an out of date couch.

Having trouble getting motivated to clean or get rid of things? I've never known anyone who can sit through an episode or two of the show "Hoarders" without looking around their house with new eyes... and a burning desire to offload things they've been saving without purpose... as quickly as possible!