Save money and maybe even make money by cleaning out your closets and your garage.
As time progresses, many of us collect many more items than we need. Extra clothing, electronic accessories, multiple pairs of shoes, tools, household appliances, auto parts and accessories, books, magazines, CD’s, kids’ and pets’ toys, exercise equipment and more. The sheer volume of “stuff” contained in the average person’s closets, garage and various other storage spaces is mind boggling. The entire mini-storage industry has built itself on helping people store their extra “stuff”.
The best thing you can do with all of these material things is to collect everything you have not used in the last six months and sell what is salable. Convenient ways to sell your things include using sites like Craigslist and eBay or holding a traditional garage sale. Give the rest away to charity. Be sure to take a mental note of what each thing cost you when you bought it and resolve in your mind not to waste money on a similar item in the future. This is a powerful exercise in changing your mindset towards material goods. For example, when you discover that the market price of a $1,000 watch the day after you purchased it is somewhere around $125, you may think twice about spending that kind of money in the future. Shoes are worth even less. If you can get $40 for a $500 pair of shoes, consider yourself lucky. And those two examples actually offer some of the best returns of the things most of us collect. For items like clothing, toys and books, you can expect to receive a fraction of what you paid for them.
Some may think, “Hey, if I’m selling these items at such a steep discount, doesn’t that mean I’m losing money and not saving it?” The answer is categorically, “No.” You lost the money the second you purchased the item and left the store. It’s known as a sunk cost. The money is already gone and storing the item is not going to bring the money back. It is only going to create physical and mental clutter, keeping you from focusing on more important priorities.
Even receiving one dollar for an item that you never use is better than receiving nothing and letting the item collect dust. Or worse, not receiving any money and actually paying to store the item. And as we mentioned above, the exercise of getting rid of your “things” and resolving never to waste money on similar items will save you thousands of dollars in future unnecessary expenses.
