Make cash from your clutter

Lsst year I tweeted asking why I can never keep my house tidy. And Rebecca responded that, quite simply, it was because I had too much stuff! I knew that Rebecca had been on a decluttering mission, and whilst I gave it a fair try last year, I still found myself plagued with mess. Everywhere.

To combat this, I have been tackling our clutter on a weekly basis. Not only has it made a big difference to how tidy our house is, it has released some extra cash from selling items that we no longer needed. On top of that, it has made us both feel more productive, especially as we are wasting less time tidying. Of course the house isn’t perfect, and there will always be tidying to do, but I cannot tell you how much easier it is to keep tidy with less stuff.

Right now our house is bursting with things left over from the wedding, wedding gifts and shopping we did on honeymoon. We are starting the slow process of making way for our new belongings by de-cluttering and rearranging.

How to declutter

Decluttering is a long process. It won’t be accomplished in just one weekend, it could, in fact, take years. Be patient throughout this process.

• Do little and often – decide on a small area to tackle instead of an entire room, for instance, a wardrobe instead of an entire bedroom.
• Have a few empty containers at your disposal. I have a box for selling, a box for donating, a box for recycling and a bin. This means if I come across something to declutter as I’m going about my normal daily routine, I can easily place it in the designated box.
• Don’t get too sentimental with your old items.

There are so many great posts to read about de-cluttering. Rebecca has lots of posts on the topic of Less But Better, there’s 7 Tiny Steps for the Beginner Minimalist and of course 15 Clutter Busting Routines For Any Family.

Turning your clutter into cash

Once you have sorted your unwanted items into your selling pile, it is time to get cracking.

Any items that are worth the effort can be sold on eBay, as you get 20 free listings a month. There are eBay fees of 10% of your final selling price to pay, including postage. So if you sold something for £10 + £5 postage and packaging, you would have to pay eBay £1.50 in fees. What if your eBay item doesn’t sell?

You can get a quick win by selling your DVDs, CDs, games and even books to sites like Music Magpie (don’t forget to go via Quidco to get up to 12% extra), Zapper and Ziffit.  This won’t earn you the most money, but it is the quickest and easiest way to get items out of your house and cash in your pocket. Be sure to compare the prices for items between each website, as they will vary – there’s nothing to stop you from splitting your items into a few parcels to different companies. You also can sell your unwanted electronics, including mobile phones, to these websites. Got some broken GHDs? You can sell them too.

Another great way of turning old unused electrical items into cash is using a gadget recycling site like this one. You can compare the prices offered from 47 different recycling companies, on everything from mobile phones to to gold and jewelry.

You can also visit a CEX store and sell your electronics, games, DVDs and CDs – I’ve even sold an old iPhone to CEX.

Summer is here, and it is a great time to have a car boot sale. Search online (your local Facebook group will help!) to find a good car boot sale near you. I’ve got lots of car boot sale tips for sellers to help you to clear your clutter for cash.

Listing your items on Facebook is a quick and easy way to get your items sold. You can also bundle items together, such as clothing, books, DVDs and more. Even better, the buyer collects and you don’t have to pay any selling fees.

These are some quick and easy ways to turn your unwanted clutter into cash in your pocket! If you have any tips that you would like to share then please leave a comment below – I would love to hear them!