Losing Money When Decluttering?

[marko]

We're trying to declutter our house. Being a house that has been passed down for generations, no one has ever moved out. We have tons of small antiques, tools etc...each worth about $50 each.

I just cant be bothered with waiting around for people to come by and haggle over a $12 lamp shade. As others have noted life is too short.

What I did do however was put a lot of old books on Amazon Sellers. I did well on it as I was able to look up what other similar old books were selling for.

 

[HadEnuff]

I either junk it or give it away.

My goal is to fill the trash container each week.

Step by step...

My wife would instantly fall in love with you. I tell her she is like an ant. She can lift 1000 times her body weight if she's carrying my stuff to the dumpster.

 

[Marita40]

I tried to sell an art deco chandelier on Craigslist for $800. No bites. I was contacted by a local antique shop; he offered me $400 and I took it. Now he has it on his website for $1300. Ouch. Oh well, it was something I can't use and otherwise would just be stored.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

"Losing money when decluttering?" is an issue for us. Another factor is that many of our collections have sentimental value. So we hold waiting for We have the following collections with no solution nor are there any family takers: 1) massive collection of worthless stamps 2) massive collection of coins worth close to face value 3) sea shells 4) bells 5) attraction branded knick-knacks 6) thousands of slides - DW is going to digitize one day (doesn't want to pay someone to do it) 7) athletic and academic medals, pins, trophies and certificates. Yes, I still have the medal for being part of that conference championship relay. 8) inherited linens 9) two cabinets full of plates, mugs, ladles, serving things that we NEVER use. 10) 1920's era children's books.

 

[EastWest Gal]

I tried to sell an art deco chandelier on Craigslist for $800. No bites. I was contacted by a local antique shop; he offered me $400 and I took it. Now he has it on his website for $1300. Ouch. Oh well, it was something I can't use and otherwise would just be stored.

Someone will come along and haggle him down to $800. You made the same $400 he will make but you didn't have the bother of showing it to customers. Time>money. Don't forget that.

 

[MichaelB]

Another view siding with Audreyh1

Losing money happens when you sell something for less than what you paid. When you declutter and manage to sell something, that's making money. If you sell it for less than it's fair market value, that's not losing, it's just not making as much.

Decluttering by selling is like getting two things for the price of one. A great deal any way you look at it.

 

[ivinsfan]

So not a decluttering comment, last night we watched "Minimalism" on Netflix...interesting take on the subject...and pretty much everybody here would consider themselves slackers in the decluttering department compared to the people in the documentary...

 

[jabbahop]

Have any Picasso's you are trying to declutter?

 

[neihn]

I once gave entire of collections of Laser Discs (> 30 discs, most of them Disney) and perfectly function Pioneer LaserDisc Player to Goodwill. Years later, I found out they could be collector items. Oh well.

 

[brucethebroker]

At the risk of sounding like the lone voice in the wilderness....

Have a friend or loved one who is savvy in ebay show you how to browse sold items on the website (or perhaps find a How To video online). (It is simple, just too difficult for me to explain here-easier to show kind of thing). Look at the sold prices, and scroll down about 20% to find an "average" fair price-be sure to include the shipping (sometimes paid by buyer and easier to add in). With this technique, you can determine a reasonable price for hundreds of thousands of items.

Then, if you want to sell the item, ask the friend how much they would charge you to sell it on a split commission basis. Or, google ebay valet to find an expert on line. Or, check with the FedEx stores-many offer the service.

If you have dozens of things, with true value (over $50 each??), consider setting up an ebay account. It's free to set up and free to list things on the auction format-ebay only charges when the item sells, about 15-20% including the fees for processing the payment/credit card info from PayPal.

You will most likely find that many of the things you think have value, are not worth the time to mess with. However, this process will give you the peace of mind that you aren't giving away thousands of dollars of antiques when you make your next donation run to the charity thrift store.

 

[Danmar]

I just toss the stuff inna trash, why bother?

Easy when you've been frugal all your life. I've never even bought a hard cover book (except when I was in school over 40 years ago) and who wants text books from back then?

Have a nice dinner out and forgetaboutit!

Agree. We were doing a reno at one of our places several years ago that resulted in a half full dumpster. It was great to take advantage of it to get rid of "stuff". We still talk about how great that was.

 

[Golden sunsets]

Agree. We were doing a reno at one of our places several years ago that resulted in a half full dumpster. It was great to take advantage of it to get rid of "stuff". We still talk about how great that was.

+1. A few years ago we used thedumpman.com to empty out our basement. I was giddy with excitement at clearing out so much space and not have to be the one to schlep the stuff. On four or five occasions we have listed larger items on Craigslist and had great success in selling items for cash.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[Marita40]

I live in a neighborhood with alleys and boy are they great for getting rid of stuff! No need to cart things to Goodwill--just put out in the alley and whatever it is, it will be gone within 24 hours.

 

[Throwdownmyaceinthehole]

Just helped my daughter move from a 2300 sq ft house to a 700 sq ft condo in a different city. She had spent 8 years filling and decorating that big house. She got a new job and had to move quickly, had a quick yard sale, but then gave away a yard full of furniture, clothes, tools. Probably gave away 5k but she didn't have the time to eBay or resell. She doesn't miss the stuff a bit.

 

[Philliefan33]

If you itemize deductions on your taxes, you can come out a little ahead even when you give things away to the thrift store. I keep track of everything we donate and use the "it's deductible " website to help set the value of each item. So far this year we've donated $1,958 worth of stuff to three different charities. No single item was worth more than $30, but all those household items and clothing added up. We will save roughly $548 on our taxes.

 

[Paracelsus]

I do the same as Philliefan33. I donated a very valuable antique herbalist book to the University Arboretum, which they very much appreciated and I'll use the value of the book as a charitable deduction off my taxes. I did get the book appraised.

 

[ElizabethT]

No. life is too short to spend a lot of time trying to get the best price for things you want to get rid of. We've given huge amounts of stuff away and only sold the obvious and straightforward pieces. We had other priorities and wanted to get on with our lives.

Money on the table and all that. Gosh, we left oodles behind by deciding to quit earning our nice wages when we were quite young.

Thank you for this, Audreyh1. I've been hanging onto a fur coat and a large box of silver plated serving ware, both inherited from a relative, because I deemed them too nice to donate. Instead I feel weighted down everytime they cross my field of vision. Out they go today.

Your last sentence is particular on point. I'll remember when faced with similar scenarios ongoing.

 

[audreyh1]

Someone will come along and haggle him down to $800. You made the same $400 he will make but you didn't have the bother of showing it to customers. Time>money. Don't forget that.

Great answer!

 

[Bestwifeever]

So not a decluttering comment, last night we watched "Minimalism" on Netflix...interesting take on the subject...and pretty much everybody here would consider themselves slackers in the decluttering department compared to the people in the documentary...

I haven't seen that but we have accidentally watched a few minutes of shows about hoarders (so depressing)--those people are worried their hoarded possessions are priceless and cannot let them go. Don't be like those people--let yours go in every sense of the term.

To the OP: you probably didn't pay $450 for the book you are now seeing for sale, so I imagine you still broke even with the $150 for the lot of the books altogether. Note to Trombone Al: write a book about pigeons.

 

[Amethyst]

Especially "that." (Unless you really need the money).

We sold an old landscape trailer, that we bought new but never managed to use, for about 1/6 of what a new one would cost. The buyer was a friend of a neighbor, and this was the first decent offer we'd gotten. We made the buyer incredibly happy (he told us!) He needed a trailer to start a business, and was having trouble finding something he could afford that came with clean owner title. The neighbor told us later that we probably could have asked a bit more (because we had the title), but that he really appreciated how we'd helped his friend. Frankly, he and his friends helped us.

For us, the trailer was just taking up space. I advertised it on CL and got flakes offering $100.00. We then tried to donate it, but the charity wanted us to put tires and planks on it before they would take it. A junk-hauling service wanted $200 to take it. At that point, I'd invested way too many hours of my precious life in that #@#!) trailer. Why waste more time haggling?

But again, if you're in business or need money, it's a whole different ball game.

Someone will come along and haggle him down to $800. You made the same $400 he will make but you didn't have the bother of showing it to customers. Time>money. Don't forget that.

 

[ivinsfan]

I haven't seen that but we have accidentally watched a few minutes of shows about hoarders (so depressing)--those people are worried their hoarded possessions are priceless and cannot let them go. Don't be like those people--let yours go in every sense of the term.

To the OP: you probably didn't pay $450 for the book you are now seeing for sale, so I imagine you still broke even with the $150 for the lot of the books altogether. Note to Trombone Al: write a book about pigeons.

these people are the opposite of hoarders, but I think they are preaching to a pretty small choir.

 

[GrayHare]

Common collectibles are easy to sell online in bulk at a deep discount. There is a large market for baseball cards, books, coins, stamps, and similar. By selling in bulk your time is minimized, clutter gone, and you get a few dollars. Furthermore, gains on collectibles are taxed at 28%, which is higher than most other items, and so they're especially good for tax-loss harvesting.

 

[Sunset]

Thank you for this, Audreyh1. I've been hanging onto a fur coat and a large box of silver plated serving ware, both inherited from a relative, because I deemed them too nice to donate. Instead I feel weighted down everytime they cross my field of vision. Out they go today.
.....

I had a relative that held onto lots of stuff from dead parents house, it was a source of pride and a lot of the stuff was displayed like it was the treasures of the ancients. Silverware sets, super fancy serving sets (oyster soup bowl, etc), paintings and so on.

Then suddenly this person had to go into a retirement home, so called the auctioneers and everything sold at auctions for about $3,000.

It taught me, household stuff is nearly worthless, great for the imagination, but can't retire on it.

 

[Senator]

To the OP: you probably didn't pay $450 for the book you are now seeing for sale, so I imagine you still broke even with the $150 for the lot of the books altogether. Note to Trombone Al: write a book about pigeons.

I probably had ~$250-$300 into them. I was more than fine with $150 until I saw the single book for $450. And I only noticed because someone offered $200 after the fact.

On another note, I was selling my racing clock for $600 and someone offered $800 to get in front of my previously committed buyer.

So I did get $1,000 that was just sitting on my shelf. I am going to get rid of a bunch more stuff too.

Want a flashing light for the top of your car, or plow truck? I have it advertised in Craig's and keep dropping the price.

 

[Bestwifeever]

these people are the opposite of hoarders, but I think they are preaching to a pretty small choir.

Exactly--two extremes; hanging on to things we don't use simply because we think they might be worth something one day makes them a burden in many ways. I do have a sentimental attachment to some things regardless of their perceived (by me) value which probably goes against the minimalist theme.