Where Do I Donate or Sell My Stuff?

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Where Do I Donate or Sell My Stuff? | Family Economics

After I de-clutter and purge my home I am left with piles of items that I need to clear out, leaving me two choices: sell or donate.

First, I have to decide how much additional time I want to spend getting rid of things. Selling will require more time but will give me a little extra money. Some items may be valuable enough that I would like to sell them to make the extra money for an upcoming project, vacation or purchase.

If I donate, it’s just a matter of deciding where and when I will make a drop off trip to the selected place for donations.

Selling

There are several options when it comes to selling unneeded items:

1. Garage Sales: If you have an abundance of items worthy of selling, you may choose this option. Garage sales take a little bit of organization and time but these garage sale planning tips can help.

2. EBay: List your items to be sold off in a bidding process on ebay.com. Once a bidder wins the auction you will need to ship the item to them.

3. Craigslist: You can list your items for sale on Craigslist and those that live locally can contact you to connect with you to view the “for sale” item and purchase it from you.

4. Consignment: There are a variety of different consignment stores from clothing to collectibles. Search your local area for consignment stores that you can contract to sell your items and share in the profits.

Donating

Most of your household and clothing items can be taken to local thrift stores like Goodwill or Salvation Army. They accept intact, clean items to re-sell with the profits helping their organizations.

You can also search for more specific places to donate. For instance, if you have eyeglasses to donate, New Eyes for the Needy accepts eyeglasses, reading glasses, sunglasses and hearing aids. They then send the donations to medical missions and international charitable organizations for distribution to the poor.

Musical instruments can be donated to Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation that donates gently used musical instruments to under-funded school music programs. The best way to discover additional places to donate specific items is to do an online Internet search.

Remember to only donate useable and gently used items. Don’t drop off broken, stained or worn-out items.

Do you shop at thrift stores? What types of things have you donated?

1 Comment so far

On Thursday, January 12, 2012, Susan from Idaho wrote

There are tons of children's consignment sales throughout the country. Most have the option of donating your unsold items. For me, this is the best of both worlds. I can make a little money on my kid items no longer being used and donate the rest to a local charity. In my area, the Just Between Friends sale is the best.

Thank You

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