Purging 101: What Do I Do With This? And is it Worth it? (Part Two)

This is a continuation of yesterday's post about getting rid of all of my stuff! As many of you know, at the beginning of 2024, I decluttered my house and got rid of everything except for a few mementos, photos and some camping gear. I decided to do all the work myself and now am looking back to analyze whether or not it was worth it. After much research I ended up doing the following with the items listed below. 

Kitchen stuff. I sold some of the larger items on FBMP, but mostly I donated it to a local rummage sale, or gave it to Salvation Army. I did have some success posting some things in groups, like all baking items. Also bigger ticket items like my Ninja or Magic Bullet seemed to do better or sell faster in the long run.

$10 each or you can have the whole set for $40!!

Books. Unfortunately my local library is very picky about what they take and all of the Little Free Libraries were full, so most of my books went to Salvation Army. I also sold a few on eBay but they were not really hot ticket items. 

Random. It is interesting what people will buy. I sold unused printer cartridges and photo paper. I sold random assortments of photo frames and crafting supplies. I sold an antique radio to a woman who was going to use it in a play. I sold plants! Also, when I put out the free stuff, people took storage containers, even the ones without lids (I had set them out in groups), a roll of fabric, and a roll of Reflectex. I also gave a ton of stuff to friends and family, which really was my favorite way to get rid of things. I am sure they groaned every time they got a text from me saying, "Hey, do you want XXX?" but I felt a lot better knowing that some of the things went to a good home. 

Here are a few other places you can take things (for free): 
*these ones were especially difficult since none of them can be thrown in the trash. 

Household cleaners, paint, batteries, light bulbs, propane containers, aerosol cans, e-waste etc.: If the paint is unused and unopened (which seems silly), you can take it to Habitat For Humanity (Restore). You may also be able to return it to the place you bought it. If it has been opened, it has to go to the Hazardous Waste drop off with the other items in the illustration below. *for my local county. Please check your local location for confirmation of what they will or will not take. The cool thing about this is that you put the items in your trunk and you pull up, they take everything out, and you drive off. You never have to get out of the car! 

Take these* to Hazardous Waste drop off. 

Used motor oil: In my area, you actually can leave this on the curb for your regular pick up. Also many retailers who sell oil (like Walmart) or do oil changes (like Jiffy Lube) will take your used oil. Luckily I had graduated to paying someone to do this for me, so I did not have to worry about this. However, as a kid, my Dad used to make me change my oil, so I am familiar with the process! 

Used printer cartridges: Staples or Office Depot will usually take these. 

Used batteries: In my area, you could put them in a Ziploc and tape that to your recycling bin and Waste Management will take it on trash day. Otherwise you may be able to take them to Office Depot, or to the hazardous waste drop off. 

Electronics - Goodwill, if the item is still working (they are sometimes picky about this), and they may refurbish it and sell it, but check your local one, as some do not take them, or local e-waste pickup company, or if it is dead, you can take it to the same place that you take hazardous waste.

Now the summary that you have been waiting for. What was my time really worth? Ha. In the end, I estimate that I "made" about $45/hour for eBay, $25/hour for ThredUp and $47/hour for FBMP (*these are very ballpark numbers). However, if you add in the hundreds (or thousands?) of items I gave away, and the time it took to research that and sort them and pile them up and move them from place to place, it would significantly lower my per hour rate (remember the saga of the suitcase? Well I ended up putting in my driveway for free, and I probably spent a few hours going back and forth with people on that) and am guessing it would be closer to the $15/hour range, or maybe even less! 

Moral of the story? Some of the big ticket items may be worth selling, but the little guys may not be worth your time. Also FBMP takes more effort, but doesn't pay a whole lot more for the extra time. ThredUp was very little work and was things I would have given away for free anyway, so I feel like that was probably the least amount of brain power (which is a win for sure!) even though it consisted of the most items and paid nearly half as much. Also as an aside, if you are just sitting at home and have the time anyway, it's not a bad side gig! However, I think unless you want to have to be face to face with people and deal with a lot of flakes, I would pick eBay over FBMP for the ease of it. 

Also, as a last side note, if you are ever buying on eBay or FBMP (or Poshmark etc.), even if it is a Buy Now item, it never hurts to offer a lower price! Unless you absolutely NEED it now. However, as a seller, I would happily take an offer, as I was motivated to sell! 

Have you ever sold on eBay, FBMP or any other online retailer and if so, how did it go? What do you think your time is worth for these kinds of things (aka, would you pay someone just to not have the hassle)?? 

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. P.S. This is a draft I started in June 2023! Speaking of purging! 

Purging 101: What Do I Do With This? And is it Worth it? (Part One)

As many of you know, at the beginning of 2024, I decluttered my house and got rid of everything except for a few mementos, photos and some camping gear. While doing this, two things took me a lot of time. First, it took a long time to figure out where everything should go. I know, I could have just called a company to come and take everything and get rid of it for me, but that is not my way. I wanted to try to get some money for some of my items, and I did not want to PAY money to have someone else do what I could easily (HA. HAHA. HA!) do myself. 

Things to keep

If you don't mind paying to have this done, you can call a junk removal company. My friend in the Bay Area used this local one, who actually promises to recycle, sell or donate at least 80% of the items, which I find important. In fact, that is one of the reasons that I was so particular about finding where to take things; I did not want it to all just go in a landfill! However, in the end, it took me much longer than I had hoped. 

The second thing that took me forever was selling things. I had this entrepreneurial dream that I would sell all of my crap and make millions of dollars. This is why I am not an entrepreneur. The time it took to take photos, figure out prices, list and monitor (and sometimes haggle) probably netted me about $2.00 per hour. I will give a short summary about this at the end of this post. 

First let's talk about furniture. This is probably where I thought I could do the least amount of work to get the most amount of money. These things are large, I did not have too many of them and the price point is a lot higher than a pair of jeans or shoes. I had some good pieces, not in bad condition, no pet wear or chips or stains or cracks. I started by putting them on Facebook Marketplace. Ideally, I wanted to try to get a little bit back for this, but the work that is involved can be massive. Luckily, I was working from home two days a week at this point, as you really do have to have a certain amount of availability. However, I did leave quite a few items on my porch for people to pick up and I figured if they stiffed me, I didn't really care that much. P.S. None of them stiffed me. I ended up selling about 25% of my furniture. 

But what to do with the other 75%??? The places in my local area where you can donate furniture are VERY PICKY! Also, I would prefer to have someone pick it up, so I don't have to load it twice into a car. However, that was easier said than done. 

First, I scheduled a pick up with Restore (Habitat for Humanity). However, they basically rejected 75% of my things, even though when I filled out the form for the appointment, it said that they would take the items that I had. They will take new building supplies and like new household items, but "like new" means basically new. Also, I didn't have any of these, but if I did, I would have returned them to Home Depot for cash. They don't take anything that has patterns, has been painted, or has ANY tiny cracks or dirt spots (my couch had one tiny water stain on one arm). However, they did take my push mower (no motor, like the old fashioned kind) and my corded power tools (as long as they worked and were in a case etc.). They also would not take a kitchen table unless it had six matching chairs.

I ended up trying to get another company to pick up the rest but the wait times were horrible (pro tip: plan early, even if that means eating in camp chairs in the living room) and in the end I had to get Broski and his truck involved. We started by going to Salvation Army, but lo and behold, even though the website said that they took furniture, they would not take it, and so we ended up going to Out of The Closet, who is also picky, but not as picky as Habitat luckily! In the end, they took the rest of the large things, but Broski and I had to (a) make two trips (b) load and unload everything ourselves. 

Broski helping me give away furniture

Here is what I would do differently. I would start by taking what I could get for the furniture. I often would haggle and then the buyer would back out. I don't know what I was trying to prove, but I should have prioritized getting rid of it over making money. In the end, I gave it away for nothing so the $50 I was offered would have been better! Second, after I sold what I could sell, I would have put the rest on the curb with a "free" sign! I ended up doing this for a few left over items at the end and they went fast!! Even people driving by would stop and pick through stuff, which was surprising to me. I also don't really love having all of my goods out on display for the whole world to see, but believe you me, by the end, I could not give two flying trucks who saw my stuff; I just wanted it gone! I would definitely tell past me to get over myself and just put it on the curb. Then I would have donated (or trashed) what did not get taken, and saved myself the work. 

Free stuff! Going, going, gone!

Bulky trash. Speaking of trash, our garbage carrier (WM) let's you do one free bulky pickup a year, and they will take things like tires, mattresses, some electronics and furniture. I would have done this earlier, although I wanted to have everything sorted so I didn't end up with a bunch of trash at the end, so the timing was tricky. However, I think going through the garage and making a big pile early would have been better. Or if I wanted to do it at the end, I should have scheduled it sooner. I wanted to wait until the last minute, but only then did I learn that they schedule these a few weeks in advance, so I could not get it when I wanted it. I ended up going to the WM facility with a load in my car, which actually was not too bad. However, you do have to have a local address in order to do the disposal for free (you can dump for a fee otherwise), and I also had to schedule this (but could do that a couple of days in advance). 

Taking a load to the dump in my huge car.

Clothing and Shoes. Like the furniture, I did not want to just give it away, especially since I had some pretty high end pieces (I used to work in the fancy shoe department at Nordstrom, and some of my shoes were >$600 retail. I got them on sale though! I swear!). Why is it that if you spent a lot on it, you are more loathe to give it away? Or is that just me? Anyway, I put a bunch of them on eBay and FBMP, and same story as above, sold maybe 25% of them. We do not have a good consignment shop in my area (they want current styles, certain brands etc.) However, the good thing is that you can send a box to ThredUp, and they will try to sell your items and if they sell you will get a (measly) commission. I sent about six boxes to them in the end, and then gave the rest of the things to Salvation Army. 

Typical week's worth of donations

What I would have done differently. I was afraid to list things in multiple locations, but I should have tried to do that. I found that some things sold really well on FBMP and others were better to list on eBay so you can get a broader audience. Also eBay was way easier, as you just box it up and put it in the mail rather than having a person come over, or flake on you, or having a huge back and forth before they decide to buy. However, they do take a larger cut from you, but maybe it is worth it! 

Electronics. This one hurt a lot. I used to be big into photography, and still am, but I no longer use my DSLR or the four different lenses I had for it (and lights and flashes and diffusers etc.) But they all cost a lot and once again, I did not want to give them away for a pittance. So I tried FBMP and did not have a lot of luck, and finally got desperate and put them on Ebay and did not get a lot for them but I did end up selling everything camera related. I also disposed of many an old cell phone and laptop by taking them to the Hazardous Waste drop off. 

Sigh...tear...😢

...to be continued!!! In the interest of time (this got to be too long!), stay tuned for tomorrow, when I will go over a few more examples of where to take things and will also do the big reveal...what was my time worth?? 

Have you ever done serious decluttering at your house? What tricks did you use to get rid of stuff?  What's the weirdest thing you have ever sold? 

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. P.S. This is a draft I started in June 2023! Speaking of purging! 

The Not So Successful Side Hustle: An Update

You may recall that I recently started an unsuccessful side hustle. I never claimed to be an entrepreneur and I definitely am not much of a salesperson, but last year I thought I would try my hand in selling some stuff online. The last time I posted, I was just trying eBay, but I asked for your opinions on FB Marketplace and you all said to do it, so I did. 

I won't say that it started off easy. First of all, I was afraid. I don't really love people knowing my details and FB shows your name and could possibly involve your address. I am not a huge fan of people coming over to my house, unless it is specifically scheduled, and I do not really want people inside my house. However, I decided to do a Shonda Rhimes and call this "the year of yes" and just get comfortable with being uncomfortable. 

The first thing I listed was a stationary bike. I immediately got three replies, all offering me the exact amount I had listed it for. Hurray!! Or should I say, hurray? My Spidey senses went up, I looked at the profiles of the buyers and all of them were created in 2023 and had no personal info. I blocked and reported all three. My first adversary, slayed! After that, weeks went by with no further inquiries. 

I decided to try something a little more simple, cheaper and that did not need two people to lift it. I listed an end table, had an inquiry the next day, and had a pleasant conversation with the buyer over messenger. However, our times were not jiving, so face to face pick up was going to be difficult. I decided at that moment to offer to leave it on the porch and she could get it when she could and just leave me money. I figured if she wanted it that bad, she could just take it. However, she was super sweet, came and got it and left me money and then communicated (gasp!) that she had done so. I was converted! 

After that I listed a bunch of other things and after about six months, I have mixed feelings. Firstly, there are a ton of flakey people. So many people ask if the item is available and even if I reply right away, they ghost me after that. I have had people ask questions about details that are in the description (and I always include dimensions, info about stains, chips, tears etc.). I want to tell them to read the bloody description and stop wasting my time, but I usually don't. I have had people fully commit, ask me to hold the item, set up a time and then ghost me. I have had people set up a time and then come an hour early! People are strange. 

However, I have had some good ones and I thought I would give a seller's perspective on the perfect buyer. 

(1) The perfect buyer does not use the auto inquiry "Hi, is this available?" (often used even when the items are plural, by the way). 

(2) The perfect buyer has personality and says something like, "Hello [insert seller's name here], I was wondering if this was still available. If so, I would be able to come and get it today." ***side note, are there a lot of sellers who don't take down their listing even if they have sold the item? There must be, because I get A LOT of  "is this still available" inquiries. It's still listed! Yes it is still available!***

(3) The perfect buyer sets up a time to get the item as soon as possible. An actual time, not "tomorrow" or "later today" or my favorite, "after 9 pm." (they clearly don't know me). The perfect buyer then messages their ETA when they leave, when they are 5 mins away and when they are outside. I love these people! LOVE THEM. 

(4) The perfect buyer does not set up a time, come to my house and THEN ask if they can get the item for half off. The perfect buyer haggles in advance, settles on a price and then sets up a meeting time. 

(5) The perfect buyer pays cash, in exact amounts, but I will not be mad if they want to use Venmo. 

(6) The perfect buyer sends a photo of the item later, happy in its new home. 🧡 

So clearly everyone is different, and I am sure the buyers out there have some horror stories about the sellers (and I want to hear them!) but it seems like sometimes common courtesy is just lacking. I actually went down a wormhole of this reddit thread and wow, there really are some way worse horror stories than I have had! 

But wait, let me tell you about the saga of the suitcases. I have a set of suitcases; there are three of them, they are hard sided, they have four spinning wheels. They are nice suitcases. I only used the smallest of the three a couple of times, but I decided I was a backpack person and they sat in the garage for years. I listed them for about half of what I got them for, even though they are essentially unused. Since I listed these cases, I probably have had almost a thousand clicks on them. And for some reason, everyone who is interested in the suitcases has some issue or other. 

The accursed luggage. 

The first guy seemed like a creeper as he did not ask any questions about the cases, but just asked for my address right away, so I ignored him after that.

This lady told me she wasn't a flake, which made me suspicious.  Also that looks like a copy-paste. Hm. 

Several other people set up times and then ghosted me. Here is an example. (before this first clip, I told her I would be available from 12 pm to 1 pm). 

At 12:57, no word. So I messaged her. 

After this, she gave me another thumbs up and then the next day, did not show, did not message, nothing. 

Here is another good one. This lady messages me on Tuesday afternoon and says: Hi do all the wheels work smoothly? I just had to return a luggage set to a lady on market place. The wheels ended up being all wonky and not wheeling properly. I’m leave for a long trip Thursday and need something durable. 

So I am thinking that she sounds like one of the ladies I used to serve at Nordstrom; they would buy shoes but as they were buying them would complain about shoes and you knew, you JUST knew that they were going to wear them once and then return them (which goes against your commission if they do) after wearing them. Also, their party or whatever would be the next day and they would complain about how they just can't find anything perfect (and you would be thinking that it doesn't seem strange to you!) yet! 

BUT I message her and tell her that the wheels work great but I am only available Tuesday evening, not Wednesday. She goes on to then ask me my address (why!) and I give her the general area, thinking that we have a sale. Then she asks for $25 less than the listed price, which by the way is about 25% less, and when I counter, she doesn't agree, but just asks if we can set up pickup for tomorrow, and I reiterate that I am not available Wednesday and then... she ghosts me. Mind you, this exchange took place over six hours. So she texted me at the last minute (for her vacation) and then draws out the conversation and then doesn't want to come and get it as soon as possible!? I don't get it. 

On the other hand, if you ever DO want to get into a side hustle, for some reason around here, plants are the way to go. Remember I talked about emptying out my plant room? Well, I was going to just put them all out on the curb with a "free" sign, but I thought what the heck, I will give FB a shot. I listed about 15 indoor plants and over the next day, I sold about 9 of them and made almost $200! Listen, I listed them cheap, including the pots, but I was going to give them away for free, so I was super happy. Drinks are on me! Plus, if you recall, many of these were propagated by me, so aside from the pot and the time, they didn't really cost me much to begin with! 

Plants for sale!! 

Do I know how to make a short story long, or what!?!? Thank you for listening, and thanks to those of you who commented on my original post and prodded me to just give it a shot. 

Do you have buyer or seller horror stories? Are people in your area as flakey as the ones here? But most importantly, why are the suitcase people so weird!?!?!? I need hypotheses! 

The Not So Successful Side Hustle

Most years, I do a purge of all of my things, but this year I decided to ramp it up and try to get down to the bare bones. I am doing a pretty good job for the most part. I have whittled my work clothes down to about three pairs of slacks and seven sweaters (one for each day of the week plus a couple of backups since a couple of them are well loved). I only have two pairs of running shoes (if you are a runner, you know how these can collect, and it is very common to buy several pairs of the same style if it fits you well). I am getting there slowly. 

The thing that I decided to do this time which I have not done before is to sell some of the things online. Much of my work clothes and shoes were purchased when I worked at Nordstrom (in the late 90s / early 2000s and yes some of them even still fit!) and I spent a lot of money building up my work wardrobe. After that, I bought some extras from thrift stores, but I always pick through and find the good brands (BCBG, Ann Taylor, Tahari, Diane Von Furstenburg etc.) So I thought that maybe I could get some of my money back by selling these items. 

It took me a long time to get started. You know how you have good intentions but that box of "sell online" items sits in your closet for months because you are not sure how the shipping works and you are too lazy/scared/unmotivated to find out what to do? That is what I did. I purged, I segregated, the box sat in the closet. Finally, I looked up shipping procedures, got flat rate boxes from the PO and started taking photos of things. But then, I was not sure how much to charge and I waited again, pondering. Finally I put my first item on eBay. 

And then...nothing happened. Nothing happened for a long, long time. This was my first time and I had no idea what to expect or what to do if nothing happened, so I let it refresh (it does this every 30 days) for a long time before I finally took the listing down. Then, about six months later, I decided to try again. This time I put several listings up and I decreased the price if they did not sell after a certain time period. For a long time, nothing happened. 

And then...someone bought something! Hurray! Then I muddled through printing a label and putting it in the right box and getting it to the post office, but I did it. In the end, it was not that hard. I don't know why I waited so long to start. After that, I enthusiastically posted a half dozen other items, and...nothing happened. 

You can see where this is going! However, after about a year and a half of listing items, I have sold probably five items. So clearly I am not going to quit my day job! However, it is very satisfying to get even $20.00 for an item that I paid a lot for, as the alternative is to get nothing! HOWEVER, I do not think that the buck is worth the bang unless you are at home full time and you have free time. Let's say I probably spent five hours collecting, photographing and posting listings (and revising) and I have made....drumroll please...about $70.00. This puts me at $14.00 per hour, which is less than the $18.07 minimum wage in San Francisco. Bottom line: I should probably go get a job at a coffeeshop and give all the items to Goodwill! 

When the items do not sell on eBay, I send them to thredUp, which is an online consignment store. I have sent about 12 items to them and made $64.00, so my per hour on this is probably about $18.00-$20.00 per hour, but my per item is only $5.00 vs about $14.00 per item on eBay. I did look into taking my things to a local consignment shop but they are VERY picky, i.e. it has to be current season, certain brands etc. and most of my things are not current season (they are classics!) 

Next up is a big Goodwill/Salvation Army run, or maybe I can try one more platform, but first... 

I need advice! Have you ever sold things online? If so, what platform do you use and how successful have you been? If you have been successful, what tips can you give me? Has anyone tried or had luck with Facebook Marketplace? If so, do you let people come to your house or do you meet them somewhere? How exactly does that work!?