Could you cash in on your clutter?
From broken phones to clothes and books, there are innovative new ways to make a tidy sum from your junk. So...
PROFESSIONAL declutterer Sarah Macnaught wanders around my home appraising my belongings. She is on a mission to wade through my unwanted clothes, books and toys to find things to sell.
She settles on a vintage-looking wooden desk. ‘This would sell very well,’ she says. ‘Modern but retro and easy to transport.’
Sadly, it was bought recently from a department store. And I need my desk. But her point is reassuring: you do not need a home full of antiques and designer clothing to make money. If you are having a clear-out, fast fashion and functional furniture sells well, too.
‘Older, more expensive furniture is actually harder to sell,’ the ‘belongings coach’ says. ‘Great big mahogany wardrobes are seen as passé. One day they will come back in again but, for now, people want utilitarian, simple furniture they can stick in their car and take back home.’
So why is Sarah, of Rightsize, looking at my desk? I have joined millions of people in the decluttering phenomenon.
The trend is led by Japanese tidying guru Marie Kondo, whose KonMari method involves keeping only belongings which ‘spark joy’. Her focus is on beautifully folding and stacking what you want to keep. Charity shops are benefiting from generous donations because of her.
But what about those who want to sell their goods instead? How can they put a price tag on their junk — and will they be able to find a seller?
Here’s how to cash in on clutter...
BALANCING THE BOOKS
YOU must be realistic about what unwanted items are worth: price them too high and they won’t sell.
‘It is a mistake to assume that just because something is old, or was expensive when you bought it, that it will sell for a lot,’ says Sarah.
‘The older generation in particular can struggle with this, as they are likely to perceive everything to be valuable in some way.
‘Then there is the younger consumerist generation who are down at Ikea every week buying more things, and so we have reached “peak stuff”. This glut of belongings has devalued our valuables.’ I have accumulated more than 300 novels, autobiographies, cookbooks, textbooks and travel books over the years. But I need to clear some shelves for my children’s books.
‘Books are often only worth a fraction of the price you paid because we have so many of them and we all tend to have the same ones,’ warns Sarah. She recommends using websites such as Ziffit (ziffit.com) to offload ones you no longer want.
For some you type the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) or barcode number on the back of the book into the website and it will tell you how much you will get for it. You then package the books up and post them for free.
It sounds great. But while the websites don’t claim to match what you would get if you sold the book privately, I am shocked when WeBuyBooks offers me just 20c for my pristine copy of Mary Berry’s Complete Cookbook. Jamie Oliver’s Jamie at Home fares even worse, at 25c. I then try Ziffit’s mobile app — I can scan the barcodes, rather than inputting the ISBN. This time, I get a valuation of 54c for my Mary Berry. But Ziffit will not buy my Jamie Oliver cookbook at all.
Sarah suggests trying more unusual books — perhaps random textbooks, non-fiction or work books.
I have much more success here. I get an offer of €17.54 for 13 random non-fiction books. I am baffled by what gets a decent price — €4.19 for a paperback titled, rather unappealingly, Business Journalism.
I decide to sell my books en masse via Ziffit. I stick them all in an old printer box and stick on a free postage label the site has emailed me.
I then take it to the nearest dropoff named on the app — a newsagent less than half a mile away. Days later I receive my money via PayPal, although it can be sent direct to your bank account.
FASHION SELLS — BUT BE REALISTIC
THE key to selling clothes is to make sure you do so within two years of purchase, Sarah says. After that, fashion will move on and it will be 30 years before you can call it retro or vintage.
Even then, only quality designer clothing and rare collections sell well. Most of my clothes are from popular High Street retailers such as Zara, H&M and Whistles. But as long as you sell within two years, you can still make money.
Taking decent photos is vital when selling online. ‘Invest a bit of time in taking quality photographs in good light,’ Sarah says.
‘Make sure the item isn’t creased and put it on a nice coathanger. Then hang it on a picture hook on your wall or against a blank background. Do not put it down on a floor or a bed. It must look loved.
‘You must also be detailed and accurate with the description and point out imperfections.’
Ebay.ie is a good place to sell clothes because of the large audience. It also offers protection for buyers and sellers. To gauge the value of your clothes, search eBay for how much similar items have sold for first. To do this, click on the ‘advanced search’ button and then ‘sold listings’.
‘It tells you what things are really selling for, rather than what sellers are trying to get’, Sarah says.
‘Someone can advertise a top for €60 but the reality might be that it eventually sold for €6.’
Sarah says most people want half
price they bought something for en they resell, but goods are ely worth more than a quarter of purchase price. For clothes, be pared to sell for as little as 10 per nt of what you paid for them. e have regular clothing clear-outs our house and usually send wanted items to charity, but there still a few bits clogging up our pboards I can sell. mong them is a Ralph Lauren nim jacket that I have been waiting to come back into fashion for 18 years, an H&M dress that was always too tight, a Ted Baker coat that was always a bit too pink and a children’s Christmas jumper that was worn only a couple of times.
I list the jacket, bought for €100, with a starting bid of more than €5.70 — what similar jackets sold for. Within a day I have a bidder.
Next I try to list the Christmas jumper, but have apparently reached my limit as a new user.
After a long ‘live chat’ online with eBay, they give me a limit of ten items. During the 30-minute conversation, it becomes apparent I have also been charged 50c for listing the jacket with a ‘buy it now’ option which lets buyers purchase immediately for a fixed price.
A little jaded, I bundle together the rest of my clothes and try a different way. H&M gives customers a €5 voucher for every bag of old clothes handed into the store, which they can use when they next make a €25 purchase. The clothes collected are either reused, reworn or recycled, the retailer says. Another option is to join a Facebook group for selling clothing. For example, a local mums group would be the best place for bundles of baby clothes, and you can avoid fees by accepting cash upon collection.
Or try listing items on Facebook’s specific online marketplace. There are also niche second-hand clothing sites such as Vinted for vintage clothes. It charges the buyer a fee rather than the seller.
FIND THE RIGHT MARKETPLACE
NEXT, Sarah raids our shed. We decide to list an old bike on Gumtree, which is good for collectiononly goods.
We take Sarah’s advice and wait for a sunny day to take attractive photographs of the bike next to tubs of purple flowers.
The bike was worth €1,200, but we are realistic and price it at €300.
It sells for €200 a week later to a family living in the same town, without any doorstep haggling.
Sarah also identifies some old children’s toys — a slide and playhouse and a baby-walker — which she thinks will sell well on a local parenting Facebook group.
When it comes to valuables you must be careful. I tell Sarah about a friend who tried to sell her late grandmother’s jewellery at a car boot sale and had to fend off people fighting for fistfuls of tarnished, gold necklaces.
Sarah says: ‘Car boot sales are a great way to sell lots of things which you don’t mind selling cheaply, but I wouldn’t recommend it for valuables or sentimental items as you’re unlikely to get a good price.’
By the time Sarah leaves, she has helped me make more than £300. But while it feels good to have cleared some space, it has been rather time-consuming.
Kate Ibbotson, who set up her own decluttering company, A Tidy Mind, and is a member of the Association of Professional Declutterers & Organisers, says: ‘Selling goods takes time and effort as well as ensuring you use the right platforms for the type of possession. But I’ve seen people sell more than €2,000 worth of items, and in rare cases, where collectibles are involved and an auction house, the sale value can reach tens of thousands of pounds.’
The key is not to let the clutter build again. So, as I await the money from my Mary Berry cookbook, I resist buying the latest from Deliciously Ella — and borrow it from the library instead.