Big Goal for 2019
One of the big goals that my wife and I have for 2019 is to begin the down-sizing process. We’d like to start making extra money by selling items we don’t need any more.
We’re both in our late 50s and while retirement is still a few years away, we want to have our lives de-cluttered before leave the working world. And, trust me, it’s going to take a few years to get all this de-cluttering taken care of.
Our basement and garage are both overflowing with stuff we’ve accumulated during the 20 years we’ve lived in our current home. I admit — I am the one who has contributed the most to the mess; however, a lot of the items are shared: furniture, extra kitchen gadgets, cooking tools, clothes, and a few other things.
We’re not opposed to donating stuff to Goodwill — we’ve done a LOT of that over the years. And we’ve given many items to our boys for their off-campus housing stints.
Sell it. Sell it. Sell it.
Our goal for 2019 is to de-clutter and (hopefully) start making extra money by selling a lot of our stuff on eBay, Craigslist, and other online platforms. And, next spring we plan to have a huge garage sale at the beginning of May. That’s when our neighborhood garage sale is and that’s a GREAT time to sell stuff. We’ve done it before. We’re doing it again!
For the past several months, I’ve watched several YouTube videos of part-time “pickers”. Pickers are people who shop at Goodwill, The Salvation Army Thrift Shop, garage sales, estate sales, etc., and then re-sell the items online — for a profit. Some of the profit margins are so-so. Some are VERY large.
Here are some of my favorite YouTube pickers/resellers: Ralli Roots, Part Time Pickers, Cincinnati Picker, and Garage Flips.
We’re not out to make a fortune (although I wouldn’t turn that away), but we’d love to make some extra money on the things we need to get rid of. Nothing wrong with that, right?
What it Takes to Sell Successfully
From what I’ve learned from the pickers and sellers that I’ve been watching, there are some important keys to becoming a successful online seller. Of course I knew about a lot of these from my experience on Etsy; however, selling USED items opens a whole new world.
A picture is worth a thousand words. Especially when you’re trying to sell something online.
Photos need to be clean, clear, and concise. They need to show all the angles of the item: top, bottom, sides. They need to show the entire item and it’s important to show close-ups of the details. You don’t need an expensive camera. Your smartphone camera is perfectly fine.
Even the fanciest camera won’t produce good photos if your lighting sucks. I bit the bullet and bought these lights a few weeks ago. They are AWESOME. They add bright, indirect light to the items I’m photographing. They also fold up nice and compact so I can store them away when I don’t need them.
For taking photos of small items, I bought this portable light box. It has LED light strips inside and creates the perfect amount of light for my photos. I’ll be using this for some of the small collectibles that we’re going to sell.
I’ll share more of my set-up in future posts. In the meantime, if you have specific questions, feel free to contact me and I’ll be glad to help. You can send a message here.
How do You Deal with Items You No Longer Want/Need?
Leave a comment and let me know. I’d love to hear from you!