Clear out Clutter (and Make $$)

I am a naturally scattered and disorganized person who craves order. Not a good combination. I have recently undertaken two pursuits in order to clear out the clutter - a good old-fashioned yard sale and selling books and textbooks on Half.com.

I am approaching the yard sale less as a money-making endeavor and more as a de-cluttering mission.


Last year, I went as far as to make several items at my yardsale free! Sounds like a sure-fire way to get rid of stuff, right? Wrong. I actually had people who would pick up the free item, try to haggle with me, and when they found out it was free...they put it down and WALKED AWAY. Amazement.

So this year the plan is to hoard boxes and bags and have a 'Fill a box for $5, Fill a bag for $1' sale. It was actually inspired by Gabe's. They had a 'fill a bag for $15 sale' that people were going CRAZY over. I mean, literally insane. I'll keep you posted on how my new yard sale strategy works out. Any items that do not sell will go to the Rescue Mission (good karma AND a tax write-off! Score.)

One thing that I have found does not sell well at yard sales are books - especially textbooks. Therefore, a new decluttering technique was necessary.

After perusing my options, I settled on Half.com. This site is very user friendly - all you have to do is:

• sign into your ebay account
• enter the ISBN number of your book (Usually found on the back cover, or on one of the first few pages of the book)
• enter the condition of the book
• enter a price (The site gives you a price range. You can price it however you want, but I've found it's best to go for the lower end of this price range.)

I have already made $159.99 from selling books that were just collecting dust (and taking up space) in my little house! So if you feel the need to a) de-clutter b) make money and c) score good karma - what's holding you back?

Carpe Diem!

Do you have any other good de-cluttering techniques? I'd love to hear about them!