Though we also have a few huge bags of old clothing that need to be taken to the Goodwill drop off too.

Now, when I look at prices, I’m honest with myself that I won’t make anything back in the future if I decide to get rid of it. I’m also honest about how painful it is to get rid of something that I didn’t use very much. (Amazing how often something just doesn’t “work out.”) It makes a big difference in what I’m willing to bring into my house.

I know that I’ve been the recipient of many used clothing items and I just keep passing them on. I give away a lot of used things. It’s not “karma” to me–it’s just plain old “being nice”/generous.

In the ad we said we’d be available for certain hours on a given Sat/Sun for people to stop by and make offers. Not only did we sell virtually everything we actually got great offers on many of the items.

We did have a couple of “bargin” hunters (aka cheap SOB’s) that thought it was a garage sale and tried to harangue us over prices. I felt if I was going to give it away dirt cheap I might as well give it to a chartiy so I just politely escorted them out right away. Everyone else was very friendly and made fair offers. Of course since we weren’t expecting much our perception of a “fair” offer was at a pretty reasonable level.

The best part was not hassling with ebay’s rules, pictures, mailing, etc! Anything left over we gave to charity.

Good luck!!

I figured out that I don’t have have the temperament to sell stuff.

I like to use Freecycle. The only annoying thing about it is the “no shows.” It’s a PITA to put something out on the porch or in the drive and then come home and find it still there. Overall, though, it makes me really happy to think that my stuff is getting a second life and not ending up in a landfill.

Great post!

The clothes goal was to stick to a limited color palette. E.g. for me, stick to things that match with black (black shoes, belt, jacket) to avoid having to deal with the brown-matching stuff– too much stuff! I’m a man and I hate having too many shoes and accessories. For my wife it was a bit more complicated, but basically it was about sticking to stuff she likes and getting rid of the stuff she never wore, including presents that never match her style (why do people give clothes as gifts? a mystery…)

The nice stuff was taken to various thrift/consignment shops where it was promptly redeemed for cash rather than traded (we wanted *less* not more junk).

The clothes nobody wanted (depending on quality/usability/etc) were either:

a) donated at the thrift store (they have a bin for that)
b) taken to our cabin in the woods (where we can look like hobos)
c) turned into cleaning rags (e.g., destroyed jeans past the point of patching, threadbare bedspreads, etc)

[Note: Maintaining a cabin in the woods is not exactly our choice for a simple lifestyle, but it's free to keep on family land and it's a sort of backup situation that would beat homelessness if it ever came to that. We go there every now & then to relax, read books, sleep and do nothing. The cat loves it.]

Sitting in front of ebay tracking your “$5+$10 shipping” sale is a waste of time– we had classes to teach and a movie to make and bigger priorities than making 25 cents an hour.

With some other stuff we got more creative: a redundant turntable, a printer and other electronics were given to our grateful intern; a cheap netbook was sold to a traveling friend who needed a way to stay in touch with home; some broken speakers were given to someone we know who likes to fix electronics; the rest went to recycling.

We don’t earn/donate enough to justify itemization, the standard deduction works best for us; but the best savings were in the new efficiency of our wardrobe & living/workspace, plus the bonus of making a few people happy isn’t bad at all. Oh, and free cleaning rags!

PS- I almost forgot! Since we live in a university area, anything we don’t want (e.g., old tv antenna) we put on the sidewalk with a “free to a good home” sign and it’s gone in no more than 15 minutes.

And $65 is “more than double” my real wage … as I wrote, my free time is worth more than twice that *to me.*

If I were not blessed with a generous cash flow I’m sure I would be selling everything but the cats!

Not to mention that providing clothing to a person in need entails its own social/warm fuzzy benefit!

Too bad my husband does not see things the same way. :0

the trick for me was finding places that would take my non clothing/knicknack stuff.
I finally found a thrift that takes things like fabric and other crafty stuff that really builds up in my house.