Mildinsick.com

Delivering Innovation

Turning household trash into cash is not as difficult as you might think as there are now many ways to do it. While you may look around your house and see nothing but clutter and trash, what you may actually be looking at is cash. Remember, one person’s trash is another person’s joy and one person’s trash is another person’s treasure, so don’t be too quick to dismiss her mess as trash.

However, before you can make money from the trash in and around your house, you first need to have a game plan. What paths are you going to take to get rid of the garbage? You can use as many as you like, but what usually works best is formulating a game plan that will include selling your junk online as well as offline. This can be done by making three different stacks that you can work from, one for junk, one for selling online, and one for selling offline.

The first pile you make will be all junk. This will only be for what is truly junk and cannot be sold. Reserve this pile for broken items or items that are missing bits and pieces. However, don’t put things in this pile that you just don’t use or like anymore. Just because you no longer need an old calculator doesn’t mean someone else doesn’t. This ‘junk pile’ is the only one you will move to the curb and receive no money, but it is an important pile as it will allow you to have more room for the good stuff.

The second stack you create will be for things you can sell online. You can use online marketplaces like eBay, Amazon, Craigslist, and more, but the important thing is to know what will and won’t sell online. To help you determine this, look at some of the outlets you’ll be selling your items at as a guide.

Use the search bars on eBay, Amazon, and Craigslist to see if there’s a market for certain things you want to sell online. If there is, put it on the ‘stack online’ stack. If not, put it aside, you’ll end up coming back to it later. Now decide which online outlet you want to sell with and how much you want to pay for the final advertising of the online sale.

Really, there is no advertising fee per say, but eBay and Amazon have what are called insertion fees and final value fees. These fees are usually very low, but they are nonetheless fees to be aware of. Think of fees as an opportunity for your trash to be seen around the world. Typically, the items that sell well on eBay and Amazon are the ones that aren’t too heavy for shipping reasons, the items that can fetch at least a few dollars, and the items that are already selling on those sites.

Craigslist is perfect for items you don’t mind reaching a global market with. Craigslist is also a free resource to use and you can advertise in your local area for free as long as you follow their listing guidelines.

Finally, it’s time for you to deal with all the stuff that didn’t make it to the junk or online pile. This will be your offline stack. Your offline stack will consist of items that can’t be shipped easily or that you just don’t think will sell well online. So how do you turn this household trash into cash? One of the best ways is to have a garage sale.

Before you have a garage sale, there are a few things to go over. The first is what days you will hold it. While yard sales are almost always held on weekend days, you still need to decide whether you’ll have a Saturday-only sale, a Sunday-only sale, or a combination of both. It’s even common these days to see some people holding garage sales on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

The second consideration is where you live. Certain states, counties, and cities will require you to obtain a temporary permit to hold a garage sale, and failure to do so can result in a fine. A fine will not only ruin your day, but it will also defeat your purpose of trying to turn household trash into money.

The last consideration is advertising. You can list your garage sale for free on Craigslist in the garage sale section, and you can also pay a few bucks to have your garage sale advertised in your local newspaper. Additionally, you will need to post signs in and around your neighborhood directing people to your garage sale.

Although it is called a garage sale, you will not be selling items out of your garage. Instead you need to get a couple of tables that you can place in your driveway and use to put all that junk in the offline stack. Then you just have to sit back and wait for the people who saw your ads, or just saw you walk by, to find your garage sale and sell their hearts.

When all is said and done, your batteries should be gone and you will have raised a lot of cash. You can take the leftover batteries and repeat the process or you can donate them, but don’t throw them away. If you decide to donate them, be sure to get a receipt, as you can write off some or all of that donation when it comes time for taxes.

With all the ways to turn household trash into cash, there’s no need to glare at the clutter around your home. Instead, look around you with dollar signs in your eyes and get to work.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *