4 Great Ways to Benefit from Decluttering

Aside from the obvious benefit of being free from clutter, there are a variety of ways to sell or trade your unwanted stuff. In addition to the traditional yard sale and the ever popular and Craigslist, we’ve found a few new(ish) ways to unload or trade up your old items. It’s time to start making money from the excess junk in our homes!

• Paperback Book Swap: List your unwanted books, then ship it when someone requests it. Each book “sold” is worth 1 credit. Use your credits to “buy” books others have listed. Yes, you pay shipping when you mail books to another member but your own books ship to you for free! They will even give you 2 free credits when you list your first 10 books. It’s not just for paperbacks, though. You can swap hardcovers, audiobooks and text books.
• Kijiji: Supported by eBay, this free, easy to use classified site is new to me! List and sell your items locally with no listing fees. And, yes, there is a free section if you do need to find something for yourself. It’s like a tidy Craigslist!
• Barter Bee: This site works similarly to Paperback swap but for music, movies or games. It is on a point system rather than 1-to-1 credits. You decide how many points your items are worth. When someone purchases your stuff, you earn points to spend on something you actually want!
• Gazelle: I’ve talked about this one before but it’s my new favorite place to go when my geek upgrades his toys! We have sold 3 items for over $400 since discovering the site earlier this year. Here’s the kicker—all of them were broken but it obviously had value to Gazelle since they verify condition before releasing your funds. You can even get a bonus when you opt for an Amazon gift card over a paper check.

This article is part of our New Year, New Budget series. We are concentrating on New Year’s resolutions and helping you find ways to tackle them inexpensively. This week focuses on the popular “Getting Organized” resolution.