Last post was about sustainability and the four R’s – reduce, reuse, repurpose, and recycle.  This is the best method of simplifying and decluttering on a tough economy, and in any economy.  But living simple and green may require a certain way of getting rid of stuff without hurting your pocket, especially if you want to make a little extra money in a bad economy. Following these steps for getting rid of stuff will help you achieve simplicity, while making a few extra bucks.

  • Decide what items will go.  Ideally, you should not have doubles of anything, maybe one (1) replacement for things that you use the most.
  • Once the decluttering has been started, the items that are in usable shape can be posted on sites like eBay for selling.  Price them attractively – the objective is to get rid of them and make a little money on the process.  Leave them for two auction cycles to give them time to sell, or a 30 day cycle.  After that, what doesn’t sell should go to a second option for making money – a local flea market.
  • Rent a table at a flea market to sell your items.  Again, the intention is to price them cheap enough so you make some money and cover the cost of the table, so you make money and not lose money.  One time will be enough for this.  What doesn’t sell will go thru a third method of making money – a garage sale.  You can also choose Craig’s list in this step.  The intention is to give your stuff three opportunities of making you some money.
  • At the garage or yard sale, the stuff should be priced as low as possible to get rid of most of it.  The items that do not sell should be given as donation and take a tax receipt that you can later apply to your taxes as donation.  Another way to make money out of it.

This method will help you:

  • simplify and declutter your home,
  • make some cash three times in the process,
  • and help your taxes by obtaining a deduction on the donation area. 

This is the way to simplify on a tough economy.

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