Is it worth selling my clutter?

One of the biggest hurdles to get over when decluttering is not attaching a price to all the items you need to remove from your home. That dress that cost £50 ten years ago but you've hardly worn it and no longer fits. The highchair that cost over £100 four years ago, but your children no longer fit in it, and the tray is stained with ketchup. Those Egyptian cotton towels that were an expensive wedding gift from your aunt but are now threadbare.  All these items were once 'expensive', but they lost value as soon as you started using them. Just like a car, items in our house depreciate.

This 'lost money' mindset is also known as the 'sunk cost fallacy'. A sunk cost is a cost that has already occurred and cannot be fully recovered. The sunk cost fallacy is making decisions based on this past investment. This term can be used for anything that you have already put time, energy or money in to. 

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When working with my clients, I try and help them see past this fallacy so the decluttering process can happen more quickly. There is a reason I only have 'Discard', 'Recycle' and 'Donate' tubs and not a 'Sell' tub, and that is because most items aren't worth selling and the reason they are decluttering their home is to gain time and space back - not money which has already been spent.

When I say the items aren't worth selling, I don't mean they have no cash value at all...most of our items would probably sell at some point, but how much for and how long would it take you to get it out of the door?

What is your time worth?

Figuring out whether something is 'worth' selling shouldn't just be about the pound signs. It should be about the effort and time you have to give to sell the item too. Factoring in the time it could take to sell an item, in comparison to working an extra hour in your job, highlights just how little you often get from selling second hand.

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How long will it take me to sell? 

To figure this out, don't just take into account the time it will take to list the item (approx 10mins) and photograph the item (5mins), but also the time it will take to liaise with potential buyers (5mins per interested party and we all know at least 50% are not really interested at all!). The time it will take to package the items and take them to the post office (20mins). And don't forget the length of time it may be listed before you can get it out of your house! Christmas decorations will not usually sell in April. Summer clothing will not usually sell in October. Exercise gear will not usually sell in the run-up to Christmas etc.

How much am I selling it for?

Again, figuring this out could take time that needs to be added in. eBay helpfully gives you an idea of what similar items have sold for so you can make an educated guess. Facebook Marketplace and other similar groups may need more research. Take a look and see if any similar items are already listed. Do they seem to be fairly priced? How many have you seen for sale over the past month? Have they all sold quickly? 

When listing items, don't forget to figure out whether you are willing to post or deliver? Offering these options may give you a wider group of potential buyers, but it will add to your time, so adjust it accordingly. If you are offering postage then don't forget to add packaging costs into your quoted price too. Envelopes, bubble wrap and packing tape all cost extra.

The questions you always need to keep in mind are these:

• What is my hourly rate at work? £9.30 is the UK's living wage, so you could work from this if you don't know.

• How long will this take me to sell? 

• What would my hourly rate be for selling this item? 

Example

• 10 baby sleepsuits will take me 60 mins to sell (see above to work out how to calculate this roughly)

• £5 + p&p (see above for how to work this out)

• £5 an hour - well under an hourly rate you'd be willing to work for!

If the figure you've arrived at is a positive number, then it MAY be worth selling your items. If not, I would thoroughly recommend donating to a charity shop or other worthwhile cause as this will only take a short car trip to your nearest town or local drop off point.

I still want to sell - but where is best?

There are so many ways of selling your items that picking the right place to do so could be the difference between selling quickly or gathering dust in your hallway for the next few months.

The easiest and most well-known way of selling pre-loved items is via a marketplace of some sort. eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Vinted, Shpock are all marketplaces with easy to use apps. You usually list your item using a proforma, select which category the item is in, add your price and a few well-shot photos and press a button to post onto the marketplace. Some of these places are better policed than others, so always read the ts and cs before selling (or buying) items, so you understand the group's rules and your responsibilities as a seller/buyer. Vintage clothes, sought after memorabilia, designer clothing or lifestyle brands all sell well on these. Bikes, toys, and household items can all sell well on these apps. Still, buyers expect them to be clean, in good condition and preferably with packaging.

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Some items like antique pieces of furniture or other older, high-value items may be better off sold through auction houses. They usually can pick up the item to take to the auction house and take photos and list it. They will give you an estimate of what they think an item will sell for; however, they do charge a fee which is normally around 20% of the sold-for price, so if it doesn't make as much as you'd hoped, you may not get anywhere near as much as you wanted.

If you have real gold jewellery that you no longer wear, then taking this to a local jeweller to get a price for it may be a quick and easy option. Gold prices are at an all-time high at the moment, but you will not get what you paid for it, so don't get your hopes up too high. Also, you will need to shop around and see which jeweller gives you the best price, so factor in the time taken as above. I've found postal buyers of gold always offer a lower price, so shop around first and see if they will match any other quotes you already have. 

NB: Unless you love the smell of a burger van and getting up at 5am I wouldn't recommend a car boot as a rewarding way of selling your items. Most buyers turn up to grab a bargain, and seeing a previously treasured item of yours being bartered down to 20p can be seriously demoralising and make you wonder why you left your bed that morning!

The pros of pre-loved

Despite all my warnings for selling pre-loved items, there are some pros which couldn't go unmentioned. 

Selling (and buying) second-hand items is great for the environment. Not only does your item get re-used or repurposed, meaning that less new items are made, which in turn saves fossil fuels and water etc., but it also means that it is not just being thrown into landfill to sit for the next 20-200 years.  

Selling preloved items can be a useful if temporary, second income stream when money is tight and a second job is not an option. Once you get past a certain threshold, you would have to declare your income, so be careful not to get on the wrong side of HMRC!

Teaching children to look after their toys and clothing so they can, potentially, sell on to get a bit of extra pocket money brings out the entrepreneurial skills of many a 9 year old over and is a great way of using up some summer holiday time.

So to answer the title of this blog, is it worth selling my clutter? The answer is a very non-committal, MAYBE.  Just make sure you're not wasting your own time because there is probably something much more fun you could be doing with that time!

If you do sell your items, where do you find best to sell them? Let me know in the comments below or on my Facebook or Instagram post.  

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