Garage Sale, Donate or Throw Away?

[chelsea]

I have this problem. I am terrified of being wasteful. I have tons of stuff that I need to declutter, but I always think "What if?" First of all, "single mom syndrome" has leaked into me, which is the fear of wasting money, and trying to be resourceful to the point of obsession. :shifty For example, ds has old clothes that I could give away, and I'm obviously not going to be having any more kids in the next little while, and I will never have more if I don't get married. So the likelihood of needing ds' clothing is next to none. But I think "If I ever had more kids, I would need these clothes and I would kick myself for giving them away." :rolleyes Also, I keep telling myself that maybe I could have a garage sale so that I make a little money and don't feel bad about getting rid of something I might need to replace in the future. But I would also like to bless someone with my extra stuff. So there is the dilemma. Easiest would be to throw away stuff. But that is wasteful. However, I know that sometimes people throw away stuff when decluttering. What kind of stuff? Do you ever throw anything else away besides paper and broken things and stuff? Next, how do you decide that to donate, and what to garage sale/sell online? What is YOUR deciding factor in this? What about online things like freecycle or Ebay? How do you decide what to use? And don't you end up using more time to have to mail things out and get postage for them, etc in the long run?
I need to get rid of this mess, but HOW?! :crazy

[The Tickle Momster]

I give anything I think someone can use to goodwill. I don't want to have to deal with it. You could take the too small clothes to a consignment/resale shop if you wanted to. You'll either get store credit or a small $$ for it.

Garage sales and ebay are way too much work for me.

[Amber]

I throw away anything that is broken, really worn or extremely cheap (think happy meal toys).

Right now we are saving things up for a garage sale. What doesn't sale there we will donate somewhere or freecycle. I have been holding out on donating things to Goodwill because of the prices they are charging at our local one. I can basically buy new clothes on sale or clearance for the same price they are charging for used ones at our Goodwill.

[chelsea]

I throw away anything that is broken, really worn or extremely cheap (think happy meal toys).

Lol, yes I find happy meal toys VERY easy to throw away! :giggle

[mommyTay]

:popcorn
This is a big hold up for me too. We could use the extra money, but I don't have the patience or time to sell things. I don't have patience for freecycle anymore either. Too many people say they want the stuff and either make promises they don't keep, or they never reply when you tell them they are chosen and need to make arrangements. :banghead

[JJsMom]

I have that problem with clothes too. But my older sis gave me her ds's clothes when my ds was a baby in mostly size 5 and 6. My nephew is now almost 15yo. So, she had those clothes sitting in her basement for 6 years, then I had them in mine for 4 years and I was so excited to open those boxes and finally use those clothes! My sis has always bought nice clothes, these weren't Walmart clothes. :no But can you guess what happened? They were really out of style and just looked silly. :doh Like Nike wind pants with scrunchy bottoms, the hit cartoon character at the time that is now a distant memory, the colors that just seem old, etc. Plus, I can get clothes pretty cheap on clearance or at rummage sales (seriously, like less than $1 a piece). So, they sat in our basemets taking up space and being moved around time after time, for what? Just to be sold in a rummage sale or brought to goodwill.
Ok, that really made me see clothes in a different way. And yet...I still have tubs downstairs of clothes. :hiding But I am now purging. I'm going through and picking out a few favorites and packing those and the rest are going in a rummage sale or goodwill. I just need to go through the tubs I had already packed with every single item of clothing he ever wore and get rid of most of them. :yes
:cheer You can do it! It's overwhelming to start but even if you start right now, by getting rid of most of these past winter clothes, you will be on your way. :hug

[Sweet Life]

TOO MUCH STUFF, De-cluttering Your Heart and Home (Porter) is a great book .... she gives a lot of insight into why we save stuff (for instance, some of hang onto 'stuff' bc we think that the Lord won't provide for our needs when we need them, or sometimes we are hanging onto objects as emotional baggage of sorts). AND she gives really practical tips for decluttering and cleaning.

IMO if you are really trying to tackle your clutter problem, I would dump the trash and box up the rest all weekend and take it straight to the thrift store donation bin on Monday morning. The sooner you can get rid of it, the less time you have to dwell on it. :yes.

[Sweet Life]

So now....we are past the 'take it all straight to the dump or goodwill' stage, but our home is a work in progress (big time).

*I throw out broken toys, clothing that is stained beyond repair (unless I can make rags out of it), and foolish toys (the afore-mentioned McDs toys).
*I used to give everything to the goodwill or to friends/family or those in need. We still give directly to friends/family but are not doing the goodwill as much anymore (although we buy from there a lot).
*Always give directly to someone who is in need especially that baby stuff and kids clothes
*I've been selling bigger (like furniture), nicer and more desirable (brand name kid clothes or toys) and items on craigslist. I was intimidated to start but so far it's working great. We have some extra money with which to do some fun things. :yes
*I'm lumping less desirable (non-brand name clothing, misc household stuff, books) together for a garage sale. They sound like a lot of work but we are going to give it a one-time, one-day shot this year. I'm planning to just assign a price by item type ... for instance all books are .50, all frames are 1.00 ... the point is to incent folks to take our junk!!! and hopefully we come away with a little (not a lot) of cash. I'll let ya know how that goes ;)
*We really watch what is coming into our home to make sure we need it, and it's not creating (mental or even spiritual) distraction or (physical) clutter. If something 'new' comes into the house, something 'old' leaves the house.

HTH

[mom2threegirls]

My deciding factor is "how much money can I make from this item?" and "is the time spent worth it?". If I can get $5 and it will take me at least 2 hours listing it (either on ebay on craigslist), dealing with emails and questions from people, no shows on craigslist and shipping an item on ebay then it absolutely is NOT worth it to me. If I can get $30 for an item with the same amount of work it's worth it to me. I basically break it down in dollars earned per hour- if I'm making less than a couple dollars per hour that it totally isn't worth it to me. Some items are harder to sell, too, or WON'T sell and then it becomes a waste of time. If it isn't worth it to me to sell it I donate it if possible or if I CAN'T donate it somewhere that isn't a hassle for me (usually my goodwill 5 minutes down the road) I give it away on craigslist with the understanding that I won't hold the item or answer questions :shrug. I know it annoys some people but that's the only way I can keep up and still get all the other stuff that is infinitely more important done ;) :smile.

If you have a lot of clothes that are in good condition then a consignment store is the way to go if you want to make money on it- you don't make as much money as selling it piece by piece yourself but when you factor in the time spent it's a GREAT deal :rockon.

If I can't use an item and no one in the family absolutely LOVES it then it goes. It has to earn it's keep. I throw away stuff if it's broken and can't be used, even if fixed, and I also will throw stuff away if I can't donate it and after multiple attempts to get rid of it for free on craigslist no one gets it (that's never happened, btw- people will take ALL KINDS of junk er stuff :shifty on craigslist ;)).

I don't have patience for freecycle anymore either. Too many people say they want the stuff and either make promises they don't keep, or they never reply when you tell them they are chosen and need to make arrangements.

:yes2 Yeah, this is a big problem on both craigslist and freecycle unfortunately. I've found it HELPS to state in the listing that I will not hold an item and let people know that again when they contact me, and even to make everyone aware that it is outside just waiting for someone to pick it up at any time :yes :giggle.

[tnaallen]

Are you kidding?! FREECYCLE! :grin My favorite site. go to freecycle dot org (I believe) and it's all across the nation and is divided up by area. It's sort of the "what comes around goes around" goodwill thing. It's a yahoo group where people can offer stuff and ask for wanted things. For example, I have not had to buy my girls clothes or shoes in about a year thanks to allt he stuff I get off there. Plus, I get to clean out my garage and house of things I don't know what to do with (garage sale, donate, or goddwill ;) ). Tomorrow we are picking up a hosue full of high quality furniture tfrom a gal I met on freecycle. I've also gotten my piano, cookbooks, two bikes and scooter for the girls, play equipment, binoculars, etc... from there. It's all free, you can't sell on there.

Check it out!

[MarynMunchkins]

I do consignment sales twice a year. I can tag everything, drop it off, and just wait for my check. If it doesn't sell, they donate it for me. :) If I can put it into that sale, I do. Most of my clothes are junior sized, so I can add mine to that too.

Big stuff that will net me at least $30 I'll list on craigslist or a similar place. Anything less isn't worth my effort. :)

If I know of a specific person who is interested or in need of something I have, I give myself 2 weeks to get it to them. After that, I donate to Goodwill.

Anything else I want to declutter I give to Goodwill. I have one less than 2 miles from my house, so I'm there several times a year dropping stuff off. :) I shop there too, so I have no qualms about putting nice stuff there.