Most of us have so many household items in our home that it is not possible to move all of them to our new home. Carrying all household stuff irrespective of whether you need it or not makes no sense. So, there is no point in wasting money, efforts and time in relocating everything, especially those household goods that may be damaged or items that is not required by you anymore like a kid’s bicycle.
It requires hundreds of different types of household items to setup a new home. And if you are living in a house for many years, there is high chance that you have accumulated plenty of household goods and items. Packing and moving can become cheaper or expensive depending on the overall move size, and distance between both the places. And therefore, it’ll be wise of you to organize the inventory correctly and downsize the move when possible.
For the items that are in real bad shape or are completely damaged, it is simply better to dispose them off. But for those household stuff which is still in good shape and usable condition, selling is definitely the best option, because that way you can make some profit and use that amount to cover your moving expenses.
But, how do you sell such household stuff when changing homes? You are going to remain busy with the packing and moving, no? Well you can still manage to sell these items and make some money. And, that’s what I am going to help you with in this post.
Tips to sell unwanted household before relocating
Relocating itself complicated, but you can make it easy and inexpensive by reducing the load size. When you have fewer items to relocate, it will be easier for you to manage the entire relocation process, and it’ll be less expensive as well.
And you can easily downsize your move by selling some of the unwanted household items that you do not require, and but can be used by others.
Listed below are a few of the best
ways to sell all such unwanted household stuff before relocating.
Word of mouth is sometimes enough
The easiest way to sell household
stuffs when moving is by word of mouth. Let your friends, relatives, neighbors
know that you are moving and want to sell some of your stuffs and also tell
them to spread the word. Slowly, the word will spread from mouth to mouth and
you will get many potential customers who are willing to buy your stuffs.
If you want to quicken this process, then you can directly ask any new home buyer if he/she is interested because in high probability, he/she may be requiring items for his/her home.
Garage sales may be effective
If you have a lot of items to sell
then hosting a garage sale will be one of the best options for you because here
you will be able to get rid of all your household stuffs at reasonable rates.
However, before you host the garage sale, I will definitely suggest you to
check the rules of your community and be sure that garage sales are allowed
where you live. To make your garage sale a complete success, it will be wise of
you to held it on the weekends, preferably on a Saturday and make sure you do
enough advertising for the sale. Trust me, flyers and signs can do wonders
here.
Just be a little flexible with the
prices and see how your stuffs get sold off within no time.
May consider LetGo
Using LetGo is a very smart way to
sell your unwanted stuffs locally. All you need to do is to download the LetGo
app in your mobile and then do the advertising. It is very quick and easy to
post classified add here. The users can also chat with the other buyers/sellers
very instantly and privately and finalize the deals.
Use eBay and eBay Valet
Starting from accessories to
apparels to sporting goods to electronics, eBay is a great way to sell your
unwanted household stuffs at reasonable rates. This website allows its users to
either list and sell the stuffs on their own or take the help of eBay Valets
“selling experts” to list, take pictures and sell the items to the potential
customers.
Obviously, in the latter option, you do not have to do much because most of the things are getting done by the experts on your behalf. But before going for it, just keep it in mind that the experts will be taking a certain percentage of your item’s final selling price at the end.
Use Facebook
I am sure all of you use Facebook. It is undoubtedly the most popular online social media networking site and so you can easily use it to sell your unwanted items when moving. At first, you will have to list your items at the Facebook marketplace. Then that will get advertised to everyone living near your vicinity. Then you can also list your items in the “Buy and Sell Groups” in Facebook. This is also a great way to sell because many of these individual groups have got lot of members who have subscribed to updates within the group. So, in this way, you can get hold of many potential customers.
Craigslist is a good option
You can also take the help of
Craigslist for selling the unwanted stuffs before moving. This online
marketplace provides you with local classifieds information to every area in
the country. There, you can post your belongings for “sells by owners”.
All you got to do is to click on
the “post to classifieds” and get started. Here you got to mark that box which
best fits your item’s description best like for example furniture, antiques
etc. Do include a proper clear picture and also add a clear headline along with
the selling price.
When using Craigslist, just be a
little careful because this website is a popular target for the scammers.
Try Nextdoor.com
This is actually a very private
social networking site meant for the residents of a specific neighborhood and
the communities surrounding it. The services are free here and using your home
address, you can sign up here. Once you have signed up, upload a picture as
that will personalize your profile. Then you can list and sell your stuffs
under the “Classifieds” category.
Go to Amazon
Just like eBay, Amazon also offers
you with a large marketplace. The only thing here is that it is comparatively
less expensive to use. The items can be listed for Free and then it is just
$.99 cents per item sold on top of the commission in case you have a basic
individual sellers account. DVD’s, books, and video games are best selling
items here.
If you want your item to sell
faster, just reduce the price a bit and enjoy the items getting sold quickly.
Use the trade in programs
When you have got too many items
for your new space or you simply want to buy new stuffs in their place and
hence wants to get rid of the old ones, it is best to take advantage of the
trade in programs that are many a times offered by chain stores like Walmart,
Best Buy, Target etc. Most of these will give you the option to either go for
store credit or cash in exchange of the items.
The trade-in programs are a great
way to get rid of common stuffs like the video games, books, smart phones,
electronics accessories etc.
Try consignment stores
Last but not the least consignment
stores are there to help you. What is best about consigning your item is that
here you do not have to take the effort to list the items online or meet the
buyers. The heavy lifting work will be done by the consigner.
However, the primary disadvantage
to it is you will not be able to take with you all of the sales. Your consigner
will take a big percentage of that. So, unless you are planning to consign too
many items, you can actually take the help of the other options I mentioned.
Summary
Taking each and every item with you to your new home may not be a good idea, practically as well as economically. The better alternative is to sell some of the unwanted stuffs before relocating. Thankfully, there are various options to sell your stuffs starting from using online websites to simply selling it to your friends and family, to taking the help of consignment stores.
Using online classified platforms,
you can quickly find buyers who may be interested in buying your goods. You may
also try garage sales, as it is the profitable way to sell unwanted household
stuff, but consider this option when you have too many of items to sell.
However, when it is about selling stuffs to your known ones like friends, relatives etc. many a times, you have to keep a very small profit margin just because you know them personally.
In case of consignment stores also, the percentage of profit is less as the consigner usually takes a hefty percentage. But, nevertheless in the last two cases, the effort you have to put in to sell your items is also less so in that way they are great options as well.
However, in general, if your main aim is to get rid of the unwanted stuffs quickly and when you have less time in hand, it is wise that you become more flexible with the rates because that will help you sell you items quickly. Also, in case of selling things online, do take proper clear pictures from various angles because based on that, the customers are going to make their choices.
What else do you think one can do
to sell unwanted household stuff before moving to a new house?
