Are you like the many of us who may have spent a little too much time and too much money shopping on Amazon while being stuck at home during COVID-19? Is your house now filled with COVID clutter? Do you have dozens of shirts and hoodies you will never wear or gadgets and gizmos you will never use? Or maybe you just overstocked on toilet paper, masks, hand sanitizer, and other pandemic supplies?
But you know what? You can turn all of the COVID quarantine clutter into cash!
The easiest way to convert supplies, board games, or anything else into cash is to simply sell it. There are many ways to do so. Of course, you can use eBay. But there are so many more options than just eBay or Amazon or Craigslist to sell stuff online now. My wife has been remarkably successful in selling large and small items locally using Facebook Marketplace.
The truth is you can sell practically anything online. And, since so many of us are still stuck at home, the online marketplace is bigger than ever. Did you overbuy on items early during the pandemic that may now be hard to find? You will be able to sell them easily and at top dollar.
Does taking the time to photograph, describe and post listings about your items for sale sounds too time-consuming? Think of consigning them instead. To save time and effort, take your stuff to a local consignment store. You’ll likely make less, but the store does the selling for you.
If your goal is simply to “declutter” and making extra money is not that important, think about giving things away. Donate stuff you do not want to a local charity or thrift shop. And simply throw-away items that you don’t need and have no use or value.
Now What?
Now that your house is back to some sense of normalcy, how do you keep it from getting all cluttered up with unwanted stuff again? According to the experts, you must fight the urge to “impulse buy.”
Every time you see something online that you think you want but do not really need – take the money for that item and put it into your savings instead. You will not be adding back clutter to your home, and you will also be literally saving for a rainy day. This way, you will have money available should you need to buy something you really do need to help weather the pandemic or for any other reason.
Also, while you may be still stuck at home, find other ways to keep yourself occupied that do not cost money or prompt you to spend on unneeded junk. Take up gardening, redecorate the house, exercise, or write that book you always wanted to!