A man in a canvas work coat stood in our carport at eight o'clock on a Tuesday night, turning our bread maker over in his hands like he was checking a cantaloupe at Walmart. He lifted the lid, looked at the pan and asked how many times we'd used it. "Twice," I said. He said that was what his wife figured, handed me $30 and drove off.
That bread maker was the start of cleaning out the closet in our spare bedroom, the one where things go when we don't want to make a decision about them. We're hoping to buy a house by the end of next year, and I don't want to pay to move anything we never use. Christmas is coming too, and a little extra money in December never hurts. So over the last three weeks, everything in that closet got a decision.
What sold
| Item | Sold for |
|---|---|
| Stand mixer, still in the box | $110 |
| My tall leather boots, worn twice | $40 |
| Tyler's insulated work boots, a size too small | $35 |
| Bread maker, used twice | $30 |
| Wool coat | $30 |
| Queen comforter set | $28 |
| Space heater | $25 |
| Box of about 60 DVDs | $20 |
| Total | $318 |
Eight things, $318. Everything sold on Facebook Marketplace, and every buyer either picked up from our carport or met me in the Walmart parking lot in daylight.
The stand mixer was the surprise. We got two of them as wedding gifts in 2021 and kept the second one in the box "just in case" for four years. Just in case never came. It sold the same day I listed it.
The space heater went fast too, which makes sense. Nobody wants a space heater in July, but in December people message you within the hour. I put the coat and the comforter set up the same week for the same reason. The DVDs went to a man who said his grandkids watch movies at his house every weekend and he was tired of paying for streaming. He took the whole box without opening it.
What didn't
An ab roller, a box of picture frames, a curling iron, two bags of clothes I'd been meaning to list for a year and a punch bowl with twelve little cups. I dropped prices once after a week, got nothing but "is this available" messages, and gave up.
Tyler's old letterman jacket was technically in the pile for about four hours. Then he walked past it, picked it up and hung it back in the closet, and I decided not to make it a whole thing.
The clothes, the ab roller, the frames and the curling iron went in the back of my CR-V and to the donation door at the thrift store the next time we drove to Moberly. The punch bowl went to Debbie, Tyler's mom, who saw it in a photo and said she'd use it at Thanksgiving next year. She will. Debbie does not ask for things she won't use.
What I learned about selling
Some of this I already knew from my furniture flips, and some of it was new. Price things at about a third of what they cost new if they're in good shape, and say why in the listing. "Used twice" sells a bread maker better than any photo. Take pictures in daylight with something next to the item so people can tell how big it is. Expect most messages to go nowhere: I counted 41 messages for these eight sales. Sell seasonal things in season. And if something gets no real interest in a week, drop the price 20% once, then decide whether it's worth keeping on the list at all.
For meeting people, I keep it simple. The carport with the porch light on if Tyler's home, the Walmart parking lot in daylight if he isn't. Cash or a payment app, and no checks from strangers.
The whole thing took about seven hours: one Sunday afternoon of photos and listings, and maybe four hours of messages and meetups spread over three weeks. $318 for seven hours is about $45 an hour, which beats anything else either of us has earned on the side this year. The catch is you only have one closet's worth of stuff. You can't do it again next week.
This isn't income the way Tyler's mowing is. We sold our own used things for a lot less than we paid for them, and as far as we understand it, that isn't taxed. I'll double-check with someone who knows when we do our taxes. I still wrote every sale on the Extra tab in the sheet, because that's the rule.
$300 went to the house fund. The other $18 bought a Casey's pizza the night the closet was finally empty, and we ate it sitting on the floor of the spare room, because now there's room to.
