Decluttering and the guilt of not eBaying

[BabCNesbitt]

I'm pretty good at figuring out what things I want to get rid of and piling up the unwanted stuff. HOWEVER, I do have an annoying tendency to think "oh, I can sell that on eBay, I'll definitely get a few quid for that!" for the nicer things (we're not well off, so that money could help) then never bloody listing them because there's never time for all the faff!

Can someone give me a stern talking to? There's stuff I've carried through a couple of house moves lying around here! Promise me I'll not feel agonised about not selling them if I just add them to the charity box! (I haven't been able to find a FB local selling group that isn't all nail salon and car ads, so that's out.)

I used to sell everything on the FB selling pages I now give it all to charity.

It's far less faff plus I feel good in that the charity will benefit, as a previous poster said I just bag it up & DH takes it. In fact it's on the job list for this weekend.

Do you have the Ebay phone app? That's the first thing you need. I tend to do a 'blitz' - gather up the items then very quickly list them. Do short listings, you can always amend later. Low start price if your purpose is to get rid. Then hit 'save' not 'continue' and at 8.30 on Sunday night go through your list of drafts and hit 'continue' so you can have optimum finishing time. Click automatic relist (but only if you're within your free listings for the month!) and put everything in a bag. During the week I'll go through and amend my listings to make them more 'interesting' and do a C&P blurb about my seller ratings etc. Anything not sold after 2 rounds, charity shop.

I like gumtree too, especially for furniture.

I felt the same until recently. I have a shed load (literally) of stuff I had earmarked for EBay but couldn't be bothered to do it. Then the other weekend I just got on with it - much easier with the iPad or phone app - the website is a faff. I've made about £200 so far so far so have renewed enthusiasm! Big stuff on Gumtree though.

I'm useless at eBay! Charity shop or give to friends if quality (Disney store dresses etc). I am not a taxpayer so can't do but apparently if you are some charity shops give you gift aid and add up all your sales. Do you keep that get money that way. Think the bigger chains might do this!!

Following as I'm having a similar experience with eBay. Not getting much for items and end up receiving very little after eBay and PayPal fees.

Gumtree or Facebook selling groups are the way forward. Loads easier. Local buyers who collect. Cash in hand. Job done

Your time is important and worth something too though. My SIL and MIL spend bloody hours on Facebook selling sites to sell something for £2, and undoubtedly think we're pretty wasteful just shipping our stuff to a charity shop or giving it away. But neither work so have a bit more time to do this and clearly enjoy it, so all power to them. We on the other hand are relatively more "cash rich, time poor" and I know very clearly how much an hour of my time is "worth". Even 'we buy any car' have cottoned onto this in their latest ad - they freely admit they may not give you the best price but question whether it is worth losing your Saturday trawling competitors to gain a few extra quid on their guaranteed price.

I am much more motivated to declutter if I can get some money for it; Ebaying keeps me motivated.

Totally agree it's a royal faff. Due to the faff, For a long time I had a rule not to ebay anything for less than £10 profit. What about follow that rule & everything else goes to charity (another good cause, nothing to feel guilty about).

Give your time an hourly rate. Even if nominal. So let's say £5 per hour. Then add up all the time you spend ebaying, including taking items to the post office to send on. You'd need to make that figure plus to make profit.
Now seems worth it taking it to a charity shop eh? YY to a gift aid declaration if you can. (I get regular updates from BHF as to how much my donations have made)
Also charity shops will make some money out of everything. They even sell to rag collectors. Don't give them rubbish though - just recycle that.

There's a very apt article in today's Times about how to throw things out without feeling guilty. And a new book coming too called The Art of Discarding by Nagisa Tatsumi. A rival for Marie Kondo perhaps.

Everyone I do get round to listing stuff on ebay it sells for just a few quid and just isn't worth wrapping, packing and posting.
Then 6 months later I'll have another clear our and attempt to make a few quid but prices are so much lower than they used to be.
I'm going to charity shop from now on.

If you really want to have a go at getting a few quid for it do a car boot before you charity shop the gear. I got £20 for a travel DVD player I was going to ebay last year. Don't reckon there was much difference in what I'd have got on ebay by the time I paid the fees and no chance of getting scammed out of the money by a dodgy buyer.

You can always give the rest to charity afterwards which is what we do.

I have really enjoyed selling stuff on eBay in the past, especially big items. I had the app on my phone, used existing descriptions if I could find an identical item and just photographed as I went along knowing that in a week I'd be posting everything on.

But as the kids are not babies anymore and I'm not wandering the streets (via the post office) to get them to sleep I rarely do it now. It has become too much hassle.

I too have started Marie Kondo and everything I have shifted has gone to someone I know needs the stuff. A young woman I know who has a part time job and juggling college has had first dibs on my clothes and bags. The local woman's refuge has had all unwanted toiletries and the local baby charity has had any baby stuff I didn't want. Anything left over goes to the charity shop.

Ebay isn't worth it - and even if it were you're clearly not going to do it.

If you have a lot of baby/young child stuff then an NCT Nearly New Sale might be worthwhile. It's a single one-shot process - everyone just hands over the cash so you'll never be bothered with silly disputed or postage and I think some branches have a system whereby anything that doesn't sell can be donated straight to charities/refuges on the day.

If you have a lot of CDs, DVDs, games or textbooks (or even just a few) then Music Magpie is well worth a shot - the cash is low but they're reliable and the hassle is absolutely minimised - if you put the app on your phone you can have them scanned, priced, dealt with and out the door in minutes.

If you've got a load of clean, serviceable but not posh clothes then you could go via a cash for clothes firm - going rate appears to be only 50p per kilo though, so unless you've got a huge amount you'd probably be better off giving it to a charity shop and looking at it as a five pound (or whatever) donation.

If you've got some very posh schmutter then it might be worth a trip to a dress agency.

Other than that - charity shop, recycle, bin. I personally use Freecycle for large orr electrical items that charity shop won't take but not everyone gets on well with it..

Yes, kids stuff sells on FB local groups or Gumtree. Furniture does sell on Ebay - cash on collection only. Anything else that is unlikely to make £10-£15, don't bother. Give to charity and feel virtuous.

Well, I took it all to the charity shop today and it feels wonderful to see that shelf finally emptied - perhaps as satisfying as the few bob I might have earned would be! I've still got a lot of books and DVDs knocking around, so I may do Music Magpie for them, but that seems a lot easier than trying to pack up awkward bulky items for posting.

Unfortunately we don't have a car, or I'd have tried the car boot thing - or rather, would say I was going to then have even more stuff pile up!

Good for you! I tried an indoor car boot aka table top sale but didn't make much. I felt better knowing a charity shop sold my stuff. I'm not skint and I buy too much. Postage is off-putting for eBay though.

If anyone does Ebay their stuff, use Turbolister, add things as you have photos, save them and you can schedule 20 items free, or upload them all in one go. No need to faff about getting them ready, then amending them, you can work on them at your own speed. TL is free, just download it from selling tools.

Sunday nights used to be the best time to end auctions but that was about 10 years ago, there are less auctions now and lots of Buy It Nows, I haven't used auction format for several years. BIN with instant payment enabled means you get paid with no waiting.