I just had the most brilliant idea!!

[Rainey Daye]

So, in my quest to simplify and declutter I started going through my clothes in January with the intent to weed out anything I didn't wear or didn't fit...then buy or make what was needed to have a simple basic wardrobe (with a color scheme so that things could be worn interchangeably). So I got rid of a LOT of stuff and have pretty much been wearing a few skirts and tees that aren't in great shape around the house...and have two pairs of jeans, three tops, and a dress that are decent enough to get out of the house in. 

I've pretty much decided against sewing (since there is no guarantee that things will fit like I want them...after the expense of buying the material,etc.)...so I'm going to start shopping the sales to find what I need. The thing was money to do so. We are also working on paying off a decent chunk of debt still from some complications with our little boy's birth almost two years ago, so money is a little tight right now.

BUT, we are getting rid of so much stuff. I don't have a lot of patience to do a yard sale (clothes and books don't really bring in all that much at sales, anyway...and we don't really have much to get rid of otherwise at this time). So the clothes are going to family and to Goodwill. But Half Price Books will buy books and cd's and dvd's. Granted, they don't pay much, but if we are going to get rid of them anyway...this will be an easy headache-free way to get them out of the house quick and even get some money for them.

So...I'm gonna take books to sell to Half Price Books this week and whatever I make off of them I will turn around and use to help get my basic wardrobe set up.

I figure it's a win-win situation!! I get new clothes AND cleared out space in our home!!

[youngspiritmom]

Good for you, texanromaniac! I agree, it is a wonderful feeling to get rid of USELESS clutter and use whatever wealth you can extract from it to buy a few NICE things that you really need. I cosign clothes and then use the money to buy one clothing piece that I really needed. You can also sell books to Amazon.com for a credit (I'm not sure if we have a Half Price Books in my area).

Happy decluttering! :D

[Serendipity]

Awesome! I did a similar thing recently, I sold some old homeschool curriculum on amazon.com which funded the purchase of the shoes I wanted for my basic wardrobe. Good luck!

[clutterwarrior]

It is great if you can sell things.

Must admit that a week ago I listed a few brand new things on ebay..took advantage of the free listing if you start bidding at 99c. ...and I was very disappointed that they sold for only 99c!!! 

But the good thing that has come out of that is it has killed my desire to waste time listing stuff on ebay....I am just going to toss it all, other than things I can take to the recycled clothing store...in which case all I do is walk in with the clothes and walk out with cash, so much easier than messing with ebay!

[Rainey Daye]

Well, I took a whole plastic tub in to Half Price Books and they were only gonna give me just under $11 for the whole tub. Since in the tub was a very nicely bound set of encyclopedic dictionaries and a few very nice books that were in like-new condition that Half Price is selling for around $7 apiece, I just decided to sell them the two books that they were gonna pay the most for and the books I knew I couldn't do anything with and I will list the rest on Craigslist in lots or use them for gifts.

Disappointing that they will only pay me 50 cents for a book that they will turn around and sell for $6-7!! One would think that if they are selling books at half the original list price (despite the condition) that they could at least pay people a quarter of the list price...and they'd still make money!!

So yeah, I'm thinking that these books that I bought that their original list price was like $9, but were bought at Walmart for $5...that I can list them in a lot of five books for $15...and at least recoup a bit of the money spent on them way back when (they've prob at most been read 3 times in the last 8 years and the rest of the time sat on the shelf being dusted every so often). I think getting 5 books that each have four novellas or even four complete novels in them for $15 is a completely reasonable price (especially since they'd have to pay $6 each for them at Half Price Books)...but we'll see!!