Making Money from your Home

When we decided that it would be best if I stayed home with our 1 year old and leave my job, I of course went into panic mode. Will we be okay financially? How will we do this? I also felt some type of way about not contributing financially. Although not the case now, these we are all fears I had in the beginning and so I went around selling EVERYTHING in our home that was not a need. Little did I know that by selling these useless items, it also made life easier and less stressful having less clutter. So how do you begin selling and where? Here are some tips that I found helped me along the way…

1. Have a yard sale. I actually skipped this and went straight to selling items one by one online, but if you have a good amount of stuff and are located in open, busy area I would suggest doing this first.
2. If the item is on the smaller side and lightweight (something that looks easy to ship), then sell it online. I use Ebay. I personally list the item for sale as a reasonable “buy it now” price, because well, I like to keep it simple. Many people will put their item up for bid. Ebay takes a small percentage on the item sold. They also suggest shipping costs to charge your buyer. As you begin to ship, you will become more familiar with the correct shipping prices you should charge. You can also ask your friendly post office clerk the cheapest shipping option for your package or use stamps.com. There are other sites such as Offer Up, Let Go, and Poshmark that you can sell your items on. I have only used Ebay, but I do plan on checking out other sites. I’ll let you know when I do!
3. Now if the item is on the bigger, bulkier side, and not necessarily something you want to bother shipping, try listing it on local sites. Lately, I have been using Facebook Marketplace. Just upload a few pictures of your item, dimensions, and the condition. I’ll usually meet in an open, lit public place or I’ll leave out front for porch pick up. You can also check out Craigslist or see if your town has any local online yard sales.

I have sold things from as little as $3 to $200, majority of them being between $10-$20. Although it’s not a whole lot of money, every dollar helps and it is much better than just throwing it in the trash.