Making Money From Home (and de-cluttering)

I’ve always gifted friends lots of baby clothes and equipment and subsequently toddler items when we no longer needed them. I also make numerous donations to charity. However, I have developed a bit of an obsession with de-cluttering by selling things online.

It all started when I bought a cheap little car for my husband when he was learning to drive. He passed his test, and shortly after I discovered I was expecting twins. My lovely sporty saloon wasn’t going to be any good for three car seats; we had to buy a sensible family car. That meant we had three cars, which was ridiculous. We hadn’t decided whether to keep my car, but one thing was certain: the little car had to go.

My beloved iCandy Peach

I’d never sold anything online before but as the car was old and not worth much, I thought it was the best way. I listed it on Gumtree as a few friends had mentioned that they’d bought things off the site. Straight away, I was inundated with responses and someone offered very close to my asking price. I was bitten by the bug.

De-cluttering smaller items

I had some wedding shoes, which weren’t the shoes I ended up having on the day. They had no sentimental value so I thought I’d get rid. I did a search for a similar item to help me with my pricing and I came across the Preloved UK. It seemed more targeted at women than Gumtree and my immediate impression was that it would be better suited for selling clothes and shoes. I sold the shoes quite quickly, which surprised me as I wasn’t convinced that someone would buy their wedding shoes online. This spurred me on.

With three children, I amass so many clothes and these require some serious de-cluttering. As well as the aforementioned sites, I also find selling pages on Facebook great. There’s even one specifically for Mini Boden and Joules childrens’ clothes!

So in addition to the car and the shoes, I have also sold:

• Medela Pump In Style Advanced breast pump     
  

  My Gap maternity cardigan

• Harmony Duo Twin Feeding Cushion
• iCandy Peach Blossom
• Silver Cross 3D Pram System
• Bike
• Maxi Cosi car seats and the FamilyFix system
• Maternity wear

The breast pump was expensive to buy new, but I’d spoken to a few mums that had bought them second hand, so I thought there was probably a market for mine. Similarly the feeding cushion is pretty pricy. This is the only item that I have bought secondhand. I then re-sold it afterwards.

Maxi Cosi seats x 2

Top tips

• Good pictures are vital
• Be realistic, if you price too high you’ll put people off
• That said, don’t go too low as you might be bartered even lower
• Descriptions should be informative but succinct
• For something like a buggy, people will want the instruction manuals, without these you can’t expect to get as high a price
• Regionalised ads are good as if someone can come to pick items up it saves a lot of faffing
• If you are sending items by post, don’t buy posting and packaging until you have received payment (or at least a deposit)
• Be prepared for time wasters and learn how to spot them
• If someone is coming to pay in cash for a larger item and requests you take it off the market, then you need to get a deposit
• If you’re not doing a face-to-face transaction, then PayPal is the way to go

You might also be interested in reading Mum2Mum Market – My First One