501: Answering Questions About Selling

I share my personal deslobification process as I figure out ways to keep my own home under control.

I share the truth about cleaning and organizing strategies that actually work in real life for real people, people who don't love cleaning and organizing. Thanks for joining me today. This is podcast number 501. You'll listen to them on with Bob. Isn't he adorable? That was 500, by the way. I think I'm going to call this answering questions about selling because it is garage sales season.

I mean, in Texas it's kind of garage sales season all year long, but as other places have

the snow melting and things which I know it has not melted everywhere, but it is the time

where we're at least heading into or you're maybe thinking about having a garage sale.

“And I know that it can feel like getting ready for a garage sale is the best way to declutter.”

It is if you're going to have a garage sale. If you've told yourself that before many, many times and you haven't actually had the garage sale, and instead you have a garage that you haven't parked in all winter because it is full of stuff that you've collected over the years thinking someday I'm going to have a garage

sale. Then I would say it's not a great idea. So basically it's functionalism. Does it work or

does it not? Does it result in the stuff leaving your home? Or is it really just an excuse to not get the stuff out of the house? Is it just kind of a temporary stop gap? I mean, is it an example of you not really taking it there now? Is it a procrastination pile of stuff that you're like, no, one of these days, I'm going to need the money, I'm going to need whatever. I'm telling you decluttering saves money. You know what you have, you know where it is,

you change your view on the stuff coming into your house because you've decluttered so much that you see things as the future clutter that they are if they are future clutter. And it just truly saves money. You end up not having to buy things because you find out that you already have them in your house as you're decluttering. So real decluttering requires stuff leaving the house. It is not actually decluttering if you're just moving things

into a different place in your house and the garage or a storage shed or even a storage unit outside of your house are not actually decluttering. It's just moving the things there. Shopify can't sit to an ancient hip-yard. Start to then test not all the funer I'm an Euro pro-monet of Shopify.de/record.

“Let's talk about selling. Let's talk about garage sales. If you want to have a garage sale,”

if that is the thing that you think will make you willing to let go of the stuff because you need the money. The thing you need to do right now is put it on the calendar. Block off the weekend when you are going to do a garage sale. Because that is taking action. You have to do that. If you're ever going to have a garage sale, you have to pick the date and you need to pick it now so that as stuff starts coming up, hey, can we go do this on such and such date? Can you come visit this family

on such and such date? Can you go see your cutting college? Whatever. We're going to take a weekend to do that so that that weekend is already taken up as the garage sale. The other thing you need to do is ask your friend who you know have garage sales either on the regular or have had successful wins in the somewhat recent past. Send them a text right now like pause the podcast

“after I explain what you need to ask them and send them a text saying, how did you advertise your”

garage sale? And they're either going to say, this is how I advertised it that I felt like worked the best or they're going to say, I didn't and I regretted it or whatever. They're going to say, I just put a sign out because maybe where they live is a place where people drive by. Whatever they say, follow it up with and there's or anything else I need to know, right?

have regulations about whether or not you can put a sign out and how far ahead it can be and where

those signs can be. So, you know, if they say that a sign was the thing that did it for them, then say, do we have any regulations of where that can be? If they say I posted it on Facebook, follow up with what group did you put it in if it was successful. I have found that it's been harder. My daughter last summer really wanted to go to garage sales and so we would take some time to do that. I haven't done it in a long time and so I am not the expert anymore on

how to advertise a garage sale in my area. Because I don't go to garage sales much anymore, but what I do know is that every area is different. So I can't tell you from my small town

“in Texas what the best way is for you to advertise your, you know, New England big city”

garage sale. Like I can't give you that information because it's different. It's different in my

small town in Texas from the next small town in Texas down the road. You know, I know that back of the day, back when I was having garage sales and going to him, we had, we put it in the paper. And if you did not put it in the paper, you were not going to get the traffic that you wanted. And that just was what it, what the deal was where we are. Well, that's not the same anymore. So who, who do you know that's had a garage sale? And I, I literally can think of someone right now.

It's not somebody I'm close to. It's not somebody that I talk to all the time, but I know this person has garage sales regularly. And so they must be successful enough for her to keep on having them. So if I was going to have a garage sale, that's who I would contact and say, how do you advertise your garage sales? And then whatever she would say, I would respond with, is there anything else I need to know? Like, are there any regulations around that?

Whatever. Because if somebody is really good at this, and I know that she has the regularly because she puts them on Facebook, but I'm like, what other ways does she have to make sure that her garage sales are successful? So that's the number one thing. Put it on your calendar nail and text the person you know in your life, in your actual area. So not your friend who lives

“in a different state, and you can tell that they have garage sales all the time. That's what I'm”

talking about. But the somebody who lives in your area text them, if you see it on Facebook, send them a Facebook message, if you hear them talk about it, stop them somewhere at the baseball fields wherever, and ask them, how do you advertise your garage sales? Is there anything I need to know because I'm thinking about having one? Those are the two things. Calendar and ask the people who do it. If you don't, if you legitimately don't have anyone that you know, then you need to

drive around this next Saturday morning. Look for garage sales. I think honestly, going in the afternoon, which I know where I am, people kind of pack it up and they're done. So I'm talking early afternoon. Don't go for a clock. There wouldn't be anybody still open where I live. But drive around and see, are they busy? Do they look like they have the same amount of stuff? You know,

the reason I say afternoons, they'll be a little bit less busy than they were first thing in the

morning. And you can ask him, hey, how's it been going today? How did you advertise your garage sale?

“Like, stop and ask them. Do you feel like it was the best way to do it? Like, did they have a lot of”

traffic or not? And they'll tell you, if they don't, if they won't, go to somebody else that will do that. But do your research in your area. And that's how you do your research, okay? Because, you know, in the olden days, for me, I could tell when someone had put it in the tape, put it in the paper like a tell because I got the paper and that's what I used to find my garage sales. But also, you know, I could tell who had been successful and who hadn't and asked those questions. So

that's my number one advice. If you say you're going to have one, put it on the calendar. If you have a close friend in your area who you would enjoy spending the day with, send them an email or send an email. I'm sorry. What in the world? No, your close friend. You're going to text them. Text them and say, hey, I'm going to have a garage sale on this day. Do you want to do it with me? Because honestly, my daughter, the last garage sale that we had,

my daughter was maybe, I don't know, 12 or 13. And she wanted to have the garage sale.

you get to keep the money. And we did that. Okay. We didn't do a great job of advertising

at the first week. And so we ended up having it another one, which was kind of crazy. But

she will talk about the reason that she wanted to have the garage sale, which she had so many fun memories of when we'd had garage sale. So it was very fun when our kids were little to go in with a friend and spend the day together. And Bob would make pancakes. That's his thing. And he would feed everybody and the kids would play together. And it was really fun. And so I can absolutely see how, I mean, I can think of people right now who I would text and say,

hey, let's have a garage sale together. I really need to do this. It'll be a way for us to spend

time together. It would be fun, right, for us to hang out for the day. But the main thing is

get it on the calendar. Actually do it. And then if that date comes and goes, if you find that

“every time something else comes up that you need to schedule, you keep saying, I'll just want”

to do the garage. Then it's time to consider donating. All right, so I'm going to ask a few questions that were asked over at AskDNAKY.com. And I will share with you my answers. Okay, around this subject of selling and having a garage sale. Here we go. I'm over the clutter just when it gone. Has been wants to do a garage sale or put

stuff on Facebook marketplace. What's a good compromise? I think that the compromise in this situation,

the best thing to do would be to go ahead and immediately put whatever it is, say, okay, what is it that you're most thinking would absolutely be the best thing to sell? Like what is the thing that you just can't imagine donating instead of selling? All right, this thing you think this would sell and put it on Facebook marketplace right now. I know for myself when I helped my mother and law move out of their home that they've been in for 50, something years into assisted living.

I put some things on Facebook marketplace for the sake of making her willing to declutter.

“I was honestly kind of embarrassed. I mean, not that it was gross stuff or it wasn't bad”

things to be embarrassed of, but I did it solely for the purpose of making her willing to get rid of stuff. She was bound and determined that these sets of China, multiple sets of China that had been in boxes in her closet for at least 20 to 30 years that she had bought from someone else, a neighbor when they were moving. And that neighbor had said, these are really, really expensive, nice pieces of China and she talked about it many times over the years. And she said, "Oh,

those things are going to be worth a lot." Well, I knew that those people are not out there looking to buy, use China. There are people who are, right? I knew that. And so I was like, I just wanted to donate it. I just wanted to be done with it. But in order for her to be willing to do that, I had to try selling it. She was not even on Facebook. So I had to do it under my own name. So I was the person trying to sell this China, which it ended up that we did sell one of the sets of

“China. But in the beginning, I was like, okay, how much are you willing to sell this for?”

Like, what are you willing to sell this for? And I put it on Facebook for $250 for the set of China. And I was embarrassed. I was irritated. I did not want to do that because I felt like there's no way. Anybody is going to want it for this amount. And I was right. Nobody wanted it for that amount. But I had to do it to get her to be willing. Like, she, I had to put it on Facebook for $250 for the set of China and describe it. And I had to show her look. I took great pictures.

I described it really well. I explained what it was just to show her that nobody wanted it for that amount. But once I did that, then she was willing to say, okay, put, I think she said $125 on it. And so I lowered the price to $125. Somebody offered me a hundred. I asked her and she was willing to sell it for a hundred. So she ended up getting a hundred dollars, which was honestly a lot more than I thought she was going to get for it. But that was part of the process. You're

living in a home with someone else. It's their house, too. And this is how you come to the compromise.

no, I want to sell it. It's not actually getting anything out of the house. So instead, the only thing you can control is yourself. And so you say, all right, what are you wanting to do? And even what something that you really want to sell and how much would you be willing to sell it for? And I will

try. I will put it on Facebook marketplace. But also, let's, you know, the reality is I don't know

the statistics. I only know from my own personal experience that if it's going to sell, it's going to sell pretty quickly. So say, you know, put it on there. And then say, you know, nobody is actually wanting to, for that amount. Would you, are you willing to come down on the price? Or whatever. Okay, nobody's wants this. So, and go through the process. That is how I personally became willing to donate was knowing how hard it was to sell. So sometimes it's that, sell it so that you can have the

“experience of knowing how hard it is to sell. That's what makes you willing to donate.”

But also, you're getting stuff out of the house. It's doing the thing. If he wants to have a garage sale, you know, go through that if he's like, well, let's just have a garage sale. Okay,

let's put it on the calendar. Let's put this on the calendar. Let's get it on there. Okay,

when are you available? Because I can do this on my own because I might have to go the bathroom and so you'd have to be out here when I'm doing that. You know, but let's, let's get it on the calendar. And I often, I, that is kind of how I do things. That's kind of how I parent and do relationships and stuff is when people are like, I think we should do this. I'm like, okay, let's do it. Can I tell you how often that takes people off guard catches people off guard?

I'm going to kid who was like, I think I want to do this. And I was like, all right, let's do it. And I will tell that story to parents. I'm like, oh, you, you want to, I'll just say it. You want to drop out of college and do comedy, which we are several years past that and back in college and getting things finished up right. But I was like, oh, yes, do you want to do? All right, let's do it. All right, let's go. I took him to a podcast in conference. I was like, if you're

going to do comedy, you have to have podcasts, so start a podcast. It's years ago, anyway. Oh, you, you want to, you think that what you need to do is move to Austin. All right, let's get you moved to Austin. All right, let's do that. So you can do comedy there. I mean, like, I,

“I hesitate to say that, but I think it's a little bit in the past enough to be like, that's how”

I deal with things. As I'm like, you say this is what you want to do, so let's do it. Because the other option is to have this stuff sit in the house and that's what I can't do. Do I wish we could donate? Of course, I wish we could donate. But this is how important it is to me. I'm going to do whatever needs to be done so that you're willing to let this stuff go. If that means putting it on Facebook, Facebook, marketplace, let's put it on Facebook, marketplace. Because going through

that process is the thing that keeps us from just being stuck. And then we learn things and we learn that you know what maybe going to college would be for the thing I want to do, maybe I should do that. And also do comedy at the same time if you want to. That's great, right? But like, anyway,

next question. So compromise. Here's the thing. What's a good compromise? You're the one who cares

the most about getting this stuff out. So the compromise might involve you going ahead and doing the work, going ahead and putting a date on the calendar for this garage. Okay, next one. But also bringing him in on that. I know. Here I thought I was in with that one. But bringing him in on this, you know, like, oh, you say you want to do this. Let's do it. But let's do this together. Let's go through the work. Let's okay. We've got to go drive to such and such spot so that we can deliver,

you know, so that we can meet up with a person who wanted to buy this figuring or whatever or this waffle maker on Facebook. We got to go do that. Oh, I need you. When are you going to be home? Because I've got to schedule a time for this person to come over and pick up this couch. Like, go through that process. And that is how you come to a real compromise. I've been on my decluttering journey for over three years now. I'm in a situation now where I need

to put on a garage sale to pay for our summer vacation. Can you share your best tips for a successful sale? I love merchandising. So I know how to keep like things with like and price everything.

“I think I will ask my neighbors if they want to do a street wide garage sale to draw more interests.”

We're in a heavily populated place. And the other tips are much appreciated. Thank you. I think you have great ideas. Like, you know how to put like things with like, I will tell you, you say you know how to price everything. Here is my best advice for pricing at a garage sale. Coming from the perspective of the person who was here to teach you how to declutter, not to teach you how to sell your stuff, right? But also, I have been to many garage sales over the years.

I had to start a blog about how to get it out. I know a thing or two about what works.

Couple pieces of advice. Any children's things that you have put them away from the street. Because kids are gonna play on them. They're gonna play with them. Put them away from the street. So that the parents can look through things on the driveway and also have eyes on their kids that are away from the street. Other things with the pricing, I really like category pricing. Clothing. Kids close 50 cents or a dollar or whatever. I completely understand that you're like,

no, no, no. This one item is worth so much more than that. Okay, you could have like this section of clothing is individually priced. But if you can put a set price on a sign that says,

all kids clothing, a dollar, I don't even care, $2, whatever. Okay. But if you will put that on there

and people don't have to ask you how much stuff costs, I firmly believe that if you have, if you don't put prices on things and you're like, I'll just tell them when they ask me, there's a lot of people who are not going to ask because they are just going to assume that it's probably going to be more than they want to pay. But if you will say all clothes, a dollar or have a match, they're going to grab more stuff and your goal is for most more stuff

to leave. And so if you will do that, I firmly believe, from personal experience,

“that they're going to get more stuff out and you end up making, I believe more money. Can I guarantee”

it now? But if you have $5 for this, $3 for this, a dollar for this and $275 for it. Like if they

if the first piece of clothing that they happen to look at the price for it is $5, the probably not

going to look at a lot of the other stuff because they're going to assume, oh, $5. Y'all, $5 would grab a lot of money. It just does. And so if you will look at things and if you will, if you will just do a blanket price with like, oh, kids clothes, I mean, they're going to grab a bunch of stuff. They're like, oh, that's only a dollar. I just get more, you know, I'm just telling you, categorical pricing. I believe it gets people looking at lots of different things. It means

that they do not have to ask you how much everything costs. I just I found that to be very, successful both as a buyer. I bought a lot more that way as a seller when I was trying to get rid of my stuff. I found that things just left. And sometimes people are like, are you serious? This code is 25 cents? And I was like, yeah, because I wanted things gone. But then that same person who asked that question, I'm guaranteed, and I'm telling you, they looked at every last thing in on that was

“hanging out that was clothing because they were like, this code of 25 cents, are you kidding me?”

And they would buy all kinds of stuff and they would leave my house and they would pay me money. And it was great. I think understanding that the number one thing as far as decluttering is understanding that your garage sale is your last resort. If it does not sell at the garage sale, it needs to leave. That changes how you price things. If you were determined that something could be sold on eBay or Facebook marketplace or whatever for more, you better try that before you

have your garage sale. That is not something to do after, oh, if it doesn't sell at the garage sale, then I'll sell it for that. Like do not put a print out of how much something goes for on eBay at your garage sale to show that somebody should be willing to pay this amount of money. That's a peep of people who go to garage sales. Garage sales are last resorts. They are not a boutique in your garage. They are last resorts. It is either someone

gives me a little bit chunk cash and they leave with the stuff in their hands or it is going to all be donated at the end. Like have a plan for how everything is going to be donated at the end of

“a garage sale. Honestly, we had a garage sale with some friends. I don't know when this woman”

years and years and years ago. I probably wrote about it on the blog at some point. But we had a garage sale with some friends and they were like, hey, if you'll have it at your house, we have a trailer and we will load everything up and go donate it. And I was like, that is the best deal that we've ever made on this. I mean, they took everything that was left over and left with it. If you have friends that live in the country, those are the people to ask, do you want to have a

garage sale with me? Because a lot of times when you live in the country, it's harder to have a

live in the country, they're probably going to be excited to have the garage sale with you if they want to have one. Other tips, I would say to get a counterfeit marker for just to be able to check

and see if a hundred dollar bill is real or not. Because the problem is somebody buys 25 dollars

for the staff and you a hundred dollar bill. If it's counterfeit, you've just lost the $25 worth of stuff and the $75 in a real money that you gave them has changed. So that's good. I do think nail nowadays from going to some garage sale last summer that having your Venmo, like just having that ready, you can get the QR code for your Venmo and print it out on a piece paper and you can get, I'm sure the same thing for cash app and all those types of different things so that you can

have people pay you without necessarily giving them your phone number or whatever. Best tips for

“successful sale, same as I said at the beginning, you have to know how do people in your area”

find garage sales? How do you advertise? How do people expect to find out about garage sales and put it there? That is the number one, if people don't know you're having a garage sale, then you cannot expect anybody to come to it. Okay, next. I have very little money. So when I declutter, if it's some random things up on Facebook marketplace, at the chance that I could get any money for it. Example, camera tripod, IKEA table legs, etc. I have sold some things before, but a lot of things

remain listed. It's all taking up so much space, but I can't get rid of it knowing there's a slight chance they could sell. How can I reframe my mindset or what should I do? Okay.

Two things here. Where would you look first for the stuff that's listed on a Facebook marketplace?

And go to that spot where you would look first for it and let that be the limit. And it can't

“take up the space that you need to be able to function in your actual real life.”

Like, if you're decluttering, your goal is to be able to function better in your home. That means that you can't have the entire living room filled with stuff that has been listed on Facebook marketplace for six months already. Because that is not actually decuttering. That's not actually improving the function in your home. You need to be able to live in your home. So you go, okay, where where would I look first? If I get a notification that something I had on Facebook has sold,

where would I look first for that item? Okay. And you go there and you pick the space there as the limited space where you can have that. That means you can't just put anything in everything. You can only put things on Facebook marketplace that you can afford space-wise to store

“until they actually sell. Because here's the thing, as I said before, decuttering saves you money.”

Decuttering gets you more value out of your home for the either rent or mortgage payment that you're paying every single month. Anyway, if you are paying X amount of dollars, you're paying that for this home. If you can't function and use this home, then you're wasting money. Right? And so getting the stuff out allows you to really utilize your home well and get the value out of whatever you're paying for it. Okay. So that's the thing. It's a limited space. It can't just

be, this is all the room that I have. And that means if that will be the thing that will also

also also help you say, okay, the limited time. There is a time limit. I mean, the reality is

it has a very small chance of selling. If people don't really want it right away. And so if unless you have the room to devote to having a Facebook marketplace business set up, then you need to have a, you know, you have the, well, you got even if you do have a Facebook marketplace business that you're running, you have to have the space and devote that space to it. And then that limits, these are the things that are most likely to sell. So these are the things

that get space. And that helps you naturally sort out the things that aren't. Along with that, you go, I am going to put a time limit on it. I'm going to say this, you know, for me, here's what I do. As I'm decluttering, if I run across something that I'm like, oh, I think that would sell. I'm Facebook marketplace. I post it right then, as that's my take at there now, is I have stuck it in the donate box. And I have posted it on Facebook. And if I get to the end of this decluttering project

and I haven't had anybody go, oh, I want that, I want that, right? Because the people in your

remove the listing and I just send it out with the donations. I mean, like, that's, that's how I

“do it. And so there needs to be, though, this time limit on it, because you're not running a store,”

because you don't have the space for a store. This is not a business for you. You are trying to

declutter, which means that it has to leave your house. Okay. I hope this was helpful. And

“it's all about that. It is stuff going to leave the house or not. Is it, is it going to leave the”

house? Because if it's not, then if the selling and the idea of selling is keeping it from leaving the house,

then I need to let go of that idea of selling and just get it out of the house. But if you're determined,

“then actually do it. And actually go through it, because that will be the thing that will help you know,”

oh, now I know what to do, and I can actually get things out of the house by selling, or you'll realize, oh, that was a lot of work. And when I actually do the math, I made 47 cents an hour for all the work that I did. And then that will change your perspective on whether or not things need to be sold or not. Okay. I hope that was helpful. And I will talk to you on Until next week, bye.