Get money for your clutter and unwanted items

With so much talk about how we can help future generations through various ways and means, it’s about time that we took a minute to think about what we can do. There are so many items that we have around the home, and this means that there’s a lot of clutter. From old furniture to your unwanted entertainment collection, you need a place to put it, but don’t throw it away – use it for a good cause.

The latest research suggesting that 5.5 million boxes of CDs and DVDs are being dumped in landfill sites each year, it’s time to stop hurting the environment and instead sell computer games for cash. There are so many things that you can do with unwanted items, and even if it’s the space you’re after rather than the money, there are many ways in which the money you earn can help others.

Here’s how:

• Car boot sale – Many people believe that we only use 20% of the things that are in our home, so don’t be worried about getting rid of things for a few quid. In fact, consider it as cutting your cleaning time, because if you get rid of everything in the home that you bought thanks to our consumer-driven society then studies show you can trim 40% off your cleaning time of the home.

• Donate directly to charity – Not only does this feel good, but it can help you as well on numerous levels. First off, you don’t need to collect all your things together, stick them in the car, price them up and try to sell them (if you’re going down the car boot route). Instead, you just stick everything in a bag – CDs, DVDs, clothing etc – and take it down to the charity shop. Secondly, donating to charity can give you – wait for it – tax advantages. Now, if there’s one thing we’d all like it’s to pay a little less when it comes to taxation. De-stress yourself of both tax and clutter by donating straight to the charity of your choice.

• Sell online – Since the creation of the internet, ecommerce has moved from strength to strength. One part of this is the auctioning sites like eBay whereby you pay to list an item and somebody else buys it after battling with other people. Now, this can be good with furniture, clothing or really rare CDs and DVDs, but it doesn’t work for your everyday use. The second option you have is to sell games online with musicMagpie. What happens here is that you scan in the barcode of whatever it is you’re trying to get rid of and they will tell you how much it’s worth. After this, you stick it in the freepost and the money is wired to either your or your charity’s bank account – it’s as easy as that.

We all have things in the home that we don’t want. The whole idea of working hard so that you can buy the best things in life works on some level, but it’s always going to be flawed. Make sure that you give your house a bit of calm and tranquillity by selling the clutter that you have for the good of a charity.