I entered the dreaded shoe room. (Yes, I have a room just for my shoes! Pathetic, I know! Now you know how I racked up that much credit card debt, don't you?) Upon glancing into the enormous pit of chaos I like to call my closet, I decided that it was time to get rid of the old and make room for the new.... or just make room for nothing; because I absolutely despise clutter! The project had begun. I spent the next eight hours going through all of the items I'd thrown into the shoe room closet so that I wouldn't have to look at them anymore. Designer jeans, dresses only worn once, books upon books from all of those years in college, and Mary Kay makeup.
The Shoe Room - Circa 2011
About a year and a half ago, I'd decided that I wanted to sell Mary Kay on the side to make some extra money. After purchasing the inventory to make my new business successful, I realized that I didn't have the patience or the diligence to get it done. As a result, that beautifully expensive inventory got thrown into the shoe room closet; and there it sat until a few weeks ago when I decided that I needed to get it out of there. I wasn't using it and it was just collecting dust!
One such item that brought in a good amount of money was the Timewise Miracle Set. I sold this set on Amazon for $48. It retails at $90 so that means that I paid $45 for it at cost. Overall, not too bad. I only profited $3, but who cares? That's $48 more than I would have had if I'd of let the Miracle Set sit in the shoe room closet even longer! The large Miracle Set was my big money maker, but I only had about two or three of those. The rest of the merchandise I had were little money makers, such as foundation sold for $11 a piece, the small Miracle Set for $20, and cleanser for $14. These are small numbers, but when added up, I sold over $200 in Mary Kay merchandise.
My latest idea for things to sell are my old school books. I had been holding on to old school books because I thought "Maybe I will want to consult this book later on," or "I dropped that class, but I might take it again later." After four years of never consulting those books, and two years of never taking that dropped class again, I decided the time to sell was overdue! Those books were listed on Amazon as well. The most recent big money maker was this History of the Muslim World book. I had never used it, boughten it new, and it still had the CD with the access code in it. I listed it as "new" on Amazon and got $60 out of it!
I took a Latin American History class over the summer and I bought this book used from Amazon for $18. I just resold it on Amazon for $24. I basically got paid money to use the book for my class over the summer.
Finally, I'd like to leave you with this advice. Do not throw away old electronics that are "broken", because when you are not the most technologically advanced when it comes to troubleshooting, the item may not actually be broken. Take my GPS for example. Last summer I was driving down the road and my Garmin quit working. I needed it for directions, so I purchased a new one for $120. I didn't throw the old one away, though, because I thought that maybe one of my brothers could take a look at it. That Garmin sat in my cupboard until this summer when my boyfriend, who absolutely loves technology, took it home to troubleshoot it. He came back and said "I fixed it!" I said "You did? What was wrong with it?" and he said, "It needed charged". Upon learning of this disappointing news that I know nothing about technology, and exciting news that it wasn't broken after all; I decided it was time to sell one of them. Since they both worked equally as well, I decided to to sell the newer one and keep the old one. My boyfriend updated the new one to the 2013 maps and I listed it on Amazon with the charger and car mount for $85. It sold in two days.
I have all but completely cleared out my house with all the selling I've done, and in the process have paid down close to $1,000 of my credit card debt. Nothing feels better than to have a clutter free home, paid down debt, and a little extra cash in my bank account! Happy selling, everyone!
