Simple Ways to Profit from Spring Cleaning

By Britt Erica Tunick

With the weather finally beginning to warm up in many parts of the country, people are shifting into spring-cleaning mode. Before you roll up your sleeves and start tossing things, however, think about doing your spring cleaning in a way that can help generate some cash.

Following are a few ways to turn your spring cleaning into a money-making proposition:

• You’ve no doubt heard about Marie Kondo and her philosophy, Tidying Up, that anything that doesn’t give you joy should be tossed. Whether or not you subscribe to this thinking, it is more than likely that some of things that no longer bring you joy would be valued by others who would be willing to pay for them. So, as you are sorting through your belongings this spring, make a pile of any clothing, goods, or electronics that are in good shape and take advantage of the countless online shops where you can sell these things. From eBay, to Poshmark.com, ThredUp.com, Etsy.com, and countless other websites, there is no shortage of places to market second-hand wares and turn unwanted goods into cash. There are even online platforms devoted to selling used electronics, such as Gazelle.com. If you itemize deductions on your federal tax return, you may be entitled to claim a charitable deduction for your Goodwill donations. According to the Internal Revenue Service, a taxpayer can deduct the fair market value of clothing, household goods, used furniture, shoes, books, etc.
•  For significantly larger items that aren’t practical to ship, such as furniture, of if you can’t be bothered photographing and mailing lots of things, consider a good old-fashioned yard sale.
• Create a change jar to collect any change found around the house: under the sofa cushions or in the pockets of clothing in the washing machine. While it may seem silly, the money collected in such jars can add up quickly to more substantial amounts than you might expect. Once your jar is filled, look for an area bank with an electronic cash sorting machine that is free to use, versus the fee-based machines often found in grocery stores.
• If spring-cleaning efforts turn up unused gift cards that you really aren’t likely to use, convert those cards back into cash by selling them on one of the sites that have sprung up specifically for this purpose, such as http://www.cardpool.com/ or https://www.cardcash.com/  Since many gift cards will start charging fees on the money they contain after a year or so of non-usage, it is wiser to pay a small fee to sell them through such websites than to forfeit the money to fees.
• Spring cleaning should also include your everyday finances –from hard copies of bills and receipts, to online subscriptions. Take the time to go through all of your credit card statements and loans to make sure there aren’t any unauthorized charges you have overlooked; identify any ongoing subscriptions or unused services you may have forgotten about or weren’t aware might have automatically renewed; and review and update, if necessary, information on items such as insurance policies.

Have some fun and make money while spring cleaning.