Make Spring Cleaning Pay Off For You

April 09, 2013

This weekend’s beautiful weather gave my husband spring fever to take out his big boy toy from the garage for a spin.  He calls it a classic Corvette, where I would say it’s more of a clunker.  Not only does it drip oil on the garage floor, but it takes up a lot of room too. 

Before he could back out the car for his Sunday drive, he had to move some boxes of newspapers waiting to be recycled, a bag of road salt and a snow shovel that we won’t be needing again for awhile, and other assorted odds and ends that end up in the garage.  Just add the letter “b” – I bet your garage is filled with as much garbage as mine.  However, your trash could be someone else’s treasure!

With spring’s arrival, we see not only daffodils and tulips popping up, but also garage and yard sale signs.  Take the time to sort through your garage or basement and spring cleaning may find you cleaning up at the bank if you can sell your unwanted items.  You’ll also need to visit your bank before the sale in order to get small bills for change, according to Bankrate.com’s 6 Tips For A Successful Yard Sale.

Not sure how to price your items?  Check for similar items being sold on eBay or Craigslist.  Another option is to use the Garage Sale Pricing Guide provided by GarageSalesTracker.com, which also has recently introduced an iPhone app for locating garage sales.

Just a few hours of your time could free up not only some extra room in your garage, but also some extra cash in your pocket. (The average garage sale profit is $500-700.) That sounds like a win/win to me!