S/O Decluttering - perceived or actual value

If I have something that I don't want anymore and I think it might have value, I look it up on ebay to see if people are buying it (look at the completed auctions, not the active ones). If so, I try selling it on ebay or craigslist. I've been surprised by what people will buy. I also try to think of places that might want certain stuff, like schools or Scouts might want craft supplies.

Most of what I've decluttered in the last few years hasn't had enough value to be worth my time to try to sell, so I've offered it to friends for free or tried to give it away. I have elementary school teacher friends who were happy to take patterned paper, stamps/pads, etc. that they could use in their classrooms. For books, the library where we used to live had a used book store, and they were happy to take the books that we didn't need (BOXES of them!) to sell there. (The library itself couldn't use them because they only want books like longer-lasting library bindings, I think.) For other stuff, we had enough to rent a small dumpster (which people dove through regularly) or I'd occasionally have the trash company do a bulky item pickup. If you have toys, you can check with doctors' offices or even hospitals to see if they could use them.

Basically, when I'm decluttering, my goal is to get rid of the stuff. Unless it has obvious and significant value, I focus on the goal, not selling it, because if it takes too much of my time to get rid of it, to me it's not worth it.

It might help to look up the items you have on eBay to see what they're really worth. Often things we think are valuable, like collectors' items, really aren't. If you see that someone is struggling to get a few dollars for an item on eBay it can make it easier to let go.

I also look at the item's value vs the psychic energy it costs me. If there's someone I know could use something, I pass if on, but otherwise I donate to a charity that comes to my house for pickup.

That's not to say that I would donate a Picasso to Goodwill, but for me, the energy and mental stress clutter causes me (or just having to keep "mental inventory") isn't worth any perceived or actual value of an item.

The Salvation Army will pick up in my city if you have several things like furniture, dishes, household items etc.

Everything has value. The tough part is that everyone values things differently. I'll never forget the tag sale where my sister was putting out clothes and was checking to make sure things still looked good after being stored in her garage for a few months. She had a pile of t-shirts that she put aside to throw out because stains had set in. A guy wanted to buy them even though they were stained. He wanted to use them to wash and wax cars. She told him to take them and he insisted that she take some money because if he didn't get the shirts from her he was going to have to buy the cotton rags at the auto supply store. At her last tag sale, the same sister had a beat to heck metal tool box. The paint was peeling and it was full of bits and pieces of random hinges, screws and stuff like that. Oh, let's not forget the sawdust that was in it too. She was embarrassed by it and was going to throw it out rather than put it out. I challenged her to put it out and charge $10 for it. No lie, a lady was willing to buy it for the $10 if she could leave the junk in it behind. I'm sure that was the quickest okay she ever heard. We dumped the stuff in a box, leaving it on the table because we were just too overheated to care at that point in the day and wouldn't you know, guys were picking through the stuff and buying it.

It really is true that one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Good luck. I love sorting through stuff and researching it as long as it isn't my own.