Swap.Com - Online Consignment Shop

My decluttering efforts are still underway but have been a bit slow lately.  My slow down has mostly to do with my ability to get things out of my house.  We have a lot of clothing, especially girls clothing and now my own that has to be listed, sold, and shipped on EBay.  This process, while I have gotten it down to a pretty efficient process, still takes a lot of time to do.  I would spend at least 4 hours a week listing things.

I've finally gotten pretty fed up with the piles just sitting on my bedroom floor waiting to be listed or waiting to be purchased.  I started looking at other sites that might be better to list for girls clothing.  I came across Swap.com, an online consignment store.  Swap.com takes on a lot of the work in listing items for you. They take pictures, they group items, and they post the items for you.  It is up to you to set a purchase price once the items are ready to be posted.  They also take care of the storage and the shipping which is awesome. To be fair, EBay has been fairly profitable and I still think it is great way to get rid of things you no longer need but should definitely be done on a consistent basis to avoid becoming overwhelmed with items as I have been and then trying to sell everything at once!

I decided to try sending in the stuff that hasn't moved on EBay after a couple of relists to see how it goes with Swap.com.  I ordered a box and shipping label from Swap.com and it was delivered to my doorstep.  I folded up the  clean clothing nicely and filled the box.  Swap.com claims that each large box averages $150 in income for a seller.  I'm not sure if this is more or less than what I've been making on EBay but I figured I would give it a try.  They do have a seller guarantee as well where if your items don't sell, they will buy them (at a discount rate of course).  Swap.com takes a portion of your profit, I haven't determined if it is in line with EBay/Paypal fees for EBay sales.

Right now Swap.com has a 60 day processing period for each box that they receive so it will probably be awhile before I know what kind of success I will have.  The important thing to me now is I am moving this stuff outside of my house and it is no longer cluttering up my bedroom floor!  I'll keep you posted on how it goes and if my first box generates $150 in income.

Preteen Room Makeover

 

Since we moved into our house four years ago, I have really wanted to paint the girls rooms.  We've had plans to do a purple accent wall in Tori's room for awhile now and this weekend, I felt like getting it done.  While I was at it, I also pulled together a new bedding set as I realized her old one was pretty faded and she was due for some updating with going to middle school next year.  I spent the day painting, organizing (& tossing a bunch of stuff too!), and putting the room back together.  I have plans still to do an iridescent stencil on the wall but need to make up my mind on the design and get it ordered. I hope you enjoy the photos of the updated room.  We still need to fix the chandelier because the chain and cord are too long.  Hopefully the husband will make it a priority soon!

40 Bags Declutter Update 3

So you may be wondering with all my travel, have I completely fallen off the wagon on my decluttering initiative?  Certainly not.  In fact, I kept Ebay sales going while I was gone with help of my husband and have made good use of my weekend time.

Accomplishments this last week -

Clean out of the oldest child's closet and dresser.  She's a get it over with kind of kid so we knocked out clothing and shoes.  And unfortunately, she fits in very little from last Spring or Summer.  Sigh.

Started clean out of youngest child's dresser and tried on hand me downs from older sister.  Unfortunately some of the hand me downs are too small already.  She's a kid who needs to progress in stages.  10 minutes work for 10 hours of leisure.  We may get through her stuff in a year.

Clean out of youngest daughters desk.  This was a nightmare area because she is the Artist in the family and needs lots of supplies and keeps lots of her art.  Oldest daughter is naturally a neater human being so we will not have to do the same with her desk.

Clean out of shoe closet.  This is where we all dump our shoes on the main floor.  Very little was kept and you can now see the carpet in the closet floor.

I have sold 47 items on Ebay thus far earning $329.00 since January.  Not too shabby.  Little girls dresses that were hardly worn have sold the best.  Josh has sold a few older computers as well not included in this total.

Upcoming Declutter Plans -

More clean out of my closet.  This is mostly now due to the fact that clothes that fit two months ago are now too big and I do not want to keep them.

Garage.  My husband has no clue this is on the agenda but it's coming up real soon.

40 Bags Declutter Update 2

This last week was really productive as far as the declutter goes.  I went through jewelry, my husband's closet, the two bedroom dressers, the master bath vanity drawer, and two linen closets upstairs.  I didn't think to take before pictures but I did get some after ones.



Vanity - these trays were purchased at Target really helped to get this drawer organized.

Girl's Linen Closet - these baskets were purchased at Target.  Before the door barely shut on the closet and stuff was piled to the ceiling.  Now each girl has their own basket with change of sheets. I tossed a lot from this closet that will never be used again.  Bye Bye Hannah Montana sheets!

Family Linen Closet - This one was pretty bad too.  Barely any room to add stuff.  All of the towels were in the wash so once they are put away, the closet will still be fairly full. I still need to get one more smaller basket for the dust rags on the second shelf.  I have some afghans made by family members that I have to admit, aren't my favorite, but I can't bear to part with them either.  I ended up throwing out a semi-broken humidifier and thought it would be easy to replace.  I went to Target and Walgreens today and wasn't impressed with the selection. And now my husband is sick with a cold... figures.

Husband's Closet - He wasn't thrilled to participate but now everything that is left actually fits.  He has lost quite a bit this last couple of  years so we had a good amount of weeding out to do.

Items added to the donate pile - 2 garbage bags full
Items listed and sold on Ebay - 14 + Relists. Amount made: $360 (not bad!)
Goals for next week - Upstairs bathrooms, put away Christmas décor ( I know, I know...)

40 Bags Declutter Update

Well it has been one week since I started the challenge and I thought I would give some updates:

Items that I have added to the donate pile -  easily over 100 items

Items that I have listed on Ebay and sold - 22

Amount I made this last week on Ebay - $140  ( I really wasn't thinking it would amount to that much so this is quite a surprise)

Number of items I pulled out of the donate/sell piles:  1 ( I realized I am now small enough to fit into some really cute jeans that had already been in a pile for the last several months,  Score!)

Accomplishments this week - Night stands, Jewelry, Purses

Goal for this upcoming week - Master Bedroom dressers (will close out the bedroom as complete), the husbands closet, list another 10 items

40 Bags in 40 Days Challenge

In the general theme of declutter, I researched some approaches that I could use to help with this initiative in my house.  Over on the on White House Black Shutters Blog I found the 40 Bags in 40 Days Challenge that gave me some great ideas.  Most importantly reminded me of all the places I should be looking to declutter... places I often forget.  While the challenge suggests using it as a lent activity, I'm already geared up to go now so no waiting for me.  One bag or one location a day, I can handle that.

This week I have worked on my bedroom (minus closets) which is actually an easier task than some other spaces in our house.  I don't even want to think about my two linen closets right now!  (I may be a bit of a bedding addict).  I cleaned out the side tables and both dressers.  I couldn't believe all the old stuff I came across... cords that go to who knows what, old medicine, scentsy refills, clothing that hasn't been worn in years...  Under the bed wasn't a problem, though.  We recently got a new headboard and when we set it up, we pulled out all the dust bunnies and lonely socks from under the bed so I feel pretty covered there.  To be honest, our bedroom is one of the more minimal rooms in the house.  I like it to feel open and clean, perfect for relaxing.  Of course, the animals sleep in there too so it has challenges.  It doesn't hurt that it is a big room to begin with.  There are a few things I would like to change in the room still, including:

- Have an electrician move our cable cord to another wall
- Buy a new mattress and box springs (really high on our list for this year)
- Find the right mirror or mirrors to hang over our large dresser
- Fix the wall hangings that are now off center from our headboard
- Find a chair for one corner of the room

Not too far left to go in finalizing our bedroom.  And it really doesn't look bad now but I would like to get it just how I want it. 

I may post some pics after we get the rest of it done. Our house has been a work in progress since we moved in a few years ago but this last year has really allowed us to start making it our own.