Sell My Stuff - four good reasons

I don't usually sell my stuff, but I recognize that there are times when it's wise to do so. Here are four good reasons for selling personal items. These reasons might not match well with what you think is right, but they make sense to me.

Good reasons to part with personal belongings include:

1. You need the space. When your stuff starts crowding you out, it might be time to sell some of it. Each square foot of your residence has a value based on mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance and utilities. If you're paying way too much per square foot just to have things hanging around, then it might be time for a sale.

   While you're setting up the sale, be sure to recall how you came to have so much stuff that it's crowding you out. If it's from buying too much, then I'd suggest you re-evaluate your purchasing decisions. It makes little sense to buy things just to sell them again, unless you're intentionally trying to be a successful reseller in a for-profit enterprise.

2. Storage fees are eating up the value of your possessions. If you're storing your stuff because you're in between homes or you're downsizing for the time being, and you don't think you'll be having a need for your stuff for quite some time, you might be better off just selling it all and repurchasing what you need when you're ready to get a place that can hold what you'd like to own.

   When you consider that $1,000 will buy you a house full of furniture at yard sales, it's just not worthwhile paying storage fees for any extended length of time. Year ago when I realized that I was paying $700 a year in storage fees, and it might be another year or two before I got a larger house, I decided to sell my stuff and be finished with the storage expense associated with owning it.

3. Dire need for cash. For those of us living on the financial edge, it's possible that selling our stuff is not only wise but necessary. I would rather have an emergency fund in cash, but some folks find that difficult to maintain, so selling personal belongings is perhaps a viable alternative. The problem is that your stuff isn't exactly liquid, and you need to manage all of the transactions - unless you hold an auction.

   I never want to get into a position where I have to sell my stuff to have sufficient cash on hand to meet my needs. If you find yourself in this position, it's a good idea to get selling things before you have an urgent need simply because with a sense of urgency, you're liable to accept much lower offers than your belongings may be worth.

4. Changing your lifestyle. Whether you're retiring, downsizing, changing your lifestyle, moving to a foreign land or trying to get a fresh start somewhere new, sometimes leaving the past behind you and taking the cash proceeds with you is the way to go. Perhaps you're going to live out of a travel trailer or going from a single family home to a condo or assisted living. There are many scenarios where selling your stuff would be an appropriate course of action.

It's likely that a major change in lifestyle would make many of my belongings unnecessary and therefore appropriate to part with. I could only hope that a day would come when I could do without my collection of neckties. I'm trying hard to get there. Perhaps I could get ahead of the power curve and start to sell my stuff now - first up would be all of the neckties except perhaps my Goofy, Popeye and Three Stooges ties. The rest I could part with and have no regrets. Ah, I'm feeling better already.

Done with Sell My Stuff, take me back to Making Money