New Book Sheds Light On Turning Clutter Into Cash

With three weeks to Christmas, budgets are being stretched thin, but a new book may be the key to turning your clutter into cash.

Sally Salvati, author of Sell Online the Easy Way - The Aussie Guide to Turning your Clutter into Cash, said we all have so much ‘stuff’ that we can sell online. “According to a recent report, the average household has $5400 worth of unwanted items*,” she said. “You can make money for your unwanted items easily by selling them online.”

“Think of it as recycling with benefits—cash benefits.”

Online platforms such as eBay, Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace are great places to list unwanted items. Sally says the key is to invest time in the process.

“You should invest some time into selling, whichever platform you use, but once your items are listed, the process is really very easy. The more time you put in to creating a good listing, the more likely you will sell your item for the maximum price,” she said.

Sally has been selling online for over 15 years but her passion for finding bargains was born after years at boarding school in the UK. “I really value the space around me. Everything at boarding school was uniform; I longed to express my style in my space,” she said.

“With a tiny budget and a tiny space, op shopping was the solution. And as the size of my space expanded, so did my collection of preloved furniture.  My home is full of items purchased from eBay, Gumtree and Facebook.

“When I finally purchased my own home, it was around the same time as the internet took off, and so I ventured online to continue to feed my addiction by reusing pieces someone else no longer needed.”

While she is a wiz at online selling now, Sally admits it took her a few years before she felt confident enough to sell anything online. “I was too scared I wouldn’t do it right and it would be an unmitigated disaster. I realised that once you get the hang of the basics, and if you are open and honest in your communication, it is surprisingly simple,” she said.

That is why she wrote the book; to help others looking to earn some extra cash learn from her mistakes.

“So many people leave out relevant information in their listing and wonder why their stuff does not sell. Don’t be like this guy I wanted to buy a desk from – he didn’t include measurements; I messaged him asking for them. The response wasn’t what I expected... Hi Sally, I don’t have a tape measure, but the desk is five and a half of my feet long and two and a half of my feet wide, and I’m six foot tall. I still don’t know how big the desk is. I moved on to the next listing.”

If money is not your driver, then one of the non-monetary benefits of selling unwanted items online is you are helping to recycle items that may have been thrown away and ended up in landfill. “This is the warm and fuzzy aspect, as opposed to the cold, hard cash perspective,” Sally said.

“By styling your home sustainably, you can regularly update your style and help protect the planet for a fraction of the cost of buying new.”

ENDS

sallysalvati.com/shop - to buy the book

sallysalvati.com/author-bio/ - for bio

Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/gumtreemumsaustralia

Facebook page: www.facebook.com/sellonlinetheeasyway/

*http://www.smh.com.au/money/saving/average-household-has-5400-worth-of-unwanted-items-they-could-sell-online-report-finds-20170921-gylr1l.html re: Gumtree's annual Second Hand Economy Report