Making Money from Your Closet

Making money while cleaning out your closets.

Most people have hundreds of unclaimed dollars hanging in their closets just taking up space? How about you?
Do you have last year’s purchases that you may still have not worn yet?
Do you have expensive clothing that no longer fits your fit body?
How about clothes that no longer fit your ever-changing personality.
Clothes you wish you never would have bought but did.
Clothes you don’t even remember how they got in your closet!
Sound familiar? We all make shopping mistakes or out grow our style of clothing, but why live with them the rest of your life? Turn past year's bargains into cold hard cash right now by putting them on consignment or selling them in a garage sale. Or exchange them in a local clothing swap. (These are becoming very popular these days in many cities.)

Consignment stores are popping up everywhere because people know that they can find great bargains on quality used clothing for themselves and their families. Selling on consignment is a great way to clean out your closet, make a little money and create space for new clothes that would better suit who you are today – not who you were 5-10 years ago!

So how do you start? You do it by pulling each item from your closet (don't forget your dressers too) one at a time, and separate into piles based on the following criteria:
• You love it and wear it faithfully, and you like how you feel when you wear it.
• You like it and you wear it fairly often, or it works well with a few of your outfits.
• You hate it and never wear it. In fact you wonder what you were thinking when you bought it, it doesn't fit, or you bought it because it was a bargain.
• This pile is for undecided items--those that don't really fit into the other piles.

Many people like to have someone with them in this process to have another set of eyes. The same way you should never buy eyeglasses without someone you respect giving you their opinion. This is why our business of Professional Facilitators of Change is becoming so popular. People desire and need the help of another – it saves money, time and frustration.

Here are five easy steps to complete the job:
1. Once you closet is empty, put all the items from the "Love it" pile back into the closet. This is a great time to sort them by color and type of clothing. Shirts got here, pants go here, and scarves go here…..

2. Then put the items in the "fairly often" pile back into the closet. You should be left with two piles of clothing--the "hate it" pile and the "undecided" pile. (This is where the fun begins!)

3. Neatly fold everything in the "hate it" pile and wish it well, for it will be taking a little trip out of your home and your life.

4. Go through the "undecided" pile piece by piece, and ask yourself what value each piece currently gives you.

Warning: Avoid sentimentality - such as, “this was given to me by my mom or sister I can’t let it go.” “The last time I wore this I had such a great time in the Bahamas.” These are not reasons to keep your closet cluttered with items that do not suit you Now!
And do not get sucked in by the clothing trying to convince you of its value and reminding you how good you used to look wearing it. Clothing is sly and it will say anything to get you to keep it around. It will remind you of how expensive it was, or that it was a gift from your mother-in-law, but do not fall for these sneaky tricks! You must be strong and objective. Clothes that aren't serving you need to be purged to make room for valuable, well-suited clothing. Note that the fact that you are undecided on this pile indicates that you don't love it, which means you should be able to get rid of more than half of it if you're fierce in your decision-making process. Once you've culled the pile, you should have a whole bunch of clothes that didn't make the cut back into the closet. This is where your secret cash stash is hiding.

5. Call a local consignment store and find out what their guidelines are for consigning clothing. Determine if you need to make an appointment or if you can just drop in. Ask how the proceeds are split between you (the consignor) and the store, and you should be able to get at least 50 percent. Ask what happens to your clothes if they don't sell, most consignment stores will donate anything that doesn't sell within a certain period of time to a shelter or another nonprofit organization. You don’t want the clothes showing back up on our doorstep.

7. It’s clear with some clothes that they are not suited for consignment. They will either be boxed up to go to a shelter or non-profit or, if they are torn or in any other way in bad shape, through them away.

8. Last step is a trip to the consignment store of your choice. When back at home let yourself feel the difference of a cleaned out closet, what it represent to you in creating new space for a new you and generating money from what was just hanging around.

Simply Change
Professional Facilitators of Change.