Make money cleaning out your closets!

Spring cleaning in the Insomnia house means a lot of purging. Between the boys birthday's and the holidays, come January we are in dire need of a good clean out.

Numero Uno on the list: The closets
Because you need to make room for all the new crap you'll get this year, duh?!

My goal, when cleaning out the closets, is to get rid of stuff but to also make a little extra money if possible. I'm all for donating and handing stuff down, but since I only work part time, I am always looking for ways to make a little extra cash.

First, I go through the closets with a garbage bag and throw away anything that is broken and beyond salvaging. You have to be realistic here. Yes, one mans trash is another's treasure, but in reality, some of it is just crap. Real Crap. In order to be successful at selling your items, you must know the difference between what is treasure and what is crap.
Once I've cleaned out everything out,  I put the things I am going to sell through my own tried and true 3 step process:  Sell it online, have a garage sale, donate/give away the rest. This has generally worked out well for us since we live in the Midwest and have a good 5 months to wait before we can have a yard/garage sale. This system allows me to make the most profit AND get rid of the most stuff.

Below is a list of  ways to get rid of all the treasures you find in your closet! I have tried all of them and here are some of my top picks:

 

 

ThredUp: Thred up is extremely appealing if you are short on time. They send you a bag and you fill it with gently used kids clothes then you send it to them and they list it for you. You get a payout of the sales from your items once they have been sold.
Best for selling: Kids clothes (They are in the early stages of accepting womans clothing also)
Pros: Super easy, they virtually do all the work for you. You can use your payout to buy things from their site, donate the payout to a charity of your liking on their website, or they will credit the money to your Paypal account.
Cons: This site seems to be geared towards higher end brands so it may only be worth it if you have these. Also, you have no control over the pricing or sale and once you send in the bag, it's a done deal. The company donates the clothes they don't use, they don't send them back, so there is a chance you could walk away with less than you wanted for your items (or nothing at all).

 

Ebay: Probably the most well know of the bunch, Ebay is a great place to sell things. The great thing about Ebay is that it is very user friendly and you can sell virtually anything on it.

Best for selling: Anything!!
Pros: Easy to use, lots of options for selling (auction, local listings), can sell almost anything, easy payment services and you can purchase all shipping labels via their site.
Cons: There are fees, though nominal, for listing and selling an item. Also, the site is feedback based which means sometimes first time sellers can have a hard time getting sales with 0% feedback. I always encourage people to make a few purchases through the site to build up feedback.

Craigslist: People have mixed feelings about Craigslist but my experience with it has been pretty positive.
Best For selling: Furniture and big items that are too costly to ship.
Pros: FREE, no fee for listing an item. Easy to use. Good for selling bigger items like furniture.
Cons: Craigslist requires more duediligence than other sites. You will be responsible for responding to emails and setting up a time to make the transaction. Make sure you are dealing with a legitimate buyer and that you are firm in the payment you will accept. In my experience, I only accept cash and I make sure I have talked on the phone a few times with the person. DO NOT take checks and make sure you are safe when you have the person pick up the item. I always make sure that my husband and I are both home and I move the item to the garage so that the buyer can take it quickly without having to come in my home. Tip: If you are having a garage sale, list big items on Craigslist. People can come look at them/pick them up during the sale.

Instagram: I recently discovered a whole lot of #instashops and can't believe I didn't think of it myself. Do a simple search for #forsale, #kidsclothes, #mycloset, etc and you will stumble on a whole community of people selling their gently used items. I even got in on the action (follow me at @closetkarma)
Best for selling: clothes, small items like jewelry and accessories.
Pros: Easy. Snap a picture, name your price and wait.
Cons: Until you get a big following, you may not have many sales. Also, as the seller, you are responsible for the entire transaction. You must commit to a payment method, take care of the shipping and make sure that you are running a respectable business. Word of mouth travels fast on social media.

Amazon: I love Amazon because they have anything and everything that you could possibly want, but did you know that they will also BUY your used CD's, DVD's, textbooks, old electronics and Video Games?? The great thing about this is you can see how much you'd get for them BEFORE you sell them.
Best for selling: CD's, old electronics, DVD's and Blu Rays, video games, textbooks.
Pros: get a quote for your stuff instantly, they provide all shipping labels and costs, get amazon gift cards.
Cons: They don't offer cash payouts, only trade in for Amazon gift cards, so if you are not an Amazon shopper this probably isn't worth your while.



How do you get rid of the things in your house? Do you donate or sell it?

Stop the (p)Insanity!- Food Lovers Paradise

Welcome to the latest addition of Stop the (p)Insanity!

Pinterest is has made dinner time WAY better at my house. My husband has always been an amazing cook but my culinary talents left much to be desired.

Once, I tried throwing chicken nuggets in spaghetti and called it Chicken Parmesan-you get the idea.

There are a lot of things I love about Pinterest, but the recipes are my favorite. I have found so many great recipes that I have kept in our families meal rotation. I love trying a newly "pinned" recipe to see if they live up to the hype.

**Quick Tip: When trying out a new recipe, if you are reading it on a food blog, read the comments too. A lot of people stop at the recipe, but if you scroll down through the comments, you can see all the tips/tricks/troubles previous readers had with the recipe. You may find a better way to make the recipe or you may save yourself some problems after reading what other's did wrong! (And don't forget to pay it forward and go back and comment yourself after trying it!)

Here are a few recipes we have recently tried in the Insomnia household...
(if you click on the picture you will be taken to the recipe)

First up...
Fried Ice cream "casserole"

I'm at a loss for what to call this. Pie? Ice cream cake? Not sure what to call it but it doesn't really matter because it is awesome!
It is pretty easy to make and tastes just like fried Ice cream. It does make a lot so unless you are cooking for a bunch, you could get away with halving the recipe.
Added bonus: it's almost better the 2nd day than the 1st

* The recipe calls for drizzling some honey over it which is good, but chocolate sauce is even better.

Level of pInsanity: Perfect for your next fiesta!

Next up...

This pin has been all over Pinterest proclaiming that it is "better than PF Changs", so I just had to give it a try. Turns out, the hype is true. This is a tasty and really easy recipe. We've made it several times since I found it and here are a few things I've learned along the way:

*Flank steak is a great cut of meat because it is fairly cheap. In fact, after talking with the guy stocking the meat at Walmart, he said if you shop in the morning you can get it even cheaper because they mark it down to make room for the new stuff. For this recipe, try to look for a thinner piece of meat. The thicker the cut, the tougher the meat tends to be.
*Buy the fresh ginger. Yes, you can use the grated, powder stuff. But the fresh stuff is so much better. Buy a fresh piece, cut off what you need and freeze the rest. A little goes a long way, and having the fresh stuff on hand is always nice since ginger can be used for a bunch of other things. (Google it. It has a ton of uses, things you would never think of. It can help with nausea, be mixed into beauty products, or just keep it around for more recipes!)
*Buy low sodium soy sauce. The first time we made this we found it to be way too salty.
*Add a little red pepper flakes. Just a little though. I am NOT a spicy food person, but honestly this dish can get a little too sweet. The red pepper flakes give it the perfect amount of zip!

Level of pInsanity: Definite addition to our meal rotation. Cheaper and (dare I say) much better than PF Chang's- though I'll still go there for the lettuce wraps.

And last up...

These long boy burgers caught my eye because I love burgers and meatloaf. I'm a Midwestern girl-meat and potatoes are my thing. Also? These looked like an awesome accompaniment to my homemade cheesy potato wedges. (So what if I plan my menus around my side dishes sometimes??)

I had high hopes for these "burgers" but they missed the mark. Honestly, the meatloaf mixture was OK but even pre-baking the bread resulted in semi-soggy and greasy bread. I think next time I will just stick to making meatloaf and serving it open faced on bread.

*If you do make these 2 suggestions:
 1.) Use some French's fried onions in the mix. It gives them extra crunch and flavor.
 2.) I used some Sweet Baby Rays on half the burgers and ketchup on the others. My husband and I both agreed the BBQ sauce ones were better.

Level of (p)Insanity: They aren't horrible, but not my cup of tea. So long Long boys!




What great recipes have you found on Pinterest?


You can find all the recipes and pins on the Stop the (p)Insanity board. Follow me on Pinterest for more great recipes!

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