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Personal-finance tips and eco-advice often share a worthy goal: reducing the amount of waste in your life. So with that in mind, we really like Kiplinger magazine’s recent “How to Cash In on Spring Cleaning” column — especially the ideas for using your closet like an ATM.
Among the tips that go beyond donating your old clothes to charity:
Go shopping in your closet for items to sell at a secondhand store. Sadly, a BCBGMaxAzria dress hangs in my closet, for example, having never fulfilled its purpose of being my wedding-rehearsal dress — thanks to my freakishly cold, snow-flurry-filled mid October wedding week in New Jersey. Caught up with the trifling matter of getting married, I never got to return the dress or find another reason to wear it. But the pretty frock may find purpose once again: Originally priced at $238 (forgive me my mild bridezilla-esque splurge), it could resell for about $85, says Derek Kennedy, co-owner of Mustard Seed, a secondhand store in Bethesda, Md.
Typically, clothing will resell for just a quarter or a third of the original retail price, Kennedy says. But handbags may do better — up to half the original price tag. At his store, you get half of the determined resale price for your item upfront. So I would immediately pocket $42.50 from my un-rehearsal-dinner dress. Other stores may offer part of your payment in cash and part as store credit. If you sell to a consignment shop, you’ll have to wait until your item sells before collecting any money.
That way you get to put your gently-used clothes back into circulation and pocket some money in the process.
The columnist also recommends ways to sell jewelry by recycling gold. Brilliant!
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