You just wouldn't believe what some people throw away. From great furniture to toys to working Kitchen Aids, nice stuff goes to the dump all the time! A friend in our ward
Bethany introduced us to selling trash. Yes, you read that correctly- selling trash. You can read more about it on her trash blog
HERE, but basically: she and her family find things in the garbage that shouldn't be there, pick them up, and sell them. And then use the money for awesome things like trips to Disneyland/world. So we (I) decided to do the same, but in our neighborhood- you don't just take people's trash that someone else is taking. That's just standard trash bandit etiquette.
So here are just a few of the things I have sold:
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| Mirror- $20 |
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| Oversized lawn chair- $20 |
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| Water table- $15 (should have charged more... I had over 10 people in line for it!) |
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| Bike- $20 |
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| Pool b-ball hoop- $15 |
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| Scooter- $10 |
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| Wrapping paper organizer- $20 |
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| Stroller- $25 (carseat never sold, so I donated it) |
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| Scooter- $10 |
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| Thomas the Train table- $25 |
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| Pet carrier- $10 |
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| Water table- $15 |
I'm part of a facebook group where you can sell items- like an ongoing online garage sale. I try to price things pretty low so that they'll sell quickly (only so much space in our garage) and there's $0 investing from me, except for a little gas. I never take things that are cloth, like couches, and I never pick up electronics. But it's been really fun actually! I've met some really nice people selling the items, and have even found a couple things I've dared to keep.
So what do we do with the money?
We have 3 categories: House Stuff (example: the instawall! Hence that jar only has $1 right now), Fun/Dating, and Food Storage. Someday we can save for awesome trips, but for now these are areas that we feel are important. I am keeping track of my earnings and paying tithing, but I do that all in cash- somehow any extra money deposited into our accounts gets put into savings. That's usually great, but we wanted to have some fun money too!
So think twice before you throw away something of value! It's really a shame what a throw-away mentality we have today as a culture. This way, people get good deals on things they need, I earn money, and these items aren't ending up in a dump! Win win win.
