How Your Junk Is Costing You Money

Once you begin looking, it will likely take a lot longer than a few minutes to go through everything and you will find yourself with a large pile of stuff that you no longer need. If this is the case, here are some options to get rid of it.

Sell it: If the item still has value for someone else, sell it. You can do this through auction sites such as eBay, listing it on classified sites such as CraigsList, having a garage sale or listing it in your local newspaper. If you don't want to go through the trouble of selling your stuff yourself, there are a growing number of individuals and businesses that will sell your stuff for you on eBay for a percentage of the profits.

Give it to charity: If you don't think it is worth the effort to try to sell, consider donating your stuff to a charity. Doing so will help a good cause, plus has the potential to get you a tax write-off. Qualified charities such as Goodwill and the Salvation Army are possible places to which to donate your stuff, and there should also be a number of local charities that may be interested in your items.

Consignment shop: Another option (especially if you have nice clothes) is to take them to a consignment shop that will sell them for you and give you a portion of the proceeds.

Give it away: If you simply want to get the stuff out of your house as soon as possible, you should easily be able to give it away for free. Using sites likes CraigsList or Freecycle is a good way to find plenty of people who would like to relieve you of the stuff, no matter what it is.

Once you have sold or given away all the stuff you no longer need, you need to make sure that you don't begin accumulating new useless stuff again. Here are some things you need to ask yourself before you decide to buy something new:

• Do you need it?

• Will you use it?

• Will it simplify your life?

Getting rid of junk and learning not to purchase stuff that you aren't going to use should free up a significant amount of money in your budget. This money can be used to save for retirement or invest, and ultimately to buy those things that you really do need and will use.