My house has become a clearing house of sorts.

I have hand-me-downs coming in (read here how the Twofer fight over them), I have hand-me-downs going out to friends with younger kids, and I have hand-me-downs waiting in the wings to be used.

And then...I have HMDs (hand-me-downs) that come back to me from the friends with younger kids.

Twice a year I have to take inventory. This year I'm going to sell some of the HMDs and toys at a local consignment sale. This will require a little more organization on my part but I KNOW it will be well worth it.

Step 1: collect what you want to sell

For me this is the stuff that has been returned from friend with younger kids and that's in good shape. It also means toys the Twofer have fully outgrown and that I'd rather not keep for young visitors...I can't keep it all now can I.

Step 2: sort by age, size, and season

It's almost Spring so anything Fall or Winter will get put back to be sold in September. Yes, this means YET another bag but I can deal with it later. Procrastination isn't such a bad thing. All the Spring clothing looks like this:

spring clothes sorted for consignment

and I've started a lovely pile in my foyer of toys, gear, etc that looks like this:

toys, water safety, roller skates and more for consignment

Step 3: price and label items

For yard sales I stage everything in my garage and have colorful dot stickers where I write the price so people know what to pay where to start haggling. For this consignment sale they've got a very cool online system where you enter information for each item (price, size, description, if you want to donate it after the end of the sale) and then you print out a label with a bar code.

TotSwap.net uses bar code system for tagging

The hardest thing is knowing how to price items. Go here to get an idea of where to start with pricing items and keep in mind what you would pay if you found the item at a yard or consignment sale. For larger items I've done better (made more money) selling them on Craigslist. For smaller items I'm hoping the sale will help me get rid of most of my inventory while still making a little money.

wood work bench and roller skated priced and tagged for consignment

Step 4: get rid of it

Now you are all set to either sell it at a yard sale, at a rummage sale (ie: where the proceeds go to the church hosting it) or consignment sale.

You can also list it on ebay or CraigsList.

Or donate it! You can easily add up the value to use on the donation receipt.

And leave me a comment letting me know where you get rid of your stuff and how. Tips and tricks are appreciated!

Janine

Disclosure: I have a working relationship with Tot Swap that is separate from my blog. All opinions are my own and this post was neither reviewed nor approved by Tot Swap prior to being published.

What do you want MORE of?

Do you want to be MOREfinancially savvy?

Want MORE info on health and exercise?

Want MORE from your career?

If you answered yes to any of the above then check out the MORE Magazine Reinvention Convention for women.

It kicks-off in DC next Monday, March 8th and with it brings speakers that cover all these areas and...

MORE!

Here are just some of the speakers:

Lesley Jane Seymore, editor-in-chief of MORE Magazine

Mika Brzezinski, co-host of MSNBC's Morning Joe

Vice Admiral Regina Benjamin M.D., the 18th Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service

Jean Chatzky, award-winning journalist, best-selling author, and financial guru for NBC's Today Show

Geralyn Lucas, author of Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy which became an Emmy nominated Lifetime Television movie

I wish I could go because many of the speakers will also be doing book-signings but more importantly, this is a great opportunity to invest some time and thought to ME.

Have you done that lately? Me neither.

They are also having conventions in Chicago and New York City so let me know if you plan to go!

Janine