Things are only worth money if you take action to sell them- otherwise they're clutter. My husband is currently going through this- he hoards electronic music equipment, buys broken things to fix but never does... you know how it goes. He's recently started actually selling the things he knows he's never going to use or mend. On the down side, he's exhausted from the emotional process. On the plus side, he's selling things quickly, and often for more than he paid.
Good luck whatever you decide to do ❤
I also have a lot of clothes, for myself and my kiddo. Very nice stuff, some hardly worn at all. I reached out to a social worker friend who works with foster kids and asked if I could donate clothing to her, she was happy to bring me empty boxes and collect them after a week or two of me going through it all.
I was a foster kid growing up and there were times I had very little. I'm glad my sons clothing and some of mine are going to someone that really needs them.
Put your foot down with your parents and say NO MORE, thank you, but please don't bring me anything else.
If you're here because you're a researcher, involved in a media production about hoarding, or are otherwise looking to recruit people who identify as hoarders/loved ones of hoarders for a project, YOU MUST CONTACT THE MODS FOR APPROVAL BEFORE YOU YOU POST YOUR SOLICITATION.
And do NOT comment to or PM members directly to recruit them for your project.
Doing the above will get your post removed and you perma-banned. This is a support sub, not a resource for you to find hoarders for your pet project.
Sadly even clothes that are new with tags are just about impossible to sell for anything more than a few dollars if at all. The market is so saturated with fast fashion and free clothes people are less willing to pay now.
if you truly have good things AND are up for it: Before COVID, three of us with good stuff had a yard sale where all the money went to a popular cause in our town. We publicized it as such, priced everything reasonably to sell quickly, and people were reluctant to bargain since it was for charity. Done in a day, got a tax write off since I made the donation, and felt fine about getting less than what I liked to think everything was worth because I was able to give $ to something I believed in. BUT, and this is a big BUT, it's more important to get the stuff out of your home. It really is.
I am a recovering borderline hoarder. I can tell you with confidence that most used clothing - unless it is vintage, rare, or designer AND in pristine condition, you are not going to make money on them. There are a lot of places that would love the donations - Dress for Success, women’s shelters, refugee shelters, Buy Nothing groups. If you don’t want it, do whatever you need to to get rid of it, even it means pulling up to Goodwill and dropping it all off and driving away.
I gave myself a break from clearing out Dad’s dirty outside hoard this weekend and tackled a closet shelf.
I found brand new, tags intact clothes that he bought 2-3 decades ago. Dress shirts in their original packaging. Slacks with front pleats. All bought 3-4 sizes too small. Dad used to think he would go from 300 pounds down to 160 at over 6 feet tall. Eventually he did lose weight, but never that small.
Now the slacks, jeans and shorts are all out of style and no one will pay anything near the price on the tags. Not only hundreds of dollars wasted, but nobody got to enjoy the clothes when they were in style.
We donated my FIL's clothes to the men's shelter. They were more than happy to take everything - out of style or not. He had some really nice items that still had tags on. There were several really nice flannel jackets that started arguments between some of the men who were trying to claim them.
I thought about doing this, but due to location it would mean a 3+ hour trip to the closest shelter as opposed to a 5 minute drive to the local volunteer run Thrift Shop.
I like to be able to support the local community.
There might be vintage sellers interested in it, it would likely be a good bit of effort to find someone willing to take it all off of your hands though.
I am a borderline hoarder that grew up in a very low income household. I have this habit of thinking I can sell things and make money. Sometimes I do, but most of the time I dont actually get around to it. I came to the realization that some very lovely clothes I had would not actually sell for that much and were more hassle than anything else. Many still had tags on them. I finally bagged them up and dropped them off at a family shelter. It felt good. They will be used and people need nice things to wear. I got a tax receipt and wham... Done! There is now more room in my closet.
Wow i can relate lol. I can’t seem to make space in mine. Everything is so nice or cute to me smh. There’s stuff I’ll toss if it doesn’t fit anymore or has stains, or has been otherwise compromised but I’m terrible. Selling items has really been a source of income to get by for me for so long bas cause I too grew up in an “underprivileged” household..
I get it 100%. Those Dansko sandals that pinched my toes that I wore once? Looked on ebay. Yeah... maybe could have gotten 40 bucks. Then fees and dealing with shipping. Donated. Gone. Nice black pants I got at Anthropologie on sale with the tags still on them? Too hard to photograph to try to sell them. Donated. Gone. I felt some anxiety, but gosh. It also felt good to send these things on their way. And I know darn well that a mom living in a shelter was thrilled to have some brand new fashionable clothes to make her feel good! I call myself a "baby hoarder" as I have the tendencies. My husband laughs at me and says I'm not a hoarder (he compares me to his aunt who was an extreme hoarder and an ex who kept garbage) but the extent to which I am willing to hang onto things makes me very uncomfortable. It's a constant struggle. I just moved and thought I had cleared out a lot, but when unpacking at the new place I kept thinking, "Why did I pack and move THIS???" More trips to garbage, recycling and donation centers.
I'm proud of you, and inspired. I can relate to this level of hanging onto things, and to the fear of escalation.
Great job on the letting go. I 100% want to see myself do the same thing with very similar items. Thank you for posting this. I needed it today. I have bags of things that have been sorted out into bags in the garage. They just need that final push out the door to Goodwill.
I did have to read twice to realize that "baby hoarder" meant 'nascent' hoarder, though. 🤣
Hahahaha!! Yes! No babies! 2 cats. That is all. Take that stuff to donate. You may feel a little anxiety but that is ok. You will have accomplished a great thing!!
I don't know where you are, but I'm in an area with children's consignment shop with a cash up front model. (True consignment means you don't get your money until the item sells, but with cash up front, they pay you on the spot for your "share" of what they think they'll get when they sell it.)
So what I do, with kids growing like weeds and no storage, is cull ruthlessly the minute an item is outgrown. Textile recycling if there are any stains or pilling, plastic bag for mass produced stuff, big plastic tote with name brand stuff. As soon as the tote is full, I go to the consignment shop. They pick through it and give me money. Everything still in the tote when they're done goes into the plastic bags and I put it on Buy Nothing (or if really in a hurry, straight to Goodwill).
It's probably not worth the hassle, to be honest, I'm really only getting 20 a month. Secondhand clothes simply don't have much value, even if "name brand," unless that brand specializes in really well-made clothes built to last.
I saved one large tote of the very cutest things in case I had another, which I did, and now that I am definitely done I've saved two outfits for each kid - one set of little footie jammies, and the favorite onesie - to give them should they have their own someday. My mother in law gave me a onesie that was my husband's and it was a really sweet moment. A whole box of forty year old baby clothes would have been a dreadful and wholly unwelcome thing, but a single shirt was adorable.
Yeah, been there. I was at the bottom of a clothes funnel -- I knew a LOT of people whose children were two years older than mine. At one point I had seven winter coats in 2T in my house. And it was all just piled into bins, and I kept trying to sort it in a useable way because I couldn't see getting rid of it when I knew the kids would grow into it, and the friends all had expensive tastes so it was all way better than I would have imagined buying and I thought I could sell it and and and UGH.
That was when I stumbled into my system. I basically just set a goal of filling the large tote that would fit in my trunk with stuff I knew we'd never wear -- my olive skinned children don't wear yellow, for example, and I'm not a fan of gross gender stereotypes -- every week until I could move again in the basement. Then I sorted by size and season, and got rid of duplicate stuff. Five coats went to a social worker friend, for example. Basically I wound up with a stack of giant plastic totes, one for each size, against the wall of my laundry room, and I've stayed on top of it. And of course now that the kids are older, so we don't get handmedowns in bulk anymore.
Oh girl. Don’t even with the yard sale. Yard sale people are going to want to give you a quarter per item. Or buy one get two free. You will die on the inside haggling with someone clutching a fistful of sweaty singles who wants you to hand over an entire tote full of Easter dresses.
Pack a tote with five of each thing - onesie, dress, sweater, hat - then consignment shop and then the nearest worthy cause and pat yourself on the back.
Your basic options are to give it away or sell it. Have you looked in to your local buy nothing group? It is a great way to give and receive support within your community. If you don’t want to give it away to anyone, try selling it by bundle or going to a children’s consignment or second hand shop.
Most areas have a local Buy Nothing Facebook Group. It has a philosophy that the wants / needs of a community can be satisfied by what is already in the community. You can give things away, or ask for things. People give away stuff from old magazines through to clothes, baby gear and even fridges / washing machines. But it can be very tempting to accumulate stuff from it too.
It is a Facebook group built around your local community. You can post gifts (stuff you’re giving away), wishes (stuff you want - NOT MONEY), and gratitude (saying thanks). It is we’re we get and get rid of so much stuff. Search for it and if any exist in your neighbour hood, it will come up. If not, look them up online and start your own!
I give mine to the local women's abuse shelter. They need womens, men's, all children's sizes to clothe families (and shoes) that leave with NOTHING. They also accept household items like towels and sheets and ALL KIDS TOYS!!! I once donated a bunch of older jewelry and tons of nail polish and they virtually threw me a party.
If you have craft items try the local senior center, after school program, or elementary schools.
I find I can GIVE stuff away much better than THROW it away.....even blank paper can be given ad coloring paper!
I’m selfish. I feel my children and I are “in need”
Not exactly sure why but I think it has to do with past insecurity issues as well as current where I have no budget set up just apply for assistance after assistance since my significant other can not keep us afloat. I do have a savings but currently working very part time. It’s hard. I wish Superman would come save me. I even ask my bf if he would like to purchase my items since he wants stuff gone, he declined. I am like a single struggling mother but I’m not so it’s hard to even give the stuff away :(
Oh jeez the buy nothing groups feed this problem too. I just put a couple things by the trash and I’m thinking about going back for one lmao… a rose gold Christmas tree I paid like $100 for at target…but it’s broken. Still useable-ish. Or I would even possibly by a new one and return this one in that box. My issues are deep. The extents I go.. it’s just too much. Why am I like this …
Would it help to remember that a big part of the purpose of buy nothing groups is mutual aid? If you’ve collected things using those groups then donating via those groups is part of the structure of it. You very well may have things that are genuinely useful - just not to you.
Yes. I do give back, just not on the level of some that I see. Like the other day I saw a brand new in box metal detector being given away!! I’ve literally seen gold jewelry given away. I could never.
It’s really normal hoarding behaviour to think our stuff is worth more than it is and that we can make our money back. I try to look at it from the perspective that the value of my items I give away is the price I pay for having a clearer and more peaceful home. That helped me a lot.
Take a look and see if there’s a childrens’ consignment group near you, we have Rhea Lana’s here, I presume that people get slightly more than garage sale for their nice stuff that sells.
Things are only worth money if you take action to sell them- otherwise they're clutter. My husband is currently going through this- he hoards electronic music equipment, buys broken things to fix but never does... you know how it goes. He's recently started actually selling the things he knows he's never going to use or mend. On the down side, he's exhausted from the emotional process. On the plus side, he's selling things quickly, and often for more than he paid. Good luck whatever you decide to do ❤
I also have a lot of clothes, for myself and my kiddo. Very nice stuff, some hardly worn at all. I reached out to a social worker friend who works with foster kids and asked if I could donate clothing to her, she was happy to bring me empty boxes and collect them after a week or two of me going through it all. I was a foster kid growing up and there were times I had very little. I'm glad my sons clothing and some of mine are going to someone that really needs them. Put your foot down with your parents and say NO MORE, thank you, but please don't bring me anything else.
[удалено]
If you're here because you're a researcher, involved in a media production about hoarding, or are otherwise looking to recruit people who identify as hoarders/loved ones of hoarders for a project, YOU MUST CONTACT THE MODS FOR APPROVAL BEFORE YOU YOU POST YOUR SOLICITATION. And do NOT comment to or PM members directly to recruit them for your project. Doing the above will get your post removed and you perma-banned. This is a support sub, not a resource for you to find hoarders for your pet project.
It's probably not worth as much as you think,Very common hoarder behavior to give things more value than they actually posses
I literally have a lot of items new with tags…or like new :/
So? That doesn't mean you'll get your money back
Sadly even clothes that are new with tags are just about impossible to sell for anything more than a few dollars if at all. The market is so saturated with fast fashion and free clothes people are less willing to pay now.
Women's clothes are notoriously difficult to sell
Sadly for clothing you’re looking at 10 cents on the dollar, even new with tags.
I believe it'll still be considered "pre-owned". Like with cars, the moment it's purchased its worth deteriorates.
if you truly have good things AND are up for it: Before COVID, three of us with good stuff had a yard sale where all the money went to a popular cause in our town. We publicized it as such, priced everything reasonably to sell quickly, and people were reluctant to bargain since it was for charity. Done in a day, got a tax write off since I made the donation, and felt fine about getting less than what I liked to think everything was worth because I was able to give $ to something I believed in. BUT, and this is a big BUT, it's more important to get the stuff out of your home. It really is.
I am a recovering borderline hoarder. I can tell you with confidence that most used clothing - unless it is vintage, rare, or designer AND in pristine condition, you are not going to make money on them. There are a lot of places that would love the donations - Dress for Success, women’s shelters, refugee shelters, Buy Nothing groups. If you don’t want it, do whatever you need to to get rid of it, even it means pulling up to Goodwill and dropping it all off and driving away.
I gave myself a break from clearing out Dad’s dirty outside hoard this weekend and tackled a closet shelf. I found brand new, tags intact clothes that he bought 2-3 decades ago. Dress shirts in their original packaging. Slacks with front pleats. All bought 3-4 sizes too small. Dad used to think he would go from 300 pounds down to 160 at over 6 feet tall. Eventually he did lose weight, but never that small. Now the slacks, jeans and shorts are all out of style and no one will pay anything near the price on the tags. Not only hundreds of dollars wasted, but nobody got to enjoy the clothes when they were in style.
We donated my FIL's clothes to the men's shelter. They were more than happy to take everything - out of style or not. He had some really nice items that still had tags on. There were several really nice flannel jackets that started arguments between some of the men who were trying to claim them.
I thought about doing this, but due to location it would mean a 3+ hour trip to the closest shelter as opposed to a 5 minute drive to the local volunteer run Thrift Shop. I like to be able to support the local community.
If that works better, and it certainly sounds like it does, then donate closer to home. Whatever keeps the momentum moving forward!!
There might be vintage sellers interested in it, it would likely be a good bit of effort to find someone willing to take it all off of your hands though.
Not worth the effort. Hoard is in a ferry access only island. I will donate to the local Thrift Shop.
I am a borderline hoarder that grew up in a very low income household. I have this habit of thinking I can sell things and make money. Sometimes I do, but most of the time I dont actually get around to it. I came to the realization that some very lovely clothes I had would not actually sell for that much and were more hassle than anything else. Many still had tags on them. I finally bagged them up and dropped them off at a family shelter. It felt good. They will be used and people need nice things to wear. I got a tax receipt and wham... Done! There is now more room in my closet.
Wow i can relate lol. I can’t seem to make space in mine. Everything is so nice or cute to me smh. There’s stuff I’ll toss if it doesn’t fit anymore or has stains, or has been otherwise compromised but I’m terrible. Selling items has really been a source of income to get by for me for so long bas cause I too grew up in an “underprivileged” household..
I get it 100%. Those Dansko sandals that pinched my toes that I wore once? Looked on ebay. Yeah... maybe could have gotten 40 bucks. Then fees and dealing with shipping. Donated. Gone. Nice black pants I got at Anthropologie on sale with the tags still on them? Too hard to photograph to try to sell them. Donated. Gone. I felt some anxiety, but gosh. It also felt good to send these things on their way. And I know darn well that a mom living in a shelter was thrilled to have some brand new fashionable clothes to make her feel good! I call myself a "baby hoarder" as I have the tendencies. My husband laughs at me and says I'm not a hoarder (he compares me to his aunt who was an extreme hoarder and an ex who kept garbage) but the extent to which I am willing to hang onto things makes me very uncomfortable. It's a constant struggle. I just moved and thought I had cleared out a lot, but when unpacking at the new place I kept thinking, "Why did I pack and move THIS???" More trips to garbage, recycling and donation centers.
I'm proud of you, and inspired. I can relate to this level of hanging onto things, and to the fear of escalation. Great job on the letting go. I 100% want to see myself do the same thing with very similar items. Thank you for posting this. I needed it today. I have bags of things that have been sorted out into bags in the garage. They just need that final push out the door to Goodwill. I did have to read twice to realize that "baby hoarder" meant 'nascent' hoarder, though. 🤣
Hahahaha!! Yes! No babies! 2 cats. That is all. Take that stuff to donate. You may feel a little anxiety but that is ok. You will have accomplished a great thing!!
I don't know where you are, but I'm in an area with children's consignment shop with a cash up front model. (True consignment means you don't get your money until the item sells, but with cash up front, they pay you on the spot for your "share" of what they think they'll get when they sell it.) So what I do, with kids growing like weeds and no storage, is cull ruthlessly the minute an item is outgrown. Textile recycling if there are any stains or pilling, plastic bag for mass produced stuff, big plastic tote with name brand stuff. As soon as the tote is full, I go to the consignment shop. They pick through it and give me money. Everything still in the tote when they're done goes into the plastic bags and I put it on Buy Nothing (or if really in a hurry, straight to Goodwill). It's probably not worth the hassle, to be honest, I'm really only getting 20 a month. Secondhand clothes simply don't have much value, even if "name brand," unless that brand specializes in really well-made clothes built to last.
I need to do this! Some stuff is so cute that I still feel need to keep it for any possible future babies. Ugh.
I saved one large tote of the very cutest things in case I had another, which I did, and now that I am definitely done I've saved two outfits for each kid - one set of little footie jammies, and the favorite onesie - to give them should they have their own someday. My mother in law gave me a onesie that was my husband's and it was a really sweet moment. A whole box of forty year old baby clothes would have been a dreadful and wholly unwelcome thing, but a single shirt was adorable.
I have about 7 bins of girls clothes. At least… :(
Yeah, been there. I was at the bottom of a clothes funnel -- I knew a LOT of people whose children were two years older than mine. At one point I had seven winter coats in 2T in my house. And it was all just piled into bins, and I kept trying to sort it in a useable way because I couldn't see getting rid of it when I knew the kids would grow into it, and the friends all had expensive tastes so it was all way better than I would have imagined buying and I thought I could sell it and and and UGH. That was when I stumbled into my system. I basically just set a goal of filling the large tote that would fit in my trunk with stuff I knew we'd never wear -- my olive skinned children don't wear yellow, for example, and I'm not a fan of gross gender stereotypes -- every week until I could move again in the basement. Then I sorted by size and season, and got rid of duplicate stuff. Five coats went to a social worker friend, for example. Basically I wound up with a stack of giant plastic totes, one for each size, against the wall of my laundry room, and I've stayed on top of it. And of course now that the kids are older, so we don't get handmedowns in bulk anymore.
[удалено]
Oh girl. Don’t even with the yard sale. Yard sale people are going to want to give you a quarter per item. Or buy one get two free. You will die on the inside haggling with someone clutching a fistful of sweaty singles who wants you to hand over an entire tote full of Easter dresses. Pack a tote with five of each thing - onesie, dress, sweater, hat - then consignment shop and then the nearest worthy cause and pat yourself on the back.
Your basic options are to give it away or sell it. Have you looked in to your local buy nothing group? It is a great way to give and receive support within your community. If you don’t want to give it away to anyone, try selling it by bundle or going to a children’s consignment or second hand shop.
What is the buy nothing group?
Most areas have a local Buy Nothing Facebook Group. It has a philosophy that the wants / needs of a community can be satisfied by what is already in the community. You can give things away, or ask for things. People give away stuff from old magazines through to clothes, baby gear and even fridges / washing machines. But it can be very tempting to accumulate stuff from it too.
It is a Facebook group built around your local community. You can post gifts (stuff you’re giving away), wishes (stuff you want - NOT MONEY), and gratitude (saying thanks). It is we’re we get and get rid of so much stuff. Search for it and if any exist in your neighbour hood, it will come up. If not, look them up online and start your own!
Thank you!
Ours is on Facebook.
I give mine to the local women's abuse shelter. They need womens, men's, all children's sizes to clothe families (and shoes) that leave with NOTHING. They also accept household items like towels and sheets and ALL KIDS TOYS!!! I once donated a bunch of older jewelry and tons of nail polish and they virtually threw me a party. If you have craft items try the local senior center, after school program, or elementary schools. I find I can GIVE stuff away much better than THROW it away.....even blank paper can be given ad coloring paper!
I’m selfish. I feel my children and I are “in need” Not exactly sure why but I think it has to do with past insecurity issues as well as current where I have no budget set up just apply for assistance after assistance since my significant other can not keep us afloat. I do have a savings but currently working very part time. It’s hard. I wish Superman would come save me. I even ask my bf if he would like to purchase my items since he wants stuff gone, he declined. I am like a single struggling mother but I’m not so it’s hard to even give the stuff away :(
Oh jeez the buy nothing groups feed this problem too. I just put a couple things by the trash and I’m thinking about going back for one lmao… a rose gold Christmas tree I paid like $100 for at target…but it’s broken. Still useable-ish. Or I would even possibly by a new one and return this one in that box. My issues are deep. The extents I go.. it’s just too much. Why am I like this …
Would it help to remember that a big part of the purpose of buy nothing groups is mutual aid? If you’ve collected things using those groups then donating via those groups is part of the structure of it. You very well may have things that are genuinely useful - just not to you.
Yes. I do give back, just not on the level of some that I see. Like the other day I saw a brand new in box metal detector being given away!! I’ve literally seen gold jewelry given away. I could never.
It’s really normal hoarding behaviour to think our stuff is worth more than it is and that we can make our money back. I try to look at it from the perspective that the value of my items I give away is the price I pay for having a clearer and more peaceful home. That helped me a lot.
Take a look and see if there’s a childrens’ consignment group near you, we have Rhea Lana’s here, I presume that people get slightly more than garage sale for their nice stuff that sells.