This is part of my series on Decluttering Mental Models.

tl;dr: You’ll only earn a few bucks per hour selling your clothes, and you have better things to do with your life. Don’t sacrifice having a decluttered home today for mountains of unwanted clothes and a ton of low-wage work.

Hey friends!

Today I’ll explain why selling your clothes is a waste of time when you want to declutter your home.

So let’s assume you went through your bins, drawers, and closets and made a few enormous piles of unwanted clothes. Or maybe you have two dozen garbage bags of clothes you’re itching to ditch. Either way, you’re ready to get rid of these items for good!

But are any of these clothes worth selling? Could you earn some quick cash with minimal effort?

The short answer is: No. None of your clothes are worth selling.

If you already agree, then skip the rest of this post. Instead, watch this video of adorable puppies.

But if you believe some of your clothes must be worth selling, keep reading.

So the question is: Which clothes are worth selling?

The easiest way to answer this is with a thought experiment: Imagine I run a business selling clothes online, and I’ll hire you for $15 per hour. You ready to work for me?

Now each item sold consumes about an hour of your time. A smart employee will take and upload good photos, write a good listing, check that the price point is competitive, answer questions from potential buyers, process transactions, and ship the item to its new owner. All of these activities add up to about an hour.

(Exciting, right? You’ll love having an extra job selling clothes!)

So if you can earn $15 from an item, then sell it. Otherwise, toss it into the donate/recycle pile. This is a good baseline.

But let’s go a step further. Half of the stuff you list online will never sell. So for two shirts, you’ll spend close to two hours on photos, listings, talking with potential buyers, etc. In the end, you’ll want $30 in your pocket. This means you need to list your shirts for $30 each.

How many of your shirts will realistically sell for $30? If you’re like me, the answer is a big fat zero.

This is why selling clothes is a massive waste of time. You’ll only earn a few dollars per hour, and you wouldn’t accept a part-time gig that pays less than minimum wage.

Worse yet, you’re stuck storing clothes you want to be rid of. You’re stuck with clutter. This goes against the whole point of decluttering!

I mean, just imagine that I’d pay you $50 to store a dozen bags of my old clothes. Would you do it? No way! So don’t sacrifice having a decluttered home today for mountains of unwanted clothes and a ton of low-wage work.

Next, let’s walk through some common objections.

But Stewie, what about consignment stores?

By now, you can probably guess my response: Can you earn $15 an hour with consignment stores? If so, then go for it!

Personally, none of my clothes are nice enough to make it worthwhile.

But Stewie, what about bundling items together?

Sure, that’s an option. Bundle 10 T-shirts together and sell them for $30, right?

But who’s itching to buy this unique lot of 10 used T-shirts? And how will they even find this particular listing? Odds are, your bundle won’t sell. Besides, buyers are notoriously picky and have near-limitless options. In a few weeks, you’ll be trapped with loads of bundles of clothes.

To make it worthwhile, you probably need to sell bundles for $90. But who wants a $90 bundle of clothing? Seriously, this is a losing battle.

But Stewie, this name-brand shirt has tags on it. Ross sells it for $14, so surely I can be like Ross and quickly sell it for $7, right?

Not likely.

Here’s why: A typical Ross location has 29,000 square feet and has hundreds of people walk in every day. And yet, this shirt might sit on their racks for weeks or months before selling.

Can you persuade hundreds of people to view your listing every single day? Do you want this shirt cluttering your closet for months until it sells for a few bucks? Or do you want a clutter-free home today?

I know you want to sell your clothes, but you’re not a clothing store.

But Stewie, what about a garage sale?

That’s an option. But not a great one.

Here’s why: A successful garage sale will gobble 15 hours of your time. Think about how long it takes to make signs, put signs up, price everything, put everything outside, have the actual sale, bring unsold items inside, take signs down and dispose of them.

Will you earn at least $225 ($15/hr x 15 hours) from a garage sale? Or will it be a low-wage gig on top of everything else you have to do?

Do you have the emotional energy to haggle with strangers who think $1 is way too much for a shirt with tags still on it?

Worse yet, do you really want to hoard bags and bags of unwanted clothing for months beforehand? Do you want to be stuck with all the clothes that never sell? You shouldn’t. Your home is not a storage unit for crap that other people might not even want!

More Decluttering Mental Models:

Top 10 Favorites

  1. How I answer the question: “What if I need this later?”
  2. “The Container strategy” will simplify your decluttering
  3. Selling clothes is for suckers (unless you earn $15/hour)
  4. Wait 48 hours before buying stuff
  5. 21 questions to ask before you buy
  6. The radical way to measure wealth, part 1 and part 2
  7. We’re trained to be dissatisfied with what we have (and how to fix this)
  8. Clear clutter by zoning your home
  9. How screen time kills your motivation to declutter
  10. Dear car dealers: I don't want a "free" T-shirt with your logo

Get started

  1. Clear clutter by zoning your home
  2. How I answer the question: “What if I need this later?”
  3. “The Container strategy” will simplify your decluttering
  4. Hold each item and ask, “Does this spark joy?”
  5. When the “Does this Spark Joy?” fails you, ask these 6 questions
  6. Create your “Discard by Feb. 2022” box
  7. Decluttering yearbooks? Ask these 8 questions first

Shopping

  1. 21 questions to ask before you buy
  2. Wait 48 hours before buying stuff - version 1 and version 2
  3. How a grocery shopping list saves me time, money, and pounds

Manage your clothes

  1. Selling clothes is for suckers (unless you can earn $15/hour)
  2. Dear Dude with too many T-shirts: no one wants to buy them—just recycle/trash them
  3. Don't be like my friend Giorgio with his 400 Hawaiian shirts
  4. None of my clothes "spark joy"—so what do i get rid of?

Happiness & satisfaction

  1. Limit pleasurable things so they don’t lose their novelty
  2. We’re trained to be dissatisfied with what we have (and how to fix this)
  3. Craving never stops and my potato chip addiction
  4. Reminder: happiness levels stay consistent

Get motivated

  1. Want to boost your motivation to declutter? Immerse yourself in decluttering videos, podcasts, & books!
  2. How screen time kills your motivation to declutter
  3. Imagine your ideal home… Imagine all the clutter is gone…
  4. Feeling unmotivated? Declutter with a 5-minute time box

Manage your money

  1. The radical way to measure wealth, part 1 and part 2
  2. Save money by controlling aspirational identities
  3. I wasted so much money starting projects (and how I fixed it)

Manage consumption spirals

  1. How consumption spirals work
  2. Buying a house led to an enormous consumption spiral
  3. How craving completeness drives my consumption

Shift your Paradigm

  1. Change your environment, change your consumption
  2. 3 thought experiments to adopt a decluttering mindset
  3. Your home is not a storage unit for other people's crap!
  4. Before you buy stuff, do this little mental exercise
  5. Less space, less stuff
  6. That’s right, you and I pay for the privilege of seeing viagra ads
  7. Your home is an expensive container for your stuff. What’s your cost per sqft?

Manage your emotions

  1. Can you tolerate boredom?
  2. Fill the void with a long term goal

Control the Clutter

  1. Dear car dealers: I don't want a "free" T-shirt with your logo