Donating via "Give Back Box"

This year, I'm ending 2016 on a good note. This comes in the form of donating my old clothes to Goodwill via a program called Give Back Box.

Let me put it this way: Did anyone else end up with shipping boxes after the holidays and don't know what to do with them? Well, Trent and I did - we ordered a lot of our presents to each other online this year, so we had a few shipping boxes left over.

Normally, we would take them out with all of our recycling. But just recently, I saw an ad for Give Back Box. The idea is pretty cool. If you have leftover boxes from the holidays or ordering things online, you can fill them with clothes or other items you no longer need and send them to Goodwill for a donation. And the shipping labels are completely free - you just go to the website and hit the button for "Print a label," then fill in your name and address into the online form. It generates a shipping label, and you can take it to the post office and send it off!

I decided to participate in the program, since I have been wanting to get rid of some clothes in my closet. I'm running out of closet space, and hangers. :)

So today, I had the day off work and ended up sending a couple of Amazon shipping boxes full of old clothing (and a purse) I no longer wanted.

It not only gives you the satisfaction of helping people that might not be able to afford brand new clothes, but it lets you start fresh and clear some space, too, without making the trip to a Goodwill store (specially if you live at least 20 minutes away from one, like we do!).

And it doesn't matter how big your box is, or what the weight is. You can pack those boxes full of clothes, accessories, or household items, and the shipping is always free.

So, if you're interested in donating, you should totally go to the Give Back Box website and get started. Happy 2017 everyone!

Yard Sale, a Success After All

So we totally did not think we'd be able to have the yard sale this weekend. There was rain in the forecast all week long (an 80% chance most of the time), and chances of isolated rain or thunderstorms. And we don't have an alternate, like a garage or anything of that nature, that would be large enough to house all of our stuff. I advertised the sale to be Saturday May 16 and Sunday May 17, but if it rained, we would have to move it to next weekend. I think we were checking the weather forecast every few hours.

As of Thursday night we were pretty confident we'd just call the sale off this weekend and wait until next week. But then the forecast started changing on Friday and it didn't have any rain chances until the afternoon. So we decided on Friday that we'd start getting ready and set things out early Saturday morning.

We finished getting things ready Friday night and I posted an ad on Craigslist and printed signs off to hang Saturday morning.

The ads were fairly descriptive, and I included a map and pictures of some groups of items, like books, clothing, and a couple of larger items.

Most of the books I priced at .25 to .50 cents and they sold like crazy. One family bought almost all of the books we had. Haley had a lot of Teen girl novels, and Trent had a whole collection of Goosebumps books, and they all sold!

Most of the clothes I also priced pretty cheap, .25-.75 for most tops, and the nicer things $1. Dresses were priced at $1.00-3.00.

I ended up advertising in one of the local papers, on Craigslist, and I also posted the sale on a Facebook Buy and Sell group.

We got up in the wee hours Saturday (about 5:30), and started putting out tables and all of our stuff! There weren't any real rain chances until the afternoon, but the sky was pretty cloudy. There were comfortable temps though, in the 70's and a little breezy, so it felt pretty much perfect, albeit a little humid. I was pretty sure it would rain in the afternoon by the way things looked.

We got everything set up in time though, and started at 8:00 am. Trent's aunt brought some things over, and Haley and I had a ton of stuff, girls' books, Ladies and Juniors clothing, kids' stuffed animals.. and Trent and I had some misc. household items..Trent brought things out from the shed, like his old chair and ottoman, and a desk. We also put his old dresser and nightstand up for sale, $15 for the set.

Someone did buy the kids' bedroom set, but the chair we ended up sitting out on the curb for free at the end of the sale. (A couple hours later, it was gone).

We actually had quite a bit of traffic in the morning. It was pretty steady right at the start of the sale, and after that we'd have a few families stop by. Several kids found a bunch of things they liked and their parents willingly paid for them!

Luckily the rain held off for the entire day! It even became sunny late morning, and turned into a really nice, summer-like day. The afternoon wasn't very busy at all, though. We waited for a while, and my parents came over to visit. About mid-afternoon we decided to pack the rest of it all up, and we took all of the tables down and moved everything onto the porch.

I have to admit the entire day was pretty exhausting! We felt like we got a workout in, with all of the running around, putting things out there and taking them all down again.

My parents helped us clean up after the yard sale, and after they left we took down all of the signs we put up along the sides of the road. We went to the gas station for some ice cream, then tried to relax for a little while and get cleaned up since we both felt a little gross after working out there in the heat. That night we went across the street to Mark and Sandy's and grilled out, then we all took the dogs for a walk around town. It was a long but overall pretty fun day!

We decided not to have the sale again on Sunday, since Saturday was long enough and we were all exhausted by the end of it! It always seems like a good idea, but by the end of the day I wonder why again, did I go through all of this trouble to make a few bucks and get rid of a few things? I guess it was fun though, and you might as well make a few bucks before giving the rest away.

Our main goal was to get a start in cleaning out the upstairs bedroom, so I definitely think we made a good start on that, especially since the dresser and nightstand sold, along with my plastic pink storage shelving that I had from the college days. Those things took up quite a bit of space, so I'm glad to have them gone.

Overall I'd consider yesterday a success. Haley and Trent made $35-$38 bucks each, Sandy and Brennan made around $20 or so, and I made $86, so if you compare this year's sale to our first sale back in the fall of 2012, we did a little better this time all around. But of course, it's a lot of work! And now, I get to sort through everything that's left and decide what to keep and what to give to charity. Most things obviously, will go to charity, but there may be a few clothing items, etc. that I'll still be able to sell on eBay. And there are also several items left over from Haley's wedding that I will try to sell online.

If you're thinking about having a yard sale in the future, just remember that it's more work than you think! It can be fun though, and if you're in a more populated area, you could get rid of quite a few things. You just have to decide if it's all worth it for you in the end. You can check out my post about our first yard sale for some more tips!

eBay Selling Update: Two Months In

Hello all and Happy Good Friday! I have the day off work today, so I will be headed to town this afternoon to run a couple of errands. For now, though, I'm back with another monthly update about selling things online (See my first one here). Warning - It's about to get a little technical and financial up in here, 'cause I'm sharing all the juicy details.

I started at the beginning of February, so have been selling my old, unwanted stuff online for about 2 whole months now. I posted my old, gently used clothes, wallets, shoes, etc. on both Threadflip and eBay. To date, I have not sold a single thing on Threadflip. On the other end of the spectrum, I am selling things almost daily on eBay, and it's been really successful for me so far.

During the months of February and March, I've netted about $360.00, but that doesn't mean I profited that much. There are also Selling fees that eBay charges and invoices you once a month - this could be .40 or so every time you list an item for sale. Then there are shipping fees and supply costs to factor in, too. I've paid about $30 in seller fees, and about $200 to ship my packages out. So with those expenses, I've estimated that in the past two months, I've profited about $120.00. Not too bad, right?

I'm definitely going to continue selling things on eBay as long as I have things I want to get rid of. It feels good to clean out my closet and get rid of clutter that's just sitting around taking up space. That $120.00 was just sitting in my closet! Here are just a few items I've been able to sell and make some cash on so far:

What's really helped is that I've been keeping a spreadsheet to keep track of expenses, and eBay also keeps track of sales for you, too. Here's what it says I've sold over the last 30 days:

I know it's only been a couple of months, and it was hard to get going at first just learning all this stuff, but during the month of March I really got into the swing of things. By now, I pretty much feel like a professional. ;) In February, just starting out, I sold about 10 items. In March, I sold 30 items. My goal is to continue selling this spring, then in early summer, have a yard sale with what's left. After that, we'll probably take most of it to Goodwill.

Selling my unwanted stuff not only clears up space, but it gives us a little extra cash for the honeymoon, and to do extra things, which is always nice. I've profited about $3 per item, where I would have made maybe .25-.50 per item at a yard sale. Plus...I got a gold star. :) Check it out:

That's due to my customer feedback ratings, which are 100% positive. And, I couldn't have done it without Trent, who's been taking every package to the post office to be shipped, since I'm not able to because of work. I'm trying to figure out a method where I can do it all online, but since I don't have my own scale, it would be almost impossible to figure out accurate shipping costs. I may have to invest in a scale if I want to do it longterm! I'm hoping I'll only be selling seriously for another month or so, though.

On the bright side, I'm helping out the local town post office, which I know the post master appreciates. I met her at the gas station the other day, and she thanked me for my business! Always good to support the local post office. :)

I'm sure I'll be back with another eBay update sooner or later....Have a great Friday everyone!

Selling Stuff Online: My First Month

I may not have worked on many crafty or house related projects lately, but I've been doing a lot of two things: wedding preparation, and getting rid of things! I've recently started an attempt to get rid of old clothes and items that are just laying around the house. An early spring cleaning, if you will. I've put some of my nicer, brand name clothing on a site called Threadflip, and I've been putting pretty much anything and everything on eBay. Not a whole lot, but maybe 8-10 or so items at a time, during a 5 day period. I could have just taken everything to Goodwill, but I figure, why not try to make a few bucks on things that are just lying around the house? I've never sold anything online before, so I thought it would be fun to try.

I decided against Craigslist or local swaps, since I'd rather not meet strangers in person to exchange items..I know a lot of people use those methods, but ya never know what shady stuff can happen out there! So I just decided to put things up for sale online and ship it out. I started at the beginning of February. I put clothes on both Threadflip and eBay. The verdict? I have yet to make a sale on Threadflip, but I've sold 6 items on eBay so far! I've netted almost $100 on just 6 items, and with shipping costs, I've profited about $50. Not too bad for items that were just laying around the house not being used!

I've found that I really like selling and shipping things on eBay! It's such an easy way to make some extra cash, and it takes a lot less time than I thought it would.

On the other hand, I was kind of bummed that I haven't been successful on Threadflip this first month. I've found myself taking things off of Threadflip and putting them on eBay instead. I really like the clean look of the website, so it's kind of disappointing, but eBay has been much more successful for me!

Here's a peek at my Threadflip closet - much cleaner than eBay, right? Super disappointing, but eBay just has such a larger market.

I'll admit it was a little challenging when I first started a few weeks ago, and it was a learning experience once I made my first sale. But, it was something I learned as I went, and I'm now beginning to get the hang of it. It was pretty exciting to see that first email come in saying that I got my first sale!

Trent's been a big help, taking all of my packages to the post office after I get the items all packaged up and ready to ship. I don't get home until 5:00, so the post office is closed by the time I'm off work. Nothing like that relief to let go of something that's just sitting around taking up space!

Still thinking about having a yard sale this summer, too. Of course the items that don't sell in the end, I will probably end up taking to the local Goodwill...no sense in holding onto them any longer. 

So, that's my latest hobby. Kind of fun finding things to sell, and even more exciting when they actually sell. I highly recommend it! It doesn't have to be intimidating. I've been wanting to do it for a long time, and all it took was just taking photos of the stuff and posting it. Maybe I'll have another update in a couple of months. We'll see what happens!

Thrift Store Additions

In the last few years, I have really become a fan of antiquing and thrifting. (check out all of my antiquing adventures here, including this one) It kind of started with my collecting of pretty vintage plates, and then my owl and ceramic/brass animal obsession...and then with the wedding planning this past year, I've been scouring yard sales, thrift shops, antique stores, and flea markets looking for vintage milk glass vases and other items for the wedding.

Last weekend we had some time to do a little shopping while in the cities, so we decided to stop at the local Goodwill to see if there were any good deals or anything we could use for the wedding. One thing I was looking for was a cake stand, or any platters or candlesticks or other materials to DIY one. I didn't really find those, but I did find a couple of really cheap decor items for the house, so it wasn't a total loss!

This basket of pinecones was $3.88. I've been kind of obsessed with pinecones this winter, especially for Christmas decor. I was originally just going to use the pine cones and put them in a big vase or bowl or something, but I actually ended up liking them the way they were in this basket. So I'm leaving them this way for now.

I also found this little gold decorative bowl for only $1.88. You know how I've been loving gold in our living room lately! So I was pretty excited about this little find. I think I'm going to put some potpourri or something inside.

So for a little over $5, I was able to add a little to the living room decor...not bad, right?

Most Recent Antique Store Finds

Hello lovelies. It's really starting to look and feel like fall out there. Still have mixed feelings. It gets dark at an ungodly hour these days, and today it rained nonstop all day and was a chilly 60 degrees most of the day. It shall be winter soon...Lord help us.

Anywho, wedding planning has been in full swing and is going smoothly, although nobody really likes to play the waiting game....but we all know how that goes. So I've mostly been on the hunt for milk glass vases, which we will be using for our centerpieces. Our wedding "theme" is "Vintage garden elegance," so I'm going to be collecting assorted vintage milk glass vases for the tables to hold tons of pretty flowers.

The Knox County / Spoon River Scenic Drive was last weekend (an awesome event with tons of flea markets and yard sales), and that was quite successful for finding milk glass, as well as some pretty cool vintage pieces for the wedding, including an old faded green, paint-chippy shutter which I thought would make some pretty cool decor and a way to display photos of us. And an old wooden box I think would be great for holding cards.

I also checked out a couple of antique stores this weekend we had never been to, including Skeleton Key Art & Antiques in Rock Island, and Living Vintage in Eldridge, Iowa. Both stores were really great, and I found a ton of milk glass at Skeleton Key. I only found one vase at Living Vintage, but they had some awesome restored vintage furniture there.

Here's my total loot from the Scenic Drive, and my recent Antique store trip:



You can see the card box and the shutter behind ALL of my new milk glass vases! All that stuff was well under $100 thanks to some awesome deals. The old shutter was $10, the wooden box was $12, and the vases were anywhere from .25 to $7 for a couple of the larger ones. Most were $1-$2. Not too shabby.

This next find isn't wedding related but at Skeleton Key, I saw this unique owl necklace and had to have it! It truly looks one of a kind, and may very well be. I love the gold/mint green combo, and this owl is so flippin adorable!

It was $16.99 but I decided to get it, because I would probably never see anything like it again, and I was already smitten with my new owl friend.

So those were my recent antique/flea market/sale finds. What have you found lately that's super unique?

My First Yard Sale Experience

Yard sales. Love going to them. I love seeing other people's trash-slash-potential treasures, and finding some good deals. I have lots of good memories from helping with yard sales and also going to them with my grandma. We sold our old toys and clothes every summer and my sister and I would work at the cash table. My grandma was always the lady who circled all of the good sales in the paper and went out at 7:00 am Friday morning to hit all the sales in town. Believe me, I would do that if I could. In fact, I just might when I retire :) Anyway, since it's yard sale season now, I thought I would finally share my first experience having one! Last year, I hosted the first yard sale at our house. This is the only photo I have of the experience, unfortunately:

It was the end of September when I finally got around to having it, so it was a little chilly but still nice out, which was good. I had it on one day (Saturday) only, although I would have liked to have it Friday as well, but due to my regular 9 to 5, that was kind of impossible.

I also would have liked to have Trent helping me, but he had to work that day, so I enlisted my sister Haley, who also put some items in the yard sale as well. (Tip #1 I have for you: Multi-family sales are always good to provide a little more variety, more stuff to sell, and will probably draw more people in!)

Like most people, I chose to have a yard sale because I had tons of stuff sitting around and taking up space! I also had a lot name brand clothing I wore in high school and college that were still in really good condition, so I figured, why not try and make money from first them instead of just giving them away?

It's hard to believe so much work goes into having a yard sale, but it really does. I think I was preparing for maybe a month! Preparation included the following steps:

1) Gathering up everything I wanted to sell
2) Marking prices on everything with tape and a marker
3) Placing an ad in the local paper
4) Snapping a few photos of some items, then posting them in a Craigslist ad
5) Making a sign advertising the sale and posting it at the post office
6) Making signs for the street and putting them out the night before yard sale day (Pictured above are the signs that I made and put out on the street corners - Tip #2: Make them bright and bold so you can see them from a distance!)
7) Setting up tables outside (the day before)
8) Setting out all of the items (the day/ night before)
9) Getting everything ready for the cash table - spare cash and change, a calculator, notebook and pen, chairs, and Tip #3: I put out free donuts and hot chocolate for anyone who wanted them. I don't know if that's really a tip, but I just thought it would be fun, and you can always snack on them, too. :)

See all those steps?? Talk about a lot of work. I told Trent I think I was doing nothing but yard sale prep after I got home from work the entire week of the sale. You couldn't even talk to me - I was too busy going through clothes, marking, taking photos, making signs, etc! Haha.

In the end, I made about $80 after one day of selling. I considered that pretty good, since a lot of my clothes sold that were priced at .10-.50 each, so I didn't have a whole lot left over in comparison. We live in a small town so the traffic wasn't constant throughout the day - It was really busy in the first couple of hours, then really spaced out after that. My last tip - Price things low if you want to get rid of them! And if it's later in the day and people keep passing them up, price them down lower. That $80 was extra spending cash for me, so I was happy. I ended up taking most of my things that didn't sell to Goodwill afterward.

Overall, I don't know if all of the hard work that you put into having a yard sale is completely worth it, unless you live in a more populated area (unlike I do). It's just hard to get the traffic and people that like to spend money around here in Small town USA. Moral of the story is, I think it will be a while before I have another one. Maybe next year, but I think I'll pass this summer!

Young House Love's Macklemore Thrift Shop Challenge!

Woo! So excited to finally be able to take part in one of these :) 

I've always been jealous of all those bloggers getting to join in on those "link party" things and start to think..'Maybe I should start blogging again..' Well, now I can finally participate! Woot -

So I knew I HAD to do this challenge that Young House Love created, inspired by this awesomely catchy song - "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Here's the music video if you have no idea what song I'm talking about:

Uh, yeah..all week long I've been singing, "I'm gonna pop some tags, only got twenty dollars in my pocket...." It's so totally one of those songs that gets stuck in your head all day!

Anyway, The rules for the challenge were as follows:

1.) Go to a thrift shop with, as the song says, "$20 in your pocket."

2.) Spend your $20 however you want. But you can't go OVER $20.

3.) Find one or more items referenced in the song and take a picture. For example, it can include: a keyboard, a knee board, shoes with velcro, a brown leather jacket, moccasins, a big a$$ coat...etc. (You know, the usual.)

So, on Saturday we decided to check out the Salvation Army. Which is always interesting. Here's me in all my squintiness and my 20 buckeroos:

Step ONE - DONE!

I wasn't really looking for anything in particular, but always like to browse thrift stores for some things for the house. And I ended up getting these two lovely items:

1. A small table lamp that I plan on using in the eventual guest room upstairs.

2. This funky black vase that I just thought was really modern and cool looking!

I'm not sure where I am going to put the vase yet..right now it's just kind of sitting in the living room. But I hope to find a nice little place for it someday :)

I'm really pleased with the two items I got. And I was soo thinking it was going to be under $20. But,  alas, observe:

See the total? Yep, I went 40 cents over!!! :( Stupid tax. I was all ready to hand her over my twenty dollar bill. Oh well! Then it turned out the lamp was missing the pull chain, so we had to pick one up from Lowe's, spending another $5.00 or so. Trent got it fixed though, and it works wonderfully now!

Pitfalls aside though, we did have a pretty good time at the thrift store..

Yep, a BIG A$$ Coat!! Haha. What a weirdo...  :)