What to Do with Your Purge: Tips for Donating, Gifting, and Selling

to do while you can't go out. Yeah, the Mrie Condo Tidying Up documentary or series, we did a purge and holy smokes, did coronavirus cause us to purge? Also visit Yeah, and we've recently done some episodes on capsule wardrobe and minimalism and all these things. But then it's like, but now, what do we do because we can't just throw all of our stuff out that's not wise. So what do we do with our stuff? We're going to talk about that, but first our sponsors, the Frugal Friends Workbook.

You've heard us talking about this. We're so excited, so we're gonna keep talking about it. The work The Frugal Friends Workbook is officially available you all. It has been for like a week now. The Frugal Friends Workbook is a digital download with six week long challenges that will help you improve your spending, declutter your life, become a better negotiator, have more money conversations with the people in

your life, and so much more. The workbook can be completed on your own, but it is created to be gone through in pairs or small groups because we're the Frugal Friends and everything is done better in pairs and groups. However, if you don't have a partner or a small group, not to worry. If you purchase the workbook during launch week, you will get access to a six week Facebook group where you can find others who have purchased the workbook

and form your own groups. Jill, uh Jen and I will also be available to answer the questions and any questions that you have, guide you through it, and if you're listening in real time, August is the last day to get that bonus, so that is to day, there's still time. Uh so, so let's do this, let's get it done. The workbook is also usually thirty four dollars, but it's the last day and so we are still

offering it at twenty four dollars. So head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash workbook and join the fun. Join us. It's been a good week where I mean, we're recording this before we launched, so we assume it's been a good week in the group and we look forward to seeing you there. So today's at episode is also brought to you by a book of c d s. Looking through your nostalgia and your closet and uh, find a book of c d s maybe Backstreet Boys and

Sank System of a Down. Go through that book of c ds and just and remember all of the memories. Where you in your car when you were listening to it, were you with your friends, were you with that first boyfriend or girlfriend? Oh, just go through and just remember all of the memories, all the fields, and then put that book of c ds in a bag or a box and get rid of it. Book of c ds. It's good for the memories. But like physically, memories are in your head, not in a book, and you can

go and sink from the internet. You can't Spotify. Alternatively, this episode would have been brought to you by Spotify, but that's oh, you know, they don't have to unfortunately, so we get the second tier that's book of CDs. Amazing. Yeah, man, that took up a lot of space. It's amazing how the Internet has helped us to declutter a lot of things. There is no no reason you shouldn't declutter unless to maintain. We don't have to keep up our CD players and

our boom boxes that are broken and have pieces missing. Yeah, so that's what you, I hope have been doing while you've been stuck at home. But like, no judgment. If you've just been watching Netflix also there's absolutely no judgment.

But if you have been decluttering, then we want to go through because we remember when the Marie Condo docuseries came out, thrift stores were super overrun with stuff and it didn't all make it into stores like it didn't it wasn't always used to the best of its ability. And so there are alternatives and we're gonna walk through those today. Uh So, this first article we have is from the Verge. Again. We take the first first page Google,

usually in the top five results. We look at what is in there and then we dissect it because we want to know. We want to help you with your googling. So this one's from the Verge and it's how to responsibly get rid of the stuff you've decluttered. Yes, so we're going to go through all of it um and Yeah, there are some really helpful things in here. So we're gonna start out with tech. So if you've got tech to get rid of, this includes old phones, computers, laptops, TVs,

all of that. Uh, it is important to not just throw them in to the trash. They've got all sorts of components in them that it is better to figure out how we could reuse or recycle or give away um to anyone who might have used for it, and not just throw it into the landfill. So some really

helpful tips on here. You can check for possible manufacturing trade in deals, so like Apple, Android has deals that you can look up by going onto their websites and looking at what kind of trade in deals you might be able to get for that device. Also, you can sell stuff so eBay, Facebook, Marketplace, these are some excellent places to go to even just get a little bit of money for something. You may think, oh, this is,

you know, a very old generation of this phone. Still there might be people out there who are interested in that even for yes, exactly for their children. Um, you know young teens who are getting their first phone. At least in my world that's the case. I'm sure it's probably even younger than that, but young teens is my recommendation for when kids should have their first phones. UM. But yes, it doesn't it doesn't need to be the

highest end thing, so there could be people who are interested. Also, there's other people who out there who just like to refurbish things and can can sell them themselves. So yeah, selling things is an option. Uh. And they list this article list a couple of places where you could consider selling your tech, and we'll have them all linked in our show notes. But they list off a site called the Clutter, which gives you quotes on your tech um and you could decide whether or not you want to

sell through them. They also take books, CDs, DVDs, legos, holy smokes, everybody's called c ds hanging books of CDs. UM. There's another site called Swappa, which charges the buyer, not the seller, although I think the the seller does have to pay, like the PayPal transaction fee um, But primarily it's it's the buyer who's paying the shipping and all that. And then Amazon also has a trade in program, so check out Amazon, although they pay out in the form

of a gift card. But who couldn't use an Amazon gift card? But that's an option to Beyond that, you can also look into just charity giving, giving away, donating if you're not concerned about making money off of it. There's all sorts of places that will take your used tech items. So a couple that this article lists off is UM an organization called Computers with a Cause. There's also an organization called World Computer Exchange Globe Tops. All

of these will take tech items. They might refurbish them and then give them to schools or people in need or other nonprofit organizations that might want to use UM older laptops and have a use for them. Mhmm. Finally, if you've got some tech items that are so old that nobody wants it, well, because you just might yourself be UM older and wiser and have had tech items

in your home for a long time. Uh, some options I might be to recycle those things, so check with your town or your city for a recycling center as it relates to tech items. If all else fails, if you can't figure that out. Check out. There's a website called earth um and they list out nearest recycling centers for different types of items that might be harder to get rid of. And then this one made me laugh. I had no idea, And this is mostly I think

just for chuckles. It is possible that you have such an ancient device that you could give it to a museum. They say that if you've got an old, old BlackBerry cell phone, you name it, it's possible that there's a museum that will take it. So if you have any luck with that, let us know. They mentioned like I had, like a museum for tech items. I mean, that's pretty low on the totem pole of possibilities, but you never know if you've got something. Oh gosh, so your grandma

or granddad's, ho'll see what they have. Anyhow, it's tech. Travis actually, his um our friends gave him a broken Apple watch. It was just shattered like it was. It very much looked like beyond repair, and he went to sell it, and he actually didn't think he could sell it, so he bundled it with a phone he was trying to sell, and somebody just wanted the broken Apple watch and they paid him fifty bucks for it, So don't

underestimate how, how and what people will buy. Some people can fix these things up, and some people will use them for their kids or charity. Just don't like we tend to think nobody wants my old tech, but you don't know that just because you can't fix it doesn't mean that nobody else can or doesn't have a value for it. So see what you can do with that for sure. UM. The next one is a big one clothing, So there. I mean, always we're just giving people giving

the thrift store our clothes. But this article kind of makes an argument for UM dyeing better quality and more expensive clothing, which is something we've we've talked about in our Buying Happiness episode and our Capsule Wardrobe episode that there is merit to actually spending more on your clothing, and that even comes down to when you're ready to get rid of it, because the better quality of your clothing,

the more likely you're actually able to resell it. So at the very very high end UM you can use websites like the Real Reel or Rebag. Those are like very designer UM. But alternatively, you could use posh mark um if if you're not using those like really high end brands, but you have to actually purchase premium brands that are you know, resellable UM. So, so that's kind of like an argument for buying better quality clothes and

and more sustainable products. So spending a little more upfront to purchase from a company UM that's a b corp um or or just like more sustainable um that automatically brings up the value so that when you're ready to get rid of it, you also don't have this sunk cost mentality to where, oh I spent money on it, I have to keep it because I don't want to

just give it to a thrift store. No. Like, at that point, you just spend a little more and your sunk cost becomes always spent so much money on this, I can actually resell it for a little bit more, and essentially you are you're breaking even versus whether you bought a T shirt from Target or a T shirt from like made Well or something like that. So consider

those things when you're shopping. Can you know that you're not going to hold onto an item um for the rest of your life, like your best pieces, you'll hold on to what for macts of ten years. Like that's a really long time for clothing. Uh, so be thinking about where your clothes are gonna go once they leave you. Um, So I'll thank you for coming to my ted talk. No, I like that. I think about that sometimes when I drop things off of the thrift store, Like I want

to give quality things. I don't want to drop drop off my junk. And I think that that's part of it. It starts before you're at the thrift store with just buying quality things but not a lot of it. That's where minimalism comes in, Like it has to be paired. It can't just be spending tons of money constantly. It's spending money wisely, intentionally on things that matter, on simple

minimal like as minimal as possible. But then when it inevitably doesn't suit your needs anymore and you need to give it away, You're not dropping off junk some price, um and having it be someone else's problem to deal with. Yeah, And I'm talking about like when you do buy me, like most of my clothes are second hand. Uh And that's like how I spend money. And then when I purchased something that's nicer and made sustainably, like I don't feel bad about dropping fifty bucks on a shirt, which

I because I rarely do that. UM. I don't feel bad about it though, And I'm always so grateful to the people who have bought really nice clothing and then just gave them to the thrift's store. Because now I've got some really nice clothes from the thrift's door because somebody else made some investment and then paid it forward. Yes, but don't you do that. You sell, you sell your

nice clothes because you're listening to this podcast. UM. But if you're not going to sell it UM for work clothes UM, there are some charities that you can give your clothes to. UM. So if you're in the New York City area, there's Bottomless Closet for women UM and Career Goal for men UM. And the best way to find an organization in your area that takes business clothes to pass on to people is would be Charity Navigator or guide guide star UM. There are also sites like

threat up UM. I don't think it. Threat up is not my favorite for selling clothes. I would It's not something I would recommend. I love actually using threat up to buy clothes UM. I buy a lot of my workout clothes from up. Actually they got really yeah, um, so I love it for buying. Um and actually we have a um a referral link that will post in the show notes um or I mean Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash thread up without the a um and

you can get like ten dollars on your first purchase. Um. So so yeah, I love threat up for for buying, not for getting rid of your clothes uh and to Yeah so then other other than that, another place to give like non business clothes would um maybe be Vietnam Veterans of America. That's probably mostly for like men's clothes. Um.

And then also the site called give back Box. Um. It encourages you to use the box your new clothes were shipped in to send your old stuff like, um, at least five items hopefully can fit in the box, it says, um to a charity. So the site provides prepaid shipping. Um and yeah threat up will send you a bag for for unsellable clothing if you choose that.

But um but yeah, so give back Box is like a cool way that if you do buy some new clothing that comes in a in a box, consider getting rid of some old clothing, and that's just a good practice when you bring a few new items in like getting rid of a few items. This makes that really simple, agreed. Hand. Next category is books. So we always have tons of books, all signs, cookbooks, fiction books, nonfiction books, text books that

seems to be books. Almost sponsored this. It was between books and box and whatever, book of CDs which kind of still was a book. Yeah. So here's some options with books. You can consider selling books. Uh, certainly we would suggest not wasting your time on books that people

don't want and you can't get much money. I mean, they list Amazon as an option, but it is really hard to sell on Amazon if you are not I mean, you do have to register as a seller, and it's hard to compete with like the bigger businesses that are selling books. It is an option if you want to look into it. That actually did I Yeah, so I had textbooks from school and these were like really niche books.

These were acupuncture books, um that I listed on You just get an Amazon seller Central account and then I posted them and it was pretty simple, like all of my books sold. Um. So I would say that books though, that's not more specialized books yeah, yep um. But also other places to sell would be a AB Books or Powells And again I'll have all this linked in our

show notes. But with both of those sites, you fill out like a short form with the books, I s me a number, the condition, and then they kind of give you a quote on what they might be able to sell it for. Then you send it to them, and then once it's sold, they give you the money, so you get a bit of a payout that way. Uh. For textbooks, other options include check or book bite that

you could sell textbooks. It is definitely something that you want to do within very recently after using it, So if you're in school right now, we would recommend that you do this shortly after your semester ends so that people are buying, you know, the latest editions. If your books are, you know, fifteen editions late in the game, might just let me try it. Definitely try it, but probably a little bit better for for more recent editions. And of course, if you're not interested in making money

off of it, there's always the option to give. Obviously, drift stores will take them, but you could also consider places that specifically are designated for receiving books. So there's an organization called Better World Books and they have a list of drop sites that you can take your books too. They're all over Yeah. Yeah, I can picture the drop box, you know, sign in my head and too. Yeah, and that's specifically for books. And then you've got books for soldiers.

So this they actually will send books to soldier soldiers overseas to be able to have some entertainment. Um. Certainly libraries will even take some gently used books and something else that's cool that I've seen, at least around my town. Um, and I'm sure for you Jen as well. People have started these like little pop up take a book, leave a book, or just take a book or just leave books, kind of like these little library boxes that you could take your books too, and that would almost be giving

back to your local community community. Or you could start one yourself if you live in a neighborhood, setting something outside of your house even, um, where you can put all of your books and anybody walking by could take a book if they want. Others could drop books off. Um. So yeah, there's a lot of even creative ideas of what you could do with books if you don't want

to just take them to the thrift store. Yeah, my friend Christine, Actually she's partnered with our local newspaper and so they are are going more digital and so these old um newspaper stands, they're taking them out and they don't have anything to do with them. So she's actually partnered. They're donating um, the newspaper dispensers um to her, and she is creating these little free libraries for people and they can um. People in our city are saying like, oh,

can you paint mine blue or purple? And she's painting them and then dropping them off at houses. And so we're seeing all these new little free libraries and fun colors pop up. So if that's something you wanted to start, definitely reach out to your local library and see if they have any of those uh those little newspaper uh dispenser things that they're looking to get rid of. Nice awesome mm hmm. That's all I got on books, yes, and so last is everything else. So uh for the

next hour, we'll go through I'm just kidding. Um. So, if you really want to sell your stuff, a great place to do it is eBay. For a minute, I didn't think anybody still used eBay. Travis has told me that is completely false. Tons of people use eBay. You just have to deal with shipping. Yeah, I mean, but it's like you know, if you don't have Amazon Prime, you have to deal with shipping everywhere else too. So it's not a big deal, like, well, okay for the seller.

So I'm thinking from a buyer, Um, as a seller, yeah, all you have to do is worry about shipping. But a lot of things fit in those um those pre priced boxes at the post office. Um, you can put bricks in there as long as they says yeah. So uh. The so people who sell on eBay ray from like one time only folks to like professional retailers, and you get up to fifty free listings a month um, and

then after that it's just thirty five cents a listing. Yeah, And so I would I would say save this for things that you actually think are works worth something, and then also be prepared to sit on it for a while, like have a place store like in your garage or something, um, and just wait because you can your listings can run out and then you can realist. Um. So if you think it's worth money, and then then just you have

to be patient. But the way you can check to see if what you have is worth money is that you can go on eBay and you can filter out recently sold and then for for whatever, search for what you're selling and then filter out recently sold and it will only show you the things that have and recently sold, and you can see what the final price was um. And I believe also what they paid for shipping and then just price around there in your golden So that

is that's a secret to selling on eBay UM. And then also you can just give things away for free. So um. Something we didn't mention in a we did a recent episode about like buy nothing groups and stuff, but we didn't mention free cycle um, which was a glaring omission. No, I think that was me. It was

my YouTube video. I did a YouTube video on modern frugality about like how I get so much stuff for free, and like free cycle was the one thing I left out, but that it's a service that introduces local people who have stuff, um to other people local people who want that stuff. Um. So that's really cool. It's kind of like, uh, the neighborhood app does the same thing. Like you can say people in your neighborhood, like I've got this, who wants it and people people can take it and stuff

like that. It's awesome. Yeah, how that is this article? Our next as our next article, um and the options. So this one went through like things specific and right, and now we're going to go through like a place specific. So this is from NBC news dot com and it's post Marie Condo purge. Here's what to do with that unwanted stuff or post COVID per right, you can see why it was the first one to pop up with my with what I put in you can only only guess what I searched. So they have six tips listed

in here. I think all of them are worth it, but we'll do a quick run through of them. The first is to offer your stuff that you don't want anymore to people in your community. So similar to what

we just talked about in the last article. This could be for free or for sale, but we're talking about thinking local who around you might want your things and really, uh, going back to what you just said, Jen free cycle or buy nothing groups on Facebook, UM or neighbors or friends UM, just considering people in your area that might want them in the midst of COVID, I think it's

worth considering porch pickups, porch drop offs. Uh, you know, transaction of payment that can happen digitally, whether that's through PayPal or Venmo or cash app. I know that we've been selling a lot of stuff through our move and it's been super simple to just put in the listing porch pickup, only pay us through Venmo and you really

don't have to interact with that. Sounds awful. That sounds awful. Um, But yeah, depending on people's comfort level with that, and um, yeah, just to kind of be mindful of the various regulations that it can still be done, um in a manner that is respectful of local regulations for something like this. Instead of using Facebook marketplace, I like to use local

Facebook groups. So like, if it's kids stuff, I have a local UM foster parents group that I'm part of and I will get like I will offer it up in their first UM or just a local moms group in general. So if there's like something that you're passionate about, there is probably a local group about it, and you know, on Facebook, and so just look for those. And yeah, I highly recommend local foster parent groups for giving all kinds of stuff gosh, even meals and just offering your services.

Just do that, um, and that brings us to our second point is to give them to friends or swap so you benefit from the deal to Travis went on the neighborhood app and it's a it's a great app if you don't have it, it's it just connects you to your neighbors in your immediate vicinity. And so we have a huge mango tree in our front yard and Travis loves avocados. He also loves mangoes, but like, we

have way more mangoes than we can eat. And he said, I've got these delicious mangoes and I will trade someone for avocados. And now that is right. Now he has more avocados and mangoes than he can eat. So so yeah, oh my god, he is he's selling mangoes because some people in the group we're actually like I don't have avocados but or any other fruit, but like, I'll buy your mangoes. And in my head, I'm like, why don't you just go to all Day and buy some mangoes.

And Travis, it's not local, it's not Travis reminded me some people prefer local, organic produce too regular al deep produce, and I was like, good for them, Okay, but that that is the thing that people do. Um, and I think it's important to like note also, you don't have to do every single thing that we're talking about today. I know this is like starting to sound like a lot um, but you can just pick just your best priced,

best quality items. Um. This is kind of just to break up your purge into like can go to the thrift store, but here's what you do with the other fifty percent. It's not like you need to spend weeks trying to make sure every single thing you're getting rid of goes to the right place or get sold. Uh. We're talking about balance here, so like set a limit and just say like okay or whatever percent is going to the thrift store. But this half I'm going to

actually try and re home sustainably. If I can find a better contentional spot for these things where they will be useful to somebody else, that is kind. It's a kind thing to do. Yeah. So yeah, and then posting on posting on your Facebook profile is a great way to give your things to friends. So and it's not that hard given to friends and swap them. I love it.

I love those swap parties. Third on the list is to repurpose or d I Y. So before you go to trash something or donate something, consider if it could be reused for something else, or if a friend or neighbor or local community member would be interested in using it for something else. The article gives an example of maybe a candle that is all used up, but the candle holder was really cool and could be used as a planter or a catch all for pens or something

like that I know I've done. Or a vase. I've done that. There are some really nice candle now, who's out there? I've definitely done that before. Um. She even gave an example of repurposing an old office trash can into a planter. Um. So yeah, just some some creative ideas that before we kind of think I'm not using this anymore, to think, well, what what else do I have on my list of things that I've been on the lookout for, and do I have anything that might fit that need or do I want to see if

somebody else could use it first? It does require, to your point, jen a bit more work, but I think it can also be helpful to others to consider, Hey, I've got a friend who actually really likes vintage table cloths, or another friend who loves this color, and maybe I should just send them a quick text with a picture of that thing and see maybe they'd want this before I get rid of it. And really that cultivates community

and friendship and kindness and intentionality. That like those ten drils of frugality and purging, those are seeds that are sown that we can't even put a price tag on. So just taking that extra minute to pause and think, is there a way that I could bless another person or be thoughtful or be mindful of others? I think that's just great. It's a great practice that coincides with frugality.

And yeah, we're frugal friends, and that's what frugal friends do. Friends. Uh. This next one is actually one that doesn't get talked a lot about when talking about decluttering, but it's actually very important. So um, this is pertaining to chemicals, UM and toxic materials. If you have a chemical that you maybe thought you would use UM but didn't or didn't use all of and you're not going to need it again, there is a proper way to dispose of harmful chemicals.

You shouldn't just throw them in your trash can. And so most cities will actually have a chemical disposal plant. UM, I know we have one. So we have one. It's uh h cubed A C C c UM. I don't know what all the letters stand for. UM. I know that Miami has one, and they have a resell not a resell, but they have a UM. A lot of them will have a store connected to it where they will take the good ones and citizens can take them for free. Uh. And Miami's is called chem Again. That's

I like that one is called the swap shop. So but yeah, so donating your stuff there and we've gotten a lot of paint, spray paint and regular paint, a lot of bathroom cleaners, kitchen cleaners, dishwasher liquid. So all of these things are things that you should not just be throwing away in your trash can. You should be taking them to a disposal. So you can search your local uh webs local cities website um for chemical disposal

something like that. Um, it's probably at the local dump and see if also they have like a swap shop or a chem again program. And you can also while you're dropping some stuff off, and it's also actually usually the same place where you'd drop off electronics to like old electronics, they're the same place. And then you can stop at the shop and see if they have any you know, cleaners that you need. Win win, Yeah, yeah, I love that. I love that you could reuse them

and or other people can make use of it. It's so great. Number five on this list is to sell or consign. We've talked a lot already about selling, so I won't rehash all of that, but I do want to highlight this consignment idea that and of course websites like threat up and posh mark are that idea. However, if you don't want to go digital, it's worth considering

local consignment shops. So if dealing with shipping as a seller is something that you just don't even want to get into, it could be worth going to your local consignment stores and seeing if they would consign something for you. Of course, you will not get the full profit of what they sell that thing for, but usually you can set the price and say here's what I want to get, and they listed at a higher price, um, and there's you know more exposure of that item and so more

likelihood of it getting sold. So this of course will be for your items that are possibly worth more. I mean, you could try to consign anything, but some examples would be considering consigning your wedding dress or prom dresses or I know, Eric my husband just is currently consigning a drum kit. So there's even a local near us music

consignment shop. So all different types of niches within the consignment world that you could you could consider some of your items that you know are worth a little bit more. Maybe you don't even want to deal with the internet. Yeah, certain your city and consignment and you'll get some results of different types of consignments. Um in there. I know there's a lot for jewelry, um I believe there's some for like tools and stuff. So just act to see

what's available in your area. And that brings us to our last one, coming full circle from the first soapbox I got on, is to swap your items in exchange for discounted merchandise. And UH stores like H and M and made Well will incentivize your donations by offering you something in exchange for them, mostly discounts to their stores. So if you buy nicer items which I don't consider h and M nicer but made well. Um, you can bring your old jeans to Madewell and earned twenty dollars

towards a new pair, so stuff like that. Look for programs before you buy something, to see if those exists in stories you like. Mm hmm. I often forget about this, and maybe I'll go to a store because I'm looking for something specific, and it's like, oh, man, if I would have brought in a grocery bag of the clothing I'm already getting rid of, I could have gotten off my purchase. It's yeah, something really to consider before you getting the car to go shopping. Who's offering some of

those exchanges? And I mean, you know it doesn't get you a discount, but you should be thinking about every week should be I'm so horrible for your listenership. You now get this exchange the bill of the week. That's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That's build buffalo bills. Bill Clinton. This is the build

of the week. Hi, there sits gephony. I live in the Tampa Bay area in Florida, and I love y'alls podcast. I listened to it all the time, and I'm really excited to share my though of the week. UM. I've been out of work for a while now. I had a baby a few months ago, and I was ready to get back into the workforce, but obviously now is not the best time to look for a job. UM. And I was just doing some side hospitals and it

came upon me to start a business. And I speak a few different languages, so I'm offering translation services and tuning uh for people who want to learn languages. And this week I was able to send my first bill to my first client and I got paid. So it's been an amazing feeling. And although it's a really weird time in the world and difficult in many ways for many people, UH, it's been exciting to be able to send my first bill and see that income come in.

So thanks for giving me the opportunity to share my expitement with you guys, and I hope you guys have an awesome day day. Thank you. Oh that's so wonderful. That's amazing. I don't think we've gotten many bills that where I got to build somebody else. It's usually a bill that we've paid, which is great too. But holy smokes, what an amazing bill that you were billing somebody else They pay to you, and now you've got money, especially

in crazy times. It is such a courageous move to start a new company, new business and after just giving birth. Holy smokes, you are rocking it. And we're really really really proud of you for this and celebrating with you for that first bill that actually got paid to you. I know, congratulations, and I hope many more bills to come to your clients. Yes, if you are sending bills to clients, please let us know about it. Please visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill and leave us

your bill and we want to celebrate with you. And yeah, that's all we do. Time for the Lightning round, um, that is also what I do. Now for the Lightning Round. Uh. Today, we are going to talk about how often we purge and what we do with it, so you can kind of get some real life examples of how how we process this, because I'm definitely not optimizing of my purchase.

So I gladly use my thrift store. But there are some things I do, So yeah, we purge pretty much every time we help other people move or when we ourselves move, which ends up being quite often. But I gotta tell you, we we help a lot of people move, which feels like so constant. And and this is nothing against people we've helped move. It's just a reality that, uh,

we collect things just as humans. It's amazing how we kind of just like grow to fill the space that we're in and and we kind of get this front row seat when we move people of oh my gosh, this is just a lot of stuff, and it's overwhelming and it stresses me out. And the only thing I control is I can control is myself. I can't control

other people. So what I do with that energy, that frustration of how much we as humans collect, as I go home and say, well, I'm going to take control of my life at least and get rid of stuff of because I don't want to end up with a closet full of stuff that I got to move. And I move enough that that's a reality. So also every time I move, I make it a point to not

just throw stuff in boxes. But if I'm going to put it away, if I'm gonna pack it, I've got to know I'm I'm going to be using this on the other end of the move, just to decrease stress, um, and what I do with those items. So as you said,

like it's not it's percentages of things. Like as I'm getting rid of stuff, I will kind of curate what do I think people would pay for, like what do I think and it's I'm not always accurate on my assessment, but i will pull out what I think is you know, maybe worth a little bit of money to somebody else, is worth my time in selling it, and I'll post that on Facebook marketplace that's kind of my favorite spot to sell stuff. I will primarily do porch pick up.

Most of my stuff that I think is worth selling is only within like a seven to fifteen dollar range, so I'm fine doing a porch pick up on that. Otherwise, I will also give to friends as I mentioned before, like I'll take pictures of things and um send send people text see if they're interested in it, or I'll kind of have a box in the back of my car and as I see people like, hey, you want to take a look if you want to take a look at once in my car, in the back of

my look at my look at my things. Seriously. Yeah, And sometimes people are interested in stuff. I love that, Like, I love that I can just give people stuff that has value or a purpose for them, and all of the rest of it I will donate nice yep, what about you For me, I'm actually continuously decluttering. So I have a bag in my closet. I have a place in the closet in my office and a place in the living room. And so every time there's something that I want to get of, it goes in one of

those bags. And then when the bag gets full, then I try and do maybe a little more intentional go through of things. Um, and then I will get get rid of uh. The things that are sellable don't go in the bags. Those actually get Travis just is always selling things on Marketplace, so those things are continuously he's just selling there or eBay. Um. So we had a big declutter when the Marie Condo docuseries came out, and that was kind of like our last big de clutter. Um.

Twice a year there's a kid's consignment sale. It's called Real Lana's and that's for like nicer quality kids items. So that's another thing. Things when when Kai grows out of things, the good things are constantly going in in the consignment bag and then the not good quality things going the donate bag. So twice a year I am, I'm putting stuff in that sale too, and and I kind of I break even. It's kind of it's only

worth it. A few have nice stuff, um, and then I'll go there and I'll buy things that are kind of harder to find it a thrift store. UM. So yeah, that's kind of how we do it. We are can I am continually on the lookout for how I can have less stuff because I just look around and if there's too much stuff somewhere, I'm just kind of like picking things off and putting them in the bag. And if I take if I put something a piece of clothing on and I'm I don't like it, it goes

in the bag. So yeah, that's that's how we do it. And so I have I did a I have haven't had like a lot of books, but I would take books to the Better World Books UM, donation centers UM. And then most most of our stuff we try and sell it or we donate it. Um. So yeah, that's kind of like most of But I am interested to try some of the things that we talked about today

because I actually learned some things. Um, you do get the most money selling something than more money than you do like just from a thing from a place that buys tech or clothes. Um. There there are a few places here that buy clothes, like Revolver. Plato's Closet is a big one that's around the country, so so I

have sold clothes there. I've had better luck with men's clothing at Plato's closet than with my own, so I found I don't even bother with my and anymore, but I will take Eric's clothing to play those closet, and usually they take almost everything. They're always more in search of men's clothing, for sure. So if you have a boyfriend or husband, definitely try and sell their clothing or son or father, or don't go de your dad's house

and tell your dad's clothing. It's time, and it's time for you to get rid of this and I'm gonna I'm gonna profit off of it. Okay, it's time for us to end this episode. Okay, thanks for listening. We want to thank you for your kind reviews so so much. We want to give you an example. This one um is from Emily phil and it says the motivational friends you need happens to be five Stars. Says as a woman entering her late twenties, this podcast is everything I

didn't know I needed throughout my adult life. I've been not totally irresponsible with money, but tended to avoid confronting my financial issues head on. Jenn and Jill are super easy to listen to and make me feel like I'm part of the conversation with friends, rather than like I'm a child being scolded and shamed like many other personal finance podcasts and videos with their tidbits of advice. I'm actually shocker enjoying managing my finances and finding ways to

be frugal. Thank you John and Jill for helping me find some control in my life when everything else has gone haywire in the age of COVID nineteen. We feel you so glad to be making this accessible. That is our goal, That is that so many listeners can find themselves in this podcast, that you are listening, that there's something for you. Yeah, and we also want to thank

our friends who share these episodes on social media. So when you share the latest episode and tag us at Frugal Friends podcast on Facebook or Instagram, or you email us a screenshot of your iTunes or switch your review, we're giving away Frugal Friends Workbook for every five tags and reviews we receive, so keep on leaving us. Reviews on iTunes are stitcher Sending the screenshot to Frugal Friends Podcast at gmail dot com and tag us on social

media both will enter you into that drawing. And remember today is the last day you can get the Frugal Friends Workbook for dollars. Get access to that Facebook group and join with us for the next uh five six weeks and all the fun we're going to be having. It's gonna be great. Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Workbook by Frugal Friends is produced, edited and mixed by Eric Serrian. Well, well what else you got? I don't know. I've been eating a lot of bananas and peanut butter,

so I have for dinner last night. Good for you, it is filling. Yeah, I had a banana an almond butter the other day you fancy, Well, it was at my sister's house. She's the fancy one. Nice. This was actually peanut butter Travis found on the side of the road, that peanut butter jar that you've been talking about for like a year now, a year. I don't know, it

feels that way. We talked about it in our husband's episode, which was like five months ago, and I feel like when you told that story, it was a story that had happened at least three months prior to that. Still not a year ago. Oh my god, I'm not far off. Okay. So there were two and I think this is a second one. Okay, So they were unopened, unopened side the road peanut butter, and I've been eating a lot of it and I haven't gotten sick. So all right, is

it natural? It looks like a No, it looks natural. Absolutely not. No. This is a generic brand peanut butter. It is vegan, lactose and gluten free. I'm so proud of you just living living out the frugal life that you talk about. Thank you. M m oh got Ti