Offer to pay any friends who help you out, or at least cover a few pizzas and a case of beer. Bring garbage bags and boxes to pack any goods you take with you. Bring cleaning supplies if you need to clean the unit before leaving per your rental agreement. You may also want to bring a lifting brace for your back and a dolly if you’ve got a ton of heavy stuff to move. If you don’t have a friend with a truck who can help, you may need to rent a truck.
No storage unit cleanout is going to be successful if you turn clutter into more clutter! Be methodical and take your time. You want to be in a productive, upbeat headspace as you go through everything! It’s hard to feel that way if your work area is messy and unorganized.
Ask yourself if an item brings you joy, has a use, or is necessary. If the answer to all of those questions is “no,” you probably don’t need to keep it. Only you can determine if something is worth keeping to sell. Perhaps a $10 sale is worth the time and effort to you, or maybe it’s not. It’s totally subjective. It is totally okay if you just want to get rid of everything. In that case, you don’t really need to sort anything (although you may want to do a quick scan to confirm it’s all worth getting rid of).
You may need to pay a junk removal company to haul furniture. Some city garbage dumps won’t take massive items like that. If you don’t have truck and you’ve got a ton of stuff, you may just have to make multiple trips to the city dump.
Dress for Success will take any professional attire to help people in need secure jobs. Room to Grow is a nonprofit for children born into poverty, and they’ll take any child-related items (baby clothes, books, toys, etc. ). Got a bunch of old books? Give them to Operation Paperback. They send books to troops overseas. HopeLine will take any old mobile equipment (phones, chargers, etc. ) and give it to women in need.
Facebook marketplace. This is the best option if you have highly desirable items and you’d rather sell them locally on your own. Craigslist. Craigslist is perfect for larger items and novelty goods, since people often search the site for specific goods. eBay. This online marketplace is perfect if you’ve got any valuables or obscure collector’s items. You can either let buyers compete by bidding, or sell your items for the “buy now” price. Poshmark. Poshmark is an online marketplace for used clothes. It is extremely intuitive and easy to use, and it gets a ton of traffic. If you’ve got some cool clothes, sell them here!
Try to price your items fairly if you want them to sell. Get plenty of bills and change ahead of time. People are unlikely to have exact change.
Junk removal can run anywhere from $50 to $360 depending on how big your storage unit is and how much heavy gear you have.
You are probably not going to get any super high offers, but this will be much faster and efficient than selling the items yourself. Many storage unit buyers attend auctions for abandoned or delinquent units. You might look for auction events in your area on Facebook and then message the users who comment that they’re interested.
This is normally an incentive for people to not skip out on rent, but if you’ve got nothing in the storage unit you want to keep then this is a win-win. Don’t do this if the company has a credit card on file for you and there are fees (or legal threats) in the contract associated with breaking the lease.
