Tips to Lose the Clutter and Pocket Some Dough
From unworn clothing to unclaimed cash, one mother was able to score $1,000.
— -- Piles of cash may be sitting right under your nose -- just ask LearnVest CEO Alexa Von Tobel.
She visited Eliza Danielson in Morristown, New Jersey, along with ABC News to share some tips on turning old clothing and electronics into cold, hard cash.
In Danielson's case, the mother of two was able to score $1,100.
1. Look in your closets and drawers.
Bag up the clothes you always pass over and ship them to a site like ThredUP. The staff there will sort the clothes and pay you between 10 percent and 80 percent of the selling price for each item of clothing. On average, a person can score $40 a bag. Sites like Tradesy and Poshmark allow users to set up accounts to sell clothes and jewelry. Sellers choose their own prices and interested buyers contact the sellers directly. Poshmark and Tradesy each take a small percentage of the selling cost.
2. Don't let a bunch of old electronics collect dust.
Sell them on sites like Gazelle or u-Sell. On apps like Decluttr, even old CDs can be worth real money -- you can probably sell them for $1 each.
3. Check for unclaimed cash.
Everyone should check MissingMoney.com. According to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, $41.7 billion in unclaimed cash is sitting in state coffers, from old bank accounts and uncashed checks to utility deposits.
The following states -- New York, Oregon, California, Wyoming, Illinois, Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, Connecticut, Delaware and Hawaii -- do not participate in MissingMoney.com. Those residents will have to go to their individual state's unclaimed properties website.
