Not only do I have a ton of stuff to sort through, but my poor mother’s house is filled with junk from my childhood. Prom dresses, VHS tapes, dance costumes, boxes of toys. I’ve always felt guilty that it’s all just sitting there, waiting to be remembered. Something has to be done about it eventually.

Since I had some luck dumping my records for $25 and my broken tech devices for $60, I offered to help my mom out with DVDs, CDs, and books from her own collection as that was the next step in mine. I knew she wanted to get rid of some stuff, and on my way to band practice on Sunday I picked up three overflowing boxes of her unwanted media.

I want to shout out that NONE of these services I’m mentioning in this series have sponsored me. This is 100% my own experience trying to dump all my crap on someone else for cash. Are there better services offering more money for your old junk? Maybe, but this was what I found in my research, this is what I used, this is my experience.

I went through my mom’s boxes and picked out things I didn’t have the heart to get rid of myself without allowing myself much. For example – of the 40 or so DVDs, I kept 5. The few I kept were movies hard to find on streaming services, had memories attached, or were collectors editions in genuinely good condition. I also went through the books and chose a few at a similar ratio.

This week, I started with the app Decluttr. I had dreaded how long this would take – but with the ease of the app and the barcode scanner, I had scanned and submitted everything within a half an hour. Out of approximately 200 DVDs/CDs/Books, they were accepting 96 of them. What would have been $0 for donating to Goodwill, I made $30. Could I have made more through eBay? Probably. But the time saved is money to me – I didn’t want to dedicate months to this part of my clean-out project.

Here’s all the stuff they took.

I’ve officially made $115 from all of my junk – what are you doing letting yours lay around?

Guys, I had accumulated 56 records. In FOUR YEARS.

If you wanted to see what my record collection looked like 3 years ago, click here.

Records do bring me joy. I listen to records maybe once a week.

I COULD listen to a different record every week for 13 months?

But I certainly am not going to. I always reach for the same 3 or so.

So, here’s what I did.

I went through my collection and picked out the ones I literally had not touched in 3 years, the ones I was only “meh” about owning, all of the ones that did not spark joy.

That ended up being half.

And I sold them.

I made an appointment and brought them to Stereo Jack’s, in business since 1982, a mom & pop type shop in Harvard Square. They gave me cash, and I left happy knowing that these records will go to homes that will cherish them and play them frequently and that the shop will make more than I did from them so they can continue their business of bringing joy to others.

Please don’t tell John’s mom.

Marie Kondo says start with your closet.

I say, the seasons are changing and I’m only just rediscovering what items in my spring/summer wardrobe get regular use. So, hold off a sec there.

I say, start with what I don’t even goddamn use.

My broken stuff.

My iPad 2, a beloved birthday gift, that one day stopped working altogether.

My iPhone 6, that I dropped in water.

My iPhone 7, that I shattered.

They’ve been just sitting there in one of my closets.

WHY. WHAT USE DO I HAVE FOR THESE THINGS.

I suppose my sustainable self didn’t want to just toss them into a landfill.

I also didn’t want to waste weeks trying to sell them to some specific person online who is searching for an outdated broken iPad. Sure, I’d make some cash, but who knows how much time I’d lose?

TIME IS MONEY, PEOPLE.

Enter BuyBackBoss.

I told them what I had. They told me it would be worth somewhere around $60. They sent me a free shipping label, I shipped my stuff to them. A week later, there was my $60 in Paypal.

10/10, would get rid of useless crap to them again. This process couldn’t have been quicker or easier for me. Could I have made more selling these things for parts? Yeah, maybe. But certainly not as quick.