Your home is a goldmine.  I’m not referring to property value; I’m speaking of the loads of useless crap about the home (unused books, movies, videogames, clothing, and other miscellaneous items) that potential buyers are more than willing to drop a few bucks on–if you’re willing to part with it.

Recently, after losing a nice chunk of freelance work to the recession, I had to generate some fast cash to replace that which I lost. After all, the bills won’t stop a-comin’ due to my reduced income stream. So, considering the fact that I’m not a hot chick with the ample talent to pick up a sexy recession gig, I’ve resorted to the oldest profession. No, not that oldest profession. I meant becoming a salesman. But it was far from easy.

Over the course of my 35 years, I’ve accumulated lots of junk–junk that’s covered in 2-inch layers of dust, signifying that it was a prime candidate for hawking. The items that I’ve exchanged for cash in the past two weeks have been unwanted movies and videogames, which have netted me over $200. DVDs went for $10 a pop. Games between $10 and $40, depending on the console. Not too shabby for simply posting unwanted goods on Craigslist.

But I have to admit that summoning the will to actually pull the trigger on some of the items was quite difficult, particularly when it came time to part with my Neo Geo AES games. A Neo Geo AES, for those of you with far less geekier tendencies, was a home videogame console that appeared in the late ’80s that was, essentially, the Rolls Royce of gaming machines, with an appropriately high-end price tag: the base system was $399, with games retailing for $200 and up. As a broke kid living in Coney Island, I naturally didn’t have the cash to net the system, but the Neo Geo lust continued to simmer. For decades.

Fast forward to adulthood. SNK was no longer producing Neo Geo hardware or games, so I bought a used machine and a few titles for a fraction of what I would’ve paid for it back in the day. I had finally acquired my dream machine, my holy grail of gaming. But in this era of gaming, the Playstations and the Xboxes of the world finally matched the 2D horsepower of the Neo and had some freaking awesome ports of games (with extras) for about $20 a pop. My Neo had become obsolete, but I let nostalgia and emotion to blind me to that fact. So when it came time for me to part with the beautiful, but useless games, I placed ads on Craigslist with much sadness (it also didn’t help that purchasers consistently asked me “why are you selling these?!”).

One of the unforeseen benefits of parting with my emotional binds with “stuff” was that the entire experience was absolutely cleansing. Not only had my apartment become less cluttered, but so had my soul; “stuff” and the collecting of “stuff” can weigh heavy – all while making the pockets lighter.

So as spring begins its slow descent upon New York,  take a moment in this season of rebirth to analyze your home’s stock for potential sale items that can be used to supplement you income–and free your mind.

Photo by me’nthedogs’

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