Always hustling, I did a few things to clean out the house and make a few bucks last week.

• Sold clothes on eBay. I bought some swim trunks for Baby Stapler last year, thinking that they would fit this summer. I was wrong. He’s already outgrown them. I sold two pairs of swim trunks and a rash guard on eBay for $9.50 total. I think that’s more than I paid for them last year! Tip: Although I had them on sale all summer, they didn’t sell until August. I think that’s because stock is low and people were running out of options for their summer vacation needs. Tip #2: Buy your postage from eBay and get a discount. With both of the items that sold, I paid less to eBay than I got as a discount! So, it cost me nothing to sell them on eBay!

• Sold exercise equipment on craigslist. Our home gym is too tall for our new house, and was sitting on the porch for months since we moved. I finally listed it on craigslist for 1/3 of what we paid for it. (We paid $125, I listed it for $50). After a few false starts on local listservs, I listed it on craigslist and it sold within days. Tip: Respond promptly to potential buyers. My buyer needed to know whether it would break down enough to fit in his car, so I took out the tape measure to find out the dimensions if it was broken down. Once it was established that it would fit, he was here the next day, with cash!
• Sold books to Powells.com. I had a few popular books laying around the house and I knew I’d never read them again. But they’re popular books, so I know others will want to read them. I used Bookscouter to find out if anyone would buy them and — lo and behold! — Powells.com (among others) was interested. I packed them up and shipped them off. Tip: If a book is popular now, don’t waste time in getting an offer from a used book buyer. The longer you wait, the less money you’ll get!

Total earned for cleaning out: $64.