For many people the New Year is a time to reflect on the past, look at their accomplishments and their mistakes, and come up with resolutions for the New Year. It could be making a personal promise to eat better, lose weight, learn a new skill, exercise, or to manage money better.

But there’s one resolution you may not have considered: taking the time to declutter your life. There are a number of benefits to decluttering and organizing, such as:

• Building up your self-confidence and self-efficacy as you make decisions about what to keep, where things should go, and what to discard
• Giving you energy by getting busy and getting to work
• Reduce anxiety by creating order and feeling like you have more control of the space around you
• Let’s you do some light physical activity
• Allows your mind to wander and rest as you focus on putting things away
• Reduce tensions between people living together – less fighting about what gets left around and how much stuff there is
• Find useful things that you forgot you had

And lastly, you might also find some things that you can sell and make some decent money off of. Who couldn’t use some extra cash in the New Year after the drain that the holidays took on your wallet?

What to Sell

After starting the process of decluttering you may find yourself with things that you need to get rid of. Before tossing them in the garbage, consider whether or not they have any value.

For example, you may find yourself with old or unwanted jewellery that could be sold for some money. Selling jewellery in Toronto isn’t hard, either, as there are plenty of shops that will buy your jewellery no matter the condition.

What you need to keep an eye out for is gold or silver jewellery. But it’s not always easy to know whether or not your pieces are actually made of precious metals. What you can do is run a magnet over them – if they are attracted to the magnet, then that means that there is no gold or silver (or perhaps there is very little of it).

If you don’t know for sure, you could always ask for a free evaluation – just make sure you don’t get pressured into making a sale you’re not comfortable with.

You can also sell old coins, paper money, silverware, and antiques. Try doing some research online before taking your items to a buyer, that way you have a general idea of their worth.

If you’re a book worm, you might be wondering if there’s any value in selling your used books. If you want to take the time to take them to a used book store, you could probably get a few bucks, but the reality is that used books don’t sell for very much.

What about old clothing? There are actually some stores that will buy your used clothes for cash. All it takes is a bit of time and organization, and the next thing you know not only will you have a cleaner space, but also, some extra money in your pocket!