donate, sell, chuck: what do you do?

At the beginning of the year, I decided it was time to purge some stuff. I'm keeping a lot of Wesley's baby stuff (wishful thinking to do the whole pregnancy-birth-infant thing again some day), and I needed room to accommodate clothes and toys and baby junk.

I made several piles. They were:

• Stuff I want to try to sell on eBay (i.e., an exhaust fan timer, a PlayStation, a new Boeing hat, etc.)
• Stuff no one would probably pay for, so let's just give it to Value Village or Deseret Industries (i.e., clothes, a lampshade, free logo-ridden canvas bags, etc.)
  
• Stuff to toss (some really grimy kitchen pans, holey t-shirts, dead lamp that went with the lampshade, etc.)
  
• Stuff that I don't know which of the above three categories they fit in.
  

Let's talk through this.

Sell: It's nice to sell things on eBay, especially since anything with a list price of 99 cents is free to list. But, it's a hassle. I hate figuring out ahead of time what shipping will be, because if I only make 99 cents and don't charge enough shipping, I'm eating into my "profits" to just unload the darn thing. Plus, sometimes things are just dang expensive to ship, I have to wonder if it's even worth it. I had an old blender I sold, but with all the fees and miscalculated shipping (since I only got 99 cents for it!), I actually paid eBay like 70 cents just to sell it. I might as well have just thrown it away!! I suppose I feel better about myself for giving my blender a new life, but was it worth it? Bleh.

I'm finding there are many things I'm listing on eBay over and over and over again. I had a cookbook for burgers (I just don't grill burgers, um, ever), and I knew someone would want it. Right? I listed that sucker at least 5 times. Finally someone bought it -- for $1.04.

Criagslist seems OK for big things, but most of the things I want to get rid of are small. I'm not going to sell a set of napkin rings or a book on Craigslist. That kinda stuff is for eBay or Amazon. Plus, an unpleasant part about Craigslist are the "flakes" who say they desperately want something then never call you back. Whatever. I only get good responses when I give stuff away for free.

Donate: I don't mind donating, but I question myself. Is my stuff in decent enough shape to donate? Part of me wonders if the second-hand place just throws it away anyway (something I didn't have the courage to do). Take these items for example:

• I have winter coats that are old and seem nice, but on one the zipper doesn't work, and on the other (a leather coat!!), the elastic fabric around the wrists has holes in it. They are just worn out, really.
  
• I have shirts that I don't wear anymore, but they have stains on them (and let's just be real with each other, those stains may never ever come out). Does this mean they're worthless?
  
• I've tried selling that dang PlayStation at least five times on eBay, and no one buys it. (Do I keep trying? Like that burger book?)
  

I think donating is great, and it's super "green." I much prefer the lampshade from my dead lamp to go to a home that needed a cheap lampshade over a landfill. Then I realize, um, Ikea has really cheap lampshades. Who's going to want my used in-good-shape lampshade when it's cheap to get a new one?

Although, I want to admit here and now, I shop at Value Village. Just this week I got a killer lattice spice rack (I've been searching for one on eBay for months) and a set of salad tongs. I feel great. But I guess my issue is: could other people feel great about my stuff?

Toss: So the last option, I guess, is realizing that what I have is worthless junk and it is time to throw it away. It was a big deal when I chucked that grimy saute pan. I was really proud of myself. But I knew it wasn't in good shape, and a house that didn't have a saute pan wouldn't even want this one.

So, how do I know if my stuff is in good shape or not? What's the litmus test? If a nasty sautee pan is on one end of the spectrum, and a cute baby outfit with tags still attached is the other end, what is the line where something goes from "sellable" to "donatable" to "chuckable only" ???? I guess I'm just struggling and am wondering what you guys do.

I like making money! I feel good donating things! It feels so wrong to toss stuff! But I'm at my wits' end trying to figure out what goes in which category. I'd love comments.

PS. How often to you purge your place?