The theme this week on the One Minute Retirement Tip is “Try Selling on Facebook Marketplace and Finally Get Rid of Your Clutter”. If you're on Facebook but you haven't given Marketplace a try I strongly urge you to consider using marketplace to get rid of some clutter and fatten your wallet at the same time - especially as we head into spring, and you start thinking about spring cleaning and getting serious about purging and decluttering.

I just had my third child last September and something weird and hormonal happens after I have a baby. What I've noticed with each of my kids is that while I'm pregnant I go through this intense nesting period. You’ve probably heard of that or experienced it yourself. I buy all of the things in the world – diapers, wipes, and stock my pantry and freezer full of food in preparation for the apocalypse. 

It is intensely comforting to a 3rd trimester mama to have everything that I could possibly need in preparation for baby’s arrival. However as soon as that baby is born I do a complete 180 and all of a sudden I go into purge mode. That's what happened this fall after my 3rd baby was born. I started decluttering throughout my house - getting rid of duplicate items, purging my closet, taking decorative items off of bookshelves that had no sentimental value and were only serving as visual clutter in my home.

So in the spirit of my recent decluttering kick which involves a lot of listing and selling items on Facebook Marketplace, today I want to talk about the difference between Facebook Marketplace and its primary competitor which is Craigslist.

Now if you've ever bought or sold anything on Craigslist, it has this really icky feeling about it. My husband once bought something on Craigslist from somebody years ago, and I remember him taking a co-worker with him for protection as they met this random person in a deserted parking lot somewhere to do the transaction. Oftentimes when you enter into an agreement to buy or sell something to someone on Craigslist, all you have is maybe a phone number, you're not even sure if they are who they say they are, and it just feels like something bad could happen at any time, like a drug deal gone wrong. All to sell a bookshelf or a car part. 

And I think that's the primary difference between Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. Why you don't necessarily know who that person is that you're selling your item to on Facebook Marketplace, you know that person has a name, because you can look up their profile, you can see their profile photo, where they live, and often times they also have a rating on Facebook Marketplace if they sold or bought on there before. I have a rating of only like 3 stars because I tend to be slow to respond to people. 

So you can get a sense for this person is and whether or not you want to give them your address to come pick up the item that they're going to buy from you

I think that's a number one benefit of Facebook Marketplace to sell and get rid of items quickly, is that there is a higher trust factor with using Facebook Marketplace over a platform like Craigslist.

The other thing I really like about Facebook Marketplace is that it is really really easy to list something quickly and sell it. You can snap a few pictures of the item you want to sell and in less than 5 minutes you can have that item listed. 

And you get to dictate the terms, so most of the time if I'm selling something on Facebook Marketplace, I'm requiring that the person pick it up on my porch and leave cash under the mat, especially for lower ticket items. There is some sort of an honor system involved in this process but if you're selling lower value items for $5, $10, or $25, it's a pretty low-risk way to get rid of items quickly and not have to put in much effort. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip. 

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