Better Safe: 3 Items to Save When Culling Junk from Storage
When it is time to do the spring cleaning or remove junk from your storage areas, you may face some difficult choices about what to keep and what to get rid of. Some items are clearly ready for disposal, such as worn out shoes or broken electronics. However, certain things deserve extra consideration. Here are a few items that may hold some hidden value:
Vintage Clothing
Slacks, shirts, and dresses worn by parents or grandparents in their youth may seem ready for the thrift store. However, retro clothing styles are often in demand for a variety of reasons.
If items are in good condition, they can be sold to boutiques or even individuals for a fair price. If they can’t be sold, vintage clothes can be donated to a local school or theatre company to be used as a costume or your family could use them as a Halloween costume.
If you find fine dress clothes, the kind that obviously would have been above average in their time, you should be more judicious.
Movie studios, museums, and high-end boutiques often have interest in higher quality vintage items.
Whether you sell or donate, you’ll be happy you didn’t let those clothes go to waste.
Coin Collections
Some people collect loose change from their pockets or the sofa cushions, but it usually doesn’t amount to much.
Coins found hiding in storage, however, have much greater potential. If you find coins in special containers or protective packaging, you’ve likely stumbled onto a full blown coin collection.
You can get an idea of the values of the coins on the internet, but you’ll need to have them appraised if you want to know exactly what they’re worth.
From there, you can sell your coin collection, hold onto it as a sort of investment, or take up the hobby and add to it. If you find individual coins in old storage, hold on to those too.
While they are less likely to be valuable than a collection, an old or rare coin could still fetch a nice price.
There are no guarantees with coins, even whole collections, but a handful of ordinary coins can still buy a cup of coffee if you don’t throw them out.
Framed Artwork
It may seem like a no-brainer to take a closer look at a framed piece of art, but it’s surprisingly common for old art to be discarded or given away without a second thought.
There have been a few instances of people finding a painting in storage and having it identified as a lost work from a famous artist, like Picasso.
Antique frames can also be surprisingly valuable to collectors, even if the art is not. The last thing to check before you hand over any art, is the space between the art and the back of the frame. It’s even more unlikely than finding valuable art, but people have found old documents, deeds, bank notes, and more hiding inside a picture frame. It’s a long shot, but worth checking out just in case.
Untold treasures may be hidden in your home’s storage areas. While it’s unlikely that you find anything life-changing, you can’t know for sure unless you take the time to be thorough.
Share this:
Category: Family Finances
