One woman’s trash is another woman’s treasure and while many of us know the age-old term, so few of us realize how easily we can turn it into easy money. While we all do our best to budget, save and squeeze every penny we get (it’s one of the many superpowers in a Mom’s arsenal), sometimes we need quick cash to cover emergencies. 

So whether you’re having unexpected car trouble, your eldest wants music lessons or you’re thinking of a surprise romantic getaway with your significant other, here are some quick and easy ways to make fast cash selling your old stuff...

Rediscover your old vinyl

In case you don’t have any hipster friends, just to make you aware… Vinyl is back in a big way! If you have a long forgotten record collection sitting in the attic it may be worth blowing off the dust and scanning your collection. Firstly, you’ll have no doubt forgotten how good they can sound, especially with the kind of setups you can get from Vinyl Vintage. Secondly, if you raided your parents’ collection before you flew the nest, you may just find something incredibly valuable hidden away in there.

Sell your clothes on ebay

Being the generous sorts that we are, Moms have a tendency to donate their old clothes to charitable causes and while this is a wonderful thing, don’t fall into the habit of thinking that your old clothes are worthless. Everything in your closet is there for one reason, because you bought it and fell in love with it. And just because you’ve fallen out of love with it, or you bought it before the inevitable bodily changes of childbirth, doesn’t mean that someone else won’t love it just as much.

Selling clothes on ebay is quick, easy and could make you a lot more money than you’d think. People are still prepared to pay good money for pre-loved clothing, especially for designer labels.

Have a DVD purge

If your DVD cabinet is groaning with your little one’s once beloved movies that they’ve now outgrown, or Oscar winners of yesteryear that you’ve no desire to see again then you may be sitting on a dust-coated revenue stream.

 Although the movie market is leaning increasingly toward digital streaming, many serious collectors still love to buy physical and you’ll be astonished how much they’ll pay for some rarer discs. Steelbooks, for example, have been known to triple or in some cases even quadruple their value.

Raid the toy box

If you’ve bequeathed some of your or your partner’s childhood playthings to your little ones that they’ve now outgrown, then you may have some valuable rarities stuffed away in a box in the 

Attic. Many members of generation X have made big money selling their beloved Star Wars toys, but lots of other pop paraphernalia from your childhood can also be worth big money if it’s well preserved or even (yes, you guessed it), in its original packaging. Beanie Babies, Garbage Pail Kids, Hot Wheels and even Pez dispensers may well be worth more than you’d think.