I pay for date-night babysitters by selling my clutter on Facebook

Friday is coming and I'm itching to go out for a night on the town with my husband. Luckily, my next porch pickup is scheduled to arrive soon, so I'll be adding a few more dollars to my wallet.

With everyone's budget stretched thin, it seems that more people are turning to Facebook for a deal. This works out well for me and gives me an extra incentive to tidy up my house.

Selling items as cheaply as $5 adds up and has meant sending some substantial extra money into my pocket over the years. These days, I like to set this cash aside to have on hand when the weekend comes around and my husband and I need a little break from our five kids.

My tiny side hustle funds our date nights

That t-shirt I ordered online that didn't fit right, that I can no longer return? I can get $7 for that. Some weird vase I got at a garage sale years ago and no longer use? Someone will probably pay me $5 for that. And they do.

By the weekend, I might have made $50 to $60 by selling items that I no longer need or want. One week, I offloaded two bins of kids' clothes and made $125.

If I girl math my way through it, this extra cash means that I only have to really consider the cost of dinner and drinks, or an activity, rather than all that plus a sitter. So, date nights are more affordable and more likely to happen regularly.

I always have items to sell

I've been doing this for about 10 years, and I still haven't run out of things that I want to trade for a few dollars.

Once I realized how lucrative this side hustle could be, I established a "sell bin" near my front door, where I stash things that are on my nerves, unneeded, outgrown, or otherwise need to leave my house ASAP. For me, this makes selling a little more mindless and a lot less stressful.

The author says many of her buyers pick up items on her porch and leave cash under the doormat without interaction. Courtesy of Alexandra Frost

I've learned a lot through years of selling

If you want items to sell quickly — and I do — I've learned that you have to price them correctly. Many people overprice items on Facebook Marketplace, but I've found that pricing them very low — usually at just 10 to 30% of their original price — helps me move more volume.

Dropping prices can also attract more buyers to your item, as Facebook highlights when a seller reduces the price of items posted through Facebook Marketplace. Everyone loves getting a deal, and I'm usually happy to negotiate as well.

Another strategy I've seen work well, and have tried myself, is thinking way, way ahead when selling things like kids' clothes. For example, if I've finished with my summer clothes, I put them in a box labeled "sell these summer clothes in spring of 2026" and then stash them in my basement until next year. Nobody wants to buy your old summer items when it's November.

I prioritize safety when selling

I usually have buyers come to my home, where I have a security camera by my door. If I agree to meet a buyer in person for a sale, I try to bring someone with me and meet in a very public place, such as the parking lot of a grocery store.

While I sometimes post my items on Facebook Marketplace, I've found that I can sell just as many items by posting in smaller, more targeted groups. I belong to a handful of local mom groups on Facebook, so I often sell there and end up knowing some of the people I'm selling to, rather than frequently dealing with strangers.

I work from home, so it's easy for me to be available for multiple pickups a week. However, I try to do mostly porch pickups for convenience.