How I’ve Earned $700 and Counting Selling Clothes Online

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We’re all looking for ways to bring in more money with less effort. Check out how your old clothes could be your ticket to doing just that. 

Shopping has never been a big hobby of mine, and I don’t tend to buy into trends as they pass through. Even so, I regularly find items relegated to the back of my closet that I’m ready to let go of. If the clothes are in good enough shape, I’ve always donated them one place or another rather than taking them to a consignment shop because I couldn’t be bothered to go through the hassle of driving to a store, watching a salesperson sort through my things, and tell me how much — or little — they’d pay me for just some of the pieces.

Then a few years ago, I had some extra time on my hands (you remember Lockdown 2020, don’t you?) and decided to try listing my old clothes on the resale app Poshmark instead. I won’t be retiring to Italy off of my earnings anytime soon, but I’m pleasantly surprised at how much I’ve been able to make with so little effort required.

A fairly passive income boost

If you haven’t heard of Poshmark before, it’s a secondhand marketplace where people can buy and sell clothing, accessories, and even electronics and home goods. It has a website and an app, and it’s free to list items. All you have to do is take some photos of what you’re selling, write a quick description, and post. When you make a sale, Poshmark takes a flat fee of $2.95 for sales under $15, or a 20% fee for sales over $15.

There’s occasionally some haggling involved with potential buyers, and you have to pack each item and drop it off at the post office, but for the most part, I can just let my Poshmark account do the work of enticing buyers.

I’m sure there are plenty of success stories of people creating mini resale empires this way, but I use Poshmark just to clear out the stuff languishing in my closet. Whether it was a miniskirt from college that I was hanging onto out of nostalgia or a sweater that didn’t fit right but was gifted to me with no return receipt, I started filling up my virtual closet on Poshmark with items that needed new homes.

Finding easy ways to improve my finances

Once I started making some sales on Poshmark, I started intentionally going through my things and seeing what else I could list. I still build up a donation pile, but I also set aside some of the clothes with a little more potential to list on Poshmark. It’s become a nice habit to cut down on the clutter in my wardrobe and keep only the items I really care about.

And because it’s such a low-maintenance way to sell my things, I never really added up how much I’d made until recently. Without even realizing it, I’ve now made $700 through Poshmark sales. That’s an extra $700 I can use to bolster the emergency fund I keep in my savings account. Or an extra $700 I can invest in a brokerage account and hopefully grow into more money down the line. And, of course, I can use a slice of it to treat myself to something nice, since those funds weren’t already earmarked to pay for any bills in my budget.

READ MORE: What Is an Emergency Fund and Why Do You Need One?

I have no intention of turning this into a true side hustle, because I enjoy how hands-off the whole setup is. But I have no complaints about doing this minimal amount of work, keeping my closet clean and organized, and giving my personal finances a nice boost.

All this was a good reminder for me that there can be easy ways to bring in some extra money that you may not have thought of before. Maybe it’s streamlining your wardrobe, like I’m doing. Or maybe it’s adding dog-walking services to your daily spin around the park. Or maybe it’s putting your green thumb to work by offering to spruce up people’s gardens around town.

The same thing won’t work for everyone, but if you do a little brainstorming, you may be able to find a way to make a little extra cash without feeling like you’re putting in much work at all.

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