Pros and Cons of Decluttr

Jae-Ha Kim
jaehakim.com
May 28, 2020

One of the things about this coronavirus pandemic is that the entire family is home, which means that everyone needs their own space for working and studying. Because I work from home a lot, my office was in good condition. But my husband’s office had become a catch-all for electronic devices we didn’t need, our excess of books and old CDs we weren’t sure what to do with.

As they say at year-end sales, (almost) everything must go … in order to make room for a more pleasant work environment. So we put together piles:

• for friends

• donations

• throw out

We rarely sell anything. I don’t want to deal with eBay, Craigslist or garage sales and usually donate items that are in good condition. But with the donation centers closed for now, I decided to sell some items to Decluttr.

As its name indicates, the service helps you declutter in a relatively easy way. You input the item’s codes manually (or by downloading the app and scanning it in) and it’ll tell you how much they’ll offer for your product. The caveat is they’re fussy. So if a CD cover has a stain on it or the UPC code has a tear on it (indicating that it was a promotional item), they won’t pay you for it. And you won’t get your item back, either. For this reason, I would never send in something more valuable, such as a used cell phone or a gaming system in an attempt to make any money. (Now, if you just want it out of your house, that’s a different story.)

That was OK with me, because everything I sent was something I no longer wanted.

Once you’re ready to send the package, Decluttr will email you a pre-paid UPS airbill. I re-used a box I already had in the house that would’ve been recycled.

The requirements for what they will accept have changed since the first time I used Decluttr. The photo of the box above would no longer be accepted, because you have to send at least 10 media items (CDs, DVDs, videogames) in the package as well. Though a few CDs went for $3 or so, most of my items didn’t earn more than 5 to 40 cents per item.

Cons: Once you have mailed the items to them, there is no way of proving that you sent something if they say it wasn’t included in the package. Some of my items didn’t receive payment, because they said discs were missing from their jewel cases. I know this isn’t true, because I checked each one, pulling aside just one that was missing a CD.

Hot tip: If you have a large number of items to send, do NOT split them up into two or more packages, even though they suggest doing this. Each time I sent multiple boxes for one order, they only counted one box in the payment. And if you happen to be using their coupon code — which sometimes pays sellers 10% more — they’ll only apply it to one box and not the others. (At least that has been my experience.) I had to write them multiple times for them to grudgingly pay for the rest. So, either break them up into separate orders, or wait until you have a box large enough to accommodate all your items.

CHECK THIS OUT: If you’re more concerned about getting things out of your house than making a profit, I would recommend using Decluttr. But honestly, once it’s safe for our donation centers to accept things again, I’d rather just take my gently used items there.