Spring Cleaner's Guide to Selling Used Outdoor Gear

It’s that time of year again: the snows are melting, the trees are blooming, and the two hundred analog clocks you keep in your garage all need to be set one hour forward, by hand. Unlike your phone, your hoarded time pieces and whatever else is in your garage won’t take care of things like daylight saving time automatically. It’s down to you to set each of your clocks to the correct time, and also probably get rid of some clocks and other old stuff you have lying around. Some of you may be wondering, is spring cleaning important? We’re here to give you the ultimate guide to cleaning out your cluttered space. 

Why Spring Cleaning? 

Spring Cleaning has been proven to have a number of health benefits, from strengthening immune systems, reducing stress and depression, to encouraging healthier choices for diet and exercise, as well as reducing the risk of accidental injury at home. 

More than just the health benefits, there is an opportunity to make some easy cash to fund your next adventure. You can use the new Rerouted website to browse, list, and sell all your used outdoor gear. Whether you just want a clean space or need to make some extra room, cleaning out your garage this spring is guaranteed to bring you joy. 

Here are steps for clearing any garage, whether it’s a little messy or full of junk

1. Make a game plan 

Take a look around, take your time. 

• If you have a large garage to clean, or it’s been a while since your space was last organized, it could be an overwhelming amount of work to get done at once. Try breaking the space into sections and doing one per day. You didn’t “only clean a quarter” of your garage, you “cleaned 100% of the Gamma Quadrant” of your garage. 

• Decide on criteria for keeping/removing items.

Items you choose to get rid of will be sorted later into more specific categories based on whether you can sell or donate them, but for now, focus on the big picture. If you haven’t used something in a year, it may be a candidate for the purge pile.

2. Get everything out of the space 

A driveway on a sunny day is a great spot to lay out everything that’s lurking in your garage. If you’re cleaning in bad weather or cleaning by section, you’ll want to clear as much space as possible on the floor so you can get stuff out of shelves and boxes. 

Pitch anything that is obvious garbage. If you’re unsure about an item’s function or condition, set it aside–it could be a part of something you can clean up and use. This is a great time to make a ‘sell’ and ‘donation’ box for items you know you don’t want to keep but aren’t ready to throw out.

3. Clean

Once you’ve gotten stuff out of the garage, it’s time to tidy.

Remember the cardinal rules of cleaning: top bottom, dry to wet. Cleaning from the top down prevents accidentally dirtying places you’ve already cleaned with drips or dust from above. Dusting and dry sweeping before you wipe down surfaces and mop is a great way to get more off the floor and keep your mop in working order. Note: if you are cleaning a carpeted space, we suggest vacuuming over sweeping and mopping. Soggy carpet sucks. 

Clean shelves and surfaces inside, then move on to everything you took out of the garage that you didn’t immediately pitch. 

4. Sort

As you clean the items from the garage, decide what you can sell, what you’ll keep, and what you can give away. It can be hard to part with some items, even if they’re extras. That brass clock doesn’t even work; its hands are forever frozen at 1:13, a monument to its time of death. But somebody could use the brass, or some of the parts. There are others you could definitely give away. 

However hard it is to let go of items that hold sentimental value, passing working gear along to others feels so great that you’ll immediately know it was worth it. 

If you have unwanted outdoor gear, you can sell it. Check out Rerouted’s guides to selling used climbing gear, rafting gear, or used skis for steps you can follow to sell any type of outdoor gear. Make sure you inspect it for damage, and avoid passing along safety-critical equipment. 

Label a few boxes or bins to store similar items you don’t use often, but want to keep. 

5. Reorganize 

Now that everything is cleaned and sorted, it’s time to put it back in places that make the most sense. Keep frequently used items on easy to reach shelves, and save higher/deeper spaces for boxes or crates with specific, less frequently used items like holiday decorations or your apocalypse gas masks. 

Tools love pegboards, which are inexpensive to install if you don’t have one. Even just a few hooks go a long way by using vertical space to keep stuff off the floors and shelves. 

Once you’ve cleared the driveway and set your remaining analog clocks on shelves that are easy to reach, you’re done!