How We Sold Our Used Carpeting for $300

When you are on a budget like our family, you are quick to look for ways to earn extra cash. One way we made a little extra money recently was by selling 2000 square feet of used carpeting that had been removed from a commercial building owned by our family.

When people property owners remodel their homes or rental property, all that old building material usually gets taken to the dump, a recycling center, or a non-profit organization such as Habitat for Humanity in hopes that someone else may have a use for it. Certain materials such as barely used carpet or like new light fixtures can be sold to generate cash.

When one of our tenant spaces was remodeled recently, we found ourselves with $5000 worth of carpet that still had about 25 years of good use. Even though the carpet had been cut to fit into half a dozen 16 x 14 offices and a large 20 x 60 reception area, we figured there was enough there for someone to use in a home refresh or a small business. Here is how we sold the carpet in under 24 hours.

Took well lit pictures. Before the carpet was unhooked from the carpet tacks, I took several photographs which showed the type of the carpet and the color. Because I would be selling the carpet on Craig’s List, we knew that the ad would generate more interest if photographs were included.

Measured the dimensions. We also took measurements of the carpet before rolling it up. Since used carpet is precut, not all of it will be useful to a buyer. Offering room dimensions will help a person determine if there is enough large pieces to work with.

Listed the carpet on Craig’s List. Craig’s List is a free online classified advertising web site that is the first place many DIYers look for cheap building materials. My Craig’s List posting included the color photographs I had taken earlier, room dimensions, the age and the condition of the carpet, and the original installation price. Since the carpet had to be sold quickly, I set the price at $300 and had a buyer within six hours. This put money in our pocket and saved us another $200 because we no longer had to hire our own crew to haul the carpet away.

Gently used carpet does have value, and is always worth trying to sell before hauling it down to the City Dump. Gently used, precut carpet seems to sell for 10% of its original cost, uncut carpet will fetch as much as 50% of the original value.

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