In a single week, he said, he sold a vacuum cleaner, two light fixtures, a mirror, a microwave, a Fender bass soft case, a mini-fridge, a sofa bed and a bookshelf.
“I am living like a Zen monk,” he said, “and I’m loving it.”
Below are eight apps and websites that will help you dispose of your stuff.
5MILES
The 5miles app and website solve a problem common on many platforms for selling your stuff: As each new item posts, yours is pushed down the list. With a free feature called “boost,” you can move your item back to the top every four hours. Other apps have similar features, but they aren’t free.
The app has other fees, though: If you want to use “sales tools” like marking an item “must go” or adding a “click to call” button that lets prospective buyers call you with one touch, you’ll pay $2 to $5.
The app tries to discourage scammers from using multiple identities. By connecting email addresses, phone numbers and Facebook pages — and requiring two of them for “certification” — it makes it easier to confirm that users are who they say they are.
This is also one of the few apps that lets users post services as well as goods, so you can sell your fish tank and hire someone to deliver it, all in the same place.
The app “seems to be the one that is getting me all of the action,” said Mr. Carlini, who also enjoyed touches like the coin-drop sound the app makes for some notifications. “I was having so much fun with this.”
LETGO
LetGo reduces typing to streamline selling. It recognizes what you are selling from your photos and writes the headline for you. It also lets buyers and sellers text each other from a list of stock phrases, like “Yes, it’s still for sale” and “What’s your offer?”
Several of these apps let users connect their posts to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, as well as to other sales sites like Craigslist and Etsy, but LetGo does it in a novel way: A feature called the “commercializer” digitally places your item in a parody video — an action-movie trailer, say, starring Dolph Lundgren — that you can post on social media or send as a text. And it’s all free.
APTDECO
Although the AptDeco site has no app, it’s still worth a look if you live near New York City or Washington — the only areas where it is currently available — because it offers pickup and delivery services.
Tips for Selling Online
When you post a product, the site recommends a price based on the original cost, condition, popularity and past sale prices of similar items. Your photos are edited so your items look as if they were shot against a white backdrop.
But this level of service comes at a price: The site takes a cut of your sale — which can be as much as 29 percent — on top of the delivery fee, which varies depending on size. Extra-large items requiring a team of three or more to move are generally $145; large items like beds and sofas are $95; and small items like lamps are $35.
OFFERUP
OfferUp lets users sell a variety of goods. And while it doesn’t process payments like many of these services do, it doesn’t charge fees either. The one exception: a boost feature called “bump” that moves your item back to the top of the queue for $2.
The app’s “TruYou” program aims to weed out scammers by requiring a photo of your driver’s license and access to your Facebook page. Of course, the downside of sharing your sign-in information is that you’re giving the app access to your public profile, friend list and email addresses. Some users have also reported problems getting certified, and complained about a lack of customer support.
POSHMARK
Poshmark specializes in clothing (men’s, women’s and children’s) and accessories. It tends to have higher-end apparel than the apps that sell everything — and it takes a 20 percent commission — but it processes transactions with major credit cards, Apple Pay, Android Pay, PayPal and Venmo. It also facilitates shipping by sending the seller a prepaid label after a sale. Items that sell for more than $500 go to Poshmark before they are sent to buyers to ensure they are authentic and in the condition advertised.
Poshmark also holds virtual events with themes like “Kate Spade, Tory Burch, J. Crew, Lilly Pulitzer, Anthropologie & Kendra Scott Party.” Members not only host these parties but choose others’ listings to include, and there can be a lot of politicking involved. “It’s a big honor to be chosen as a host,” said Beth Cooper, a member who lives in Baltimore. She said that other members message the host in an effort to ingratiate themselves. “It’s high school ‘Mean Girls’ for clothes, but it works.”
KRRB
Pronounced “curb,” this app was recently bought by the decorating site Apartment Therapy, which is rebranding it as Apartment Therapy Marketplace.
The app specializes in furniture and home goods listings, which are free. But there is a 10 percent fee for handling credit card transactions; when a sale is complete, funds are transferred to the seller’s bank account. To boost a listing to the top of the queue, the app charges a “credit,” which can be purchased for 40 cents to $1, depending on how many are bought at once.
The app certifies that users are who they say they are with a check mark after they have used a credit card to complete a purchase or buy credits. It also provides a money-back guarantee: If an item doesn’t live up to the description, it is returned to the seller, and the Marketplace pays the shipping both ways.
THREDUP
ThredUp works something like a consignment shop, sending users a “clean out bag” they can fill with a laundry basket’s worth of women’s and children’s clothes and accessories, and paying the shipping costs.
But ThredUp is choosy: It prefers “like new” items from 35,000 specified brands. If items are rejected, sellers can pay a $13 fee to have them returned; otherwise, they will be resold elsewhere or recycled. “Nothing ends up in a landfill,” said ThredUp’s chief executive, James Reinhart.
When it comes to payment, the rules are a little complicated. For items the site prices at $60 or less, it pays the seller upfront, between 5 percent and 40 percent of the sales price. For higher-priced items, users receive a higher percentage — somewhere between 50 percent and 80 percent — but only after the item sells. (A calculator tells you in advance how much to expect.)
CHAIRISH
Chairish alters the photos you post, to make furniture look as though it was shot in a studio with a white backdrop. It also has an augmented reality feature that lets the buyer take a picture superimposing whatever they are thinking of purchasing onto a room in their home, to see how it would look there.
It is also one of the better organized apps, making it comparatively simple for buyers to search by category and refine a search by features like color, price and style.
Chairish uses a tiered commission system that takes 20 percent of the first $2,500 of a sale, 12 percent of the next $2,501 to $25,000, and 3 percent of anything above $25,000.
The site will arrange flat-rate shipping and charge it to the buyer; the seller also has the option of picking up the tab. The cost ranges from $10 to $300, but for “white-glove” shipping — which includes packing, crating, insuring and cleanup after delivery — it can top $1,000.
