I am not officially living off the beach yet, but the beach trash goes on. Deciding to sell some of my beach trash collection, I had my first Beach Trash Sale! It was an interesting experience and I couldn’t even tell you how much I made. A little disorganized on the tracking! It is an estimated $100. Apparently I was in huge competition with a major annual rummage sale at one of the local churches! Quite a few lessons learned at this initial sale: Need to put more signs up. I only put up a few as I advertised on Craigslist and Next Door. 2.) Towels are big…. but they only want to pay…..25 cents per towel. 100% cotton, a few made in USA. A few sell online for $40 each (Marriott) and it cost more to wash them!!!!
It was early for the Beach Toys. Not the season yet, but I did sell a few volleyballs for $2.00 each. These were the good ones that retail up to $60!!! Lesson learned: double check pricing!
Beach Toys 10 Tennis Balls, 5 Volleyballs, 4 Nerf (soft foam) balls, 1 golf ball, 2 baseballs, 3 cheap plastic whiffle type balls, 1 basketball, 1 football and 7 assorted balls, 1 swim fin.
2 Boogie boards, 1 swim board, 1 Razor (sold $5.00) 1 Stroller (Sold $2.00)
Plastic Beach Toys: 151 of them. New the plastic beach toys retail for about $1.00 each. When summer comes, my average toy count is about 50 per day. That does not even take into consideration the 100’s of broken toys wafting out to sea to be eaten by marine animals… All adding to our plastic ocean
Miscellaneous Clothes: Over 100 various items: kids clothing, sweatshirts, scarves, bathing suits, T-shirts. Cost .25 cents to $1.00 each. I do not sell the socks I pick up. Too sandy and too expensive to wash and wash and wash! This doesn’t even count the clothes, I have had to throw away… Even the Goodwill doesn’t want them.
Miscellaneous: Lighter fluid, shoes, eating utensils, plates, 3 purses, 1 wallet, gardening trowel, Plastic cups, Glass coffee mugs. I forgot to put in plastic measuring cups, plastic food containers, glass dishes, spatulas, knives, reusable water bottles (5)…. Etc.. is right. I just gave 10 pair of shoes to Father Joes and that wasn’t even included!
Bedding and Towels: Over 100 Towels, Sheets and Blankets. Towels are from various sources: Marriott, Hyatt, Starwood, Hilton, Bahia and other local hotels. These were collected in less than 2 months. We are not even in season. I sold about half.
All in all, it was a little disappointing. My break-even point is about $100. That includes washing (laundromat) gas to get to the beach, detergent (eco-friendly of course) baking soda for the whites, vinegar for cleaning.
Free stuff is so plentiful now, garage sale leftovers, FreeCycle, Craigslist and some Facebook groups (buy nothing!) makes it clear how much or little our society values stuff and how disposable we have become and the loser is the environment and our plastic ocean.
Gosh! I am sad for you! All that work and such a meager return…lessons learned though….i suppose you have contacted the pertinent hotels and asked if they would like to pay you to buy back the towels..even $2-5 per towel is a deal for them compared to replacing them..and then you would not have to wash them. As for textiles..do you know aobut planet-aid? They will take any textile, even unwearables. They send them to shredders who then use them for car upholstery-stuffing. Their bins also take clothes, shoes, books, toys. So at least you can get a donation receipt (via email) and know that they stuff is going somewhere good! But ultimately, I hope you find a way to make a living selling all this stuff! What a crime: maybe a beach stand where people rent it from you for the day? You are right about how little we value stuff…and how cheaply it is made. read: overdressed: the high cost of cheap fashion…it actually applies to everything we buy and then ditch.
Good advice and thanks. Will check out Planet Aid, as the problem with much of the textiles I find on the beach, many are embedded with sand, you almost have to wash 4 times to get all the sand out That much sand destroys washing machines, plus the water usage. Good-Will does not want those types of clothes, even through they do take all textiles. Every time I look at these in particular clothes, the pens and pencils, the toys I think of several orphanges in Mexico that need all of these. Some of the Senior Centers in Mexico are in need of the same. We are wastrels!
I hate to say this, but when you sell clothes at a garage sale you will be lucky to get a $1.00 for each and that includes towels. I’m a crafter so when I go to garage sales, thrift stores, tag sales and so and so on. I look for specific items. I would have bought the box of sock to make potholders out of them. I would have bought 100% cotton t-shirts for a $1.00 or $2.00 a piece to make rugs. I think the most I’ve ever paid for a towel was from a thrift store for $8.00 and it was some sort of designer towel and I’ve had that for a few years and it’s still in great shape. When it starts to falling apart I will turn it into a large potholder.
Thank you for the feedback. I am learning as I go. will consider socks, as weather gets warmer, will be able to rinse out in ocean first to get rid of most of the sand.