I mentioned in a recent blog post my plan to suffer for fifteen minutes in order to learn how to use the clothes-selling website Poshmark. I heard about it from an employee at Lululemon when I told her I had some old Lulu clothes I was hoping to sell. She talked about "creating a closet" on the site, which was an initial turnoff to me. I barely have a real closet of clothes, much less a desire to create a virtual one. 

But since my desire to turn my old Lululemon clothes into money was greater than my desire to avoid the learning curve, I set aside a little time one day to figure it out. I began with the Poshmark app, and before long I had mastered the posting process. 

It really is very simple! You create a user name and then you take pictures of the item you want to sell. You select which photo will be your covershot, organize the other photos in any order you wish, and write a short description of the item. You specify (or guess) what the original price of the item was, and you decide what to sell the item for now. When you type in your selling price, the app indicates what your earnings will be when the item sells. Once you hit "List," the item shows up for sale in your closet.

Then others in the Poshmark community can browse by brand, item, or closet. The hope is that your item will be the chosen one and will move from your actual closet to theirs. I have listed fourteen items since I began using Poshmark a month ago, and so far seven of my items have sold. Usually the buyer will "make an offer" to my selling price, and then I can choose to counteroffer or reject their offer. I usually drop my price a few dollars, and then we meet somewhere in the middle.

Once the item is sold, an email is generated automatically from Poshmark, and a prepaid USPS shipping label is attached. You print off the label and attach it to the padded envelope in which you are mailing the item to the buyer. This part of the process takes just a couple minutes, assuming you have mailers and shipping tape available. Then you drop off the package at the post office within two days (you can just drop it in the big blue box outside; no need to go in). Once the buyer receives the package, they have to go on the app to indicate acceptance of the item, and at that point, your earnings go into your account on Poshmark. You can spend your earnings on Poshmark, or choose to have the money paid via check or direct deposit. 

All in all, Poshmark has proved to be an extremely straightforward process, and I continue to be amazed at the mass consumerism that is America. I am thankful for this opportunity to make a little extra money, which I hope to spend at Lululemon once I cash out. 

One other trick I've found to be helpful is that once an item has been listed for a couple weeks and hasn't sold, if you lower your price, Poshmark notifies all the users who have liked your item. Sometimes this generates just the impetus needed to move the product. 

Here's a peek in my closet, and I'd love to see in yours!