Ready to Let It Go?: Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease

On Organizing with Ease, professional organizer Diana Moll reminds her listeners that decluttering is not finished when you decide to let something go. It is finished when the item actually leaves your home. She asked Commonplace founder and CEO Ari Kimmelfeld what to do with the sofa, the dining table, or the sauna that is ready to go but still sitting in the house.

Watch the episode: Special Episode: Ready to Let It Go? What to Do with Furniture You No Longer Need, Organizing with Ease with Diana Moll, aired November 10, 2026. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

The episode is also on YouTube, Buzzsprout, and the Organizing with Ease site.

Key takeaways

• Big furniture gets stuck because selling it means photos, a listing, a price, messages, no-shows, and strangers in your home.
• Decide whether something is worth selling by what it sells for used today, not by what you paid.
• On Commonplace the seller is paid at pickup, and nothing leaves the house until then.
• An optional floor price, hidden from buyers, accepts any offer at or above it, so there is no lowball back and forth.
• Start with the one big, valuable, brand-name item. It clears the most space and sells fastest.
• Do not put everything in storage. Store to Sell keeps the pieces most likely to sell and delivers them when they do.

Why big furniture gets stuck in the house

Ari says selling something big takes more than a decision. You have to photograph it, write the listing, and guess a price for something that may have cost thousands. Price it too high and nobody asks. Price it too low and you feel guilty. Then come the messages, the no-shows, and strangers in your home.

Let's say you list something online, you gotta take the photos, you gotta make the listing. You don't really know what to price it at. You know what you paid, and it could be thousands of dollars.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 07:21

And if you price it too high, you're going to get no inquiries. If you price it too low, well, then you feel guilty for not really getting what it was worth.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 07:42

For the people that know Facebook Marketplace, you get dozens of messages sometimes by people that aren't actually interested.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 08:26

All of these things involved make getting rid of something that's really big a headache, even though you want to declutter, you want to feel lighter.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 09:05

Read how to sell big items without meeting strangers.

Sell it, donate it, or give it away?

Diana asked how to tell whether a piece is worth selling or better given away. Ari's answer is to look at what it actually sells for used, not at what you paid. The Commonplace Resale Index shows secondhand prices by category, brand, and year, so you know whether a listing is worth your time before you start.

So we have a lot of data on secondhand transactions across the US, across many different categories.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 09:37

And so you kind of get to see what the actual secondhand prices of the transactions, the prices that people are buying and selling them actually are, and whether it's worth your time to go through the listing and getting rid of it.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 10:08

Another feature we have is you can actually take a picture of a room. Say it's a living room, a kitchen, a gym in your garage, and it'll actually recognize all the different products that would be eligible to be sold on Commonplace and give you a suggested price.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 10:22

Look up prices on the Resale Index, or try Sell Your Room. More in why you can't sell furniture for what you paid.

How a sale works on Commonplace

Commonplace picks up, inspects, and delivers the item and handles the payment. The buyer sees inspection photos and videos before pickup and, on orders under $8,000, pays the rest on delivery. The seller is paid at pickup by Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, or bank, and a trained crew moves the item out.

We do the full inspection upon pickup. So we make sure everything is working. We send all the photos, the videos to the customer and the customer has the option of paying upon delivery.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 13:33

We offer a free two-month parts warranty and you can also get an additional warranty after that.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 13:49

The seller gets paid immediately at pickup. Nothing leaves your property until you are paid in full, either Cash App, bank transfer, PayPal or Venmo.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 14:05

And it's moved out by a professional crew that is trained in that category.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 14:17

See how it works and the warranty, or read how Commonplace delivery drivers are trained.

Finding the right buyer for a dining set

Ari's example is a dining set with beautiful chairs that cost a lot. The right buyer may have just bought a house, and may not live nearby. Commonplace recognizes the item from one photo and suggests a price from real sales. It can ship the set across the country by freight, and the seller is still paid at pickup.

So let's say you're a seller, and you want to get as much attention on a really nice sofa that maybe you paid thousands of dollars for, or a really nice dining set from Restoration Hardware with beautiful chairs.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 20:17

So what we do is you take one picture of it and we basically recognize what it is.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 20:56

And sometimes that buyer is not going to be immediately next to you. And we can ship that product from South Florida to Los Angeles, for example, because maybe that's where the customer is.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 22:33

We come in, we package it, we palletize it, we make sure that it's safely being shipped to California and that person gets it and you get paid upon pickup.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 22:45

Browse used dining tables, or sell your furniture.

A floor price ends the lowball game

Ari says Facebook Marketplace sellers price high because they expect to be lowballed, which invites more lowballing. On Commonplace you list at a suggested price and can add an optional floor price, the lowest offer you would be happy with. Buyers never see it, and any offer at or above it is accepted automatically.

And I think on Facebook Marketplace, the seller is anticipating people to, quote unquote, lowball them. And so they price at a certain high price because they're expecting to sell it for maybe half of that.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 24:15

And that floor price is super important. And it asks you, how much would you be happy getting rid of this for?

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 24:59

You do it once, you figure out what that happy number is, and then any offer above that is automatically accepted.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 26:04

More in how to avoid lowball offers when selling furniture.

A sauna, taken apart and rebuilt

One of Commonplace's first premium saunas went to a buyer in Texas who thought the listing was too cheap to be real. A sauna crew took it apart panel by panel, disconnected the electrical, then reassembled and reconnected it at his home. Ari says the buyer loved Facebook Marketplace, but a sauna was too much work to move himself.

We've had a lot of different saunas transact.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 28:06

It had to be disassembled fully. So every single panel of the sauna was disassembled, the electrical had to be disconnected and they professionally reassembled it, reconnected it.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 29:49

Ari recalled what the buyer said afterward:

We're not experts in disassembling and assembling, but this was actually white glove.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 30:23

And it doesn't have to end up at a landfill. It just needs to be handled properly like a beautiful designer dining table should be.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 32:06

Browse used saunas, or read how to sell a sauna.

Start with one big thing

Ari's first tip is to start with the one item that takes up the most space and is worth the most, like a sauna, a hot tub, a dining set, or premium fitness equipment. One sale clears the most room and puts the most cash in your pocket, and brand names sell faster because buyers search for them.

I think the hardest part is getting started. And I think my tip for getting started is find the one thing that is maybe taking up a lot of space and is probably one of the more valuable things.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 35:07

First, they're the most valuable. So you'll end up with the most cash in your pocket versus bags of clothes or books.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 35:38

And that'll get the ball rolling because momentum, something in motion stays in motion.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 36:28

More in do brand-name items sell faster secondhand.

Storage, and Store to Sell

Ari's second tip is not to put everything in storage and deal with it later. With Store to Sell, Commonplace picks up the few valuable, brand-name pieces, keeps them in its warehouse, and delivers them when they sell, so you get paid without being there. Diana added that storage should be a short stop, not years.

One is they just put everything in storage and be like, I'll deal with it later.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 36:50

But we actually have a Store to Sell program where the few things that are really valuable, big and premium brands that people are looking for, you can have those in a separate area.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 36:58

We basically pick it up. We put it in a Commonplace warehouse. And when it sells on Commonplace, we basically deliver it to the customer, we pay you directly.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 37:11

If there are some nice things in there that could get sold for great value, don't just put everything into the same unit.

Ari Kimmelfeld on Organizing with Ease, at 39:29

See Store to Sell, or read moving and can't take your furniture.

Commonplace is the Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist and OfferUp alternative for big items. Listing is free, and Commonplace handles pickup, inspection, delivery, secure payments, and a free two-month parts warranty. Labor coverage is available as an add-on. White-glove delivery is free within 100 miles, longer distances are quoted by ZIP, and Commonplace ships nationwide. See how it works.

Categories in this episode

These are the two or three categories this conversation covers. Shop the used listings, or open the sell page when you are ready to let one go.

• Furniture. Selling one: sell your furniture.
• Dining tables.
• Saunas.

FAQ

What is Commonplace?

A marketplace for big secondhand items, like Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or OfferUp, with pickup, inspection, delivery, and secure payments handled by Commonplace. Listing is free, sellers are paid at pickup, and delivery is free within 100 miles.

Why can't I sell my furniture for what I paid?

Buyers pay what used furniture sells for today, not what it cost new. Check real secondhand prices first, then price to the market. Read more.

How do I avoid lowball offers when selling furniture?

On Commonplace you can set an optional floor price that buyers never see. Offers at or above it are accepted automatically. Read more.

Do brand-name items sell faster secondhand?

Ari said yes, because buyers search for the brand, not the generic item. Read more.

Thank you to Diana Moll for having Ari on Organizing with Ease. Quotes are from the episode, lightly edited for reading. Listen to the full conversation on Apple Podcasts.

More from Ari's podcast interviews: questions Ari answered on podcasts and every show he has been on.

Sell your furniture on Commonplace