The HARD SELL

Like many of us post Christmas, Hattie Bell felt in need of a good clear out, but wasn't sure where to turn for items that were too special for the charity shop. Here, she tries and tests several methods - from selling ceramics at a vintage market to auctioning books...

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Orlando Bloom and I may not have much in common, but if anyone can empathise with the Pirates of the Caribbean actor hurling everything but his ship's cannons overboard in a race to outrun the Black Pearl, it's me. Between the ever-circling flotsam that comes with raising children, a husband who struggles to jettison the cardboard boxes his camera equipment comes in, and a tide of keepsakes that have washed up on both parental sides, it weighs heavy on this natural minimalist to be so loaded with ballast.

Regular relays to our local charity shop and to friends with younger children help, but I struggle to relinquish items I know my grandparents saved for and cherished. Last winter, however, I finally reached a tipping point. Having had another wave of possessions spill into the house when my mother downsized and with the cost-of-living crisis lucidly prioritising cash over clutter - our saturated shelves had to be addressed. Anything of real value, financial or sentimental, had either already been sold, sorted or kept. The challenge was those pieces of middlingto-low value that were too good for the charity shop yet not profitable enough for professional dealers: granny's attic-type treasures.

But where to start? While guides to selling 'proper' antiques are fairly easy to find, there's much less information about these lower-denomination troves.

This is how I went about selling mine...

Glass & China

I took two boxes of china and glass to the auction rooms - and had my high expectations quickly lowered when the valuer looked at my immaculate Royal Vale Polka Dot tea set, glass trifle bowls and bud vases with polite disinterest.

"Tea sets are not doing well at the moment, nor is glassware,' he said.