Where it started
It wasn't a business idea. It was a family problem.
I watched people close to me go through major life transitions , a parent passing, a home being cleared, a family trying to figure out what to do with decades of accumulated belongings. The emotional weight of those moments is already immense. And then you add the practical burden of actually dealing with the stuff.
Listing items individually. Arranging strangers to come to your home. Negotiating prices when you have no energy left to negotiate. Or worse , just dumping it all, knowing something valuable is going to landfill because it was the path of least resistance.
That felt wrong to me. There had to be a better way.
"We accumulate. We hoard. And it often takes a massive life event , or literally running out of space , before we actually deal with it."
The real problem
The second-hand economy is booming. The experience of selling hasn't kept up.
Platforms like TradeMe and Facebook Marketplace are great , if you have the time, energy, and inclination to use them. You need to photograph everything. Write descriptions. Handle enquiries. Arrange pick-ups. Deal with no-shows.
For someone going through a bereavement, a divorce, a move overseas, or downsizing into a smaller home , that's not realistic. And so the default becomes: skip it, chuck it, lose the value.
After talking to hundreds of people during our customer discovery phase, I saw this pattern everywhere. This isn't a niche problem. It's a widespread one that nobody had built a proper solution for.
What we built
Hand it over. We handle everything. You get paid.
Cluttr is a marketplace platform that connects people who need to declutter with a vetted network of resellers who do the selling on their behalf. You photograph your items, submit them through our web app, and we match you with a local reseller who collects, lists, sells, and handles the whole process.
When items sell, you receive your share directly. No strangers at the door. No listings to manage. No awkward negotiations. Just proceeds, returned to you.
We're already doing this in Christchurch, right now , helping real people deal with real life transitions. The model is proven. The feedback has been genuinely moving. We're ready to grow.
"Think Uber, but for your stuff. You hand it over, someone else does the work, you both get paid."
Where we're going
Jobs. Value. Less waste. More space to move forward.
This isn't just about convenient decluttering. Every item Cluttr resells is an item that doesn't end up in a skip. Every reseller we onboard is someone building a real, flexible income. Every client we help is someone who gets to close a chapter of their life without the weight of the stuff holding them back.
New Zealand throws away millions of dollars worth of reusable goods every year. We want to build the infrastructure that changes that , creating a trusted, local, circular economy for household goods, powered by people who are good at selling and motivated to do it well.
We're a small team. We move fast. We're building this in the open, with our community, and we're genuinely grateful for every person who gets in touch.
If you've got stuff to shift, a reseller in your area will be on the way.