It's no fun, is it? For many complicated reasons which I won't go into here, I have to start my cleanouts, too. Last fall I knew it was time to do the initial culling of the safe. For me, that meant selling the guns that were (a) of non-sentimental value and (b) that I was no longer interested in shooting. It was not that hard to identify those sixteen.
To sell them, I finally decided to put them in to a local online auction. Since I had been an online reseller, I was acquainted with some of the problems of online personal sales--and, I didn't want the hassle of either FTF or FFL-transfers.
The hardest thing for me to do was to accept the auctioneer's advice to not put minimums on certain guns. But, that was the best advice I got: Letting the market drive it also allows the dynamics of bidding to work.
FWIW, here's the site:
http://www.k-bid.com/index.htm I'm fortunate that the physical site is only a mile or so away from my residence, and the company is a long-time family auctioneering business that's changed with the times.
Only one gun went for somewhat less than I considered a fair market price, and several others went for noticably more. I can't help but believe this coming fall's auction will be good, too, what with being on the cusp of Democrat Party control of the government.
The auction turned out fine--fine in the sense that I got a fair price for my guns (market driven, that is)--and didn't have a hassle. The cost was about 15% to me, AFAICT. I plan on probably having another batch, I think, in next fall's auction.
As for "the small stuff" that's gun related, our club started having a one-hour sale and swap-meet before the monthly meeting. It's easy for me to put together a banker's box of various reloading gear and bring. Sale prices are ridiculous--e.g., garage sale--but the point is, the junk is no longer cluttering my life.
I think that I may try a big garage sale this spring if our small town does its garage sale community promotion again. This will not include gun stuff--but it should help me continue the cleanout.
The effort it would take to move into a gun show is probably more than I want to do, but that seems to me to be a good route with certain hand-picked gear.
Jim H.