There are lots of reasons to have a yard sale, and for many it's an annual event. Spring seems to be the most popular time of year for yard sales. We're doing spring cleaning and what better time to clear the clutter and get organized. So why do you want to have a yard sale?
- You can raise money, and it's a great way for kids to learn the value of money.
- Your church or other group you belong to is doing a fund raiser, and invited you to participate.
- You want to get rid of things you're not using … and while spring is popular, you can do this any time of year.
- You enjoy the camaraderie of participating in the neighborhood yard sale.
- Before moving, you want to get rid of things you don't want to take to your new home.
Tips to Organizing Yard Sales
The first element to having a successful yard sale is to plan it out, and advertise. In fact you'll have more fun and success when you get several families to participate in one, larger yard sale. Just imagine if you have 10 families and they each get 10 buyers to come to the yard sale, that's a hundred buyers lining up to pay you money and take away things you're not using, like clothes your children have outgrown.
Advertise everywhere, meaning online and offline. Don't forget to put signs up in your neighborhood and a small ad in your local newspaper works well because they group the ads, and avid garage followers cut the page out when going on the road. People are busy, so a reminder on social media and even an email to friends the day before or morning of is worthwhile.
So here's an article we wrote about organizing a neighborhood yard sale …
Getting Everything Organized to Sell!
It's equally important to put some thought into how you organize everything at yard sales, so there's little to clean up at the end of the day. Here are the best tips to help you make all your yard sales successful … and please, leave a comment with any yard sale ideas you've found especially useful.
- Get everything up off the ground, to make it easy for people to really see what you're selling. Long, narrow tables work really well as do clothes racks.
- Make aisles that are easy for people to navigate and see everything available, marking off areas not for sale … like what's in your garage if your sale is taking place in the driveway.
- Group items with similar characteristics like … need to be plugged in for testing. Keep breakables together so you can keep an eye on them.
- Make special offers for difficult to sell items like adult clothing and books. What works well is pricing by the bag or box, say$1 per bag, or $5 per box (and have enough bags and boxes available). This approach also works well towards the end of the day, to get rid of what's not selling.
- Put price tags on everything or people may walk away, as they won't ask for a price. For similar items, you can group them on one table with a sign about pricing but people will pick things up and move them so this doesn't always work.
- Start your yard sale early and be ready an hour ahead for early shoppers. For example, be ready at 7am for a yard sale advertised to start at 8am.
- Be prepared to bargain, reminding yourself that your goal is to get rid of things you're not using.
- Only take cash because you don't want to chase people down if a check bounces, and especially if that check is from a friend.
Donating What Doesn't Sell at Yard Sales
Remember why you decided to have a yard sale, and either mark things down at the end of the day or …
Make a plan to donate everything that's left. If you're not willing to give something away, then maybe it doesn't below at the yard sale? To make things easier, I plan and manage the yard sale and my husband takes over at the en. He loads the car up with everything left and off it goes to Goodwill (or your favorite local charity), where others will discover your stuff and make good use of it.
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