We had
our yard sale this past weekend and it was a fabulous success. The weather was perfect, we couldn’t have
asked for better! We ran it on Friday
and Saturday from 8am to 2pm which was the right amount of time. Today I will attempt to recover. Yard sales are a lot of work!
Our
plans for our yard sale began when we were purging and preparing to move. Even though we are no longer moving we
decided we definitely wanted to go ahead with the yard sale anyway. My parents took a queue from me and decided
to do some purging of their own and cleared out a lot of stuff as if they were
planning to move themselves. They said
it helped them a lot with the decision making.
If you
are planning a yard sale in the not too distant future I have some tips for you
to make it a great one. I did a little
research and found these tips are right on the money – no pun intended.
Price Your Items while You Purge – this tip I found extremely helpful
because I wasn’t overwhelmed with pricing items for the sale.
Price Your Items To Sell/Be Willing To
Accept Offers – this was
a great tip too. It helped us to set low
prices when we decided whatever didn’t sell was going to be donated to the
thrift store. We were definitely willing
to wheel and deal in the final hours.
Be Organized – this is a really good tip. We set up “stations” on our drive way. We had one for toys, one for books, one
housewares, one for tools, one for Christmas stuff, one for home décor, and one
for miscellaneous.
Set Clear Dates And Hours – be open when you say you will be
open. Don’t close up early if you posted
specific hours. I watched my neighbors close
up early on theirs a couple weeks ago and there were a few unhappy
customers. Some were pretty vocal about
it.
Advertise – I posted our yard sale on Craigslist
on Thursday. I also highlighted some of
the items in the ad that would draw customers like furniture, tools, a stereo,
houseware items, etc. I add a line about our excellent prices. Also, I
put in directions so they could find us easily.
Post Signs That Point The Way – especially if you are a little off the
beaten path like we are. I put up signs
at the entrance of our subdivision facing both directions of traffic and then
additional signs pointing the way to our house within our subdivision.
Consider A Free Box – we set up one of these and people
really seemed to like it. We stuck all
kinds of odds and ends inside of it.
Kids really liked it too.
Be Able To Make Change – apparently this is something a lot of
people forget about and I almost did too.
I was so wrapped up in all the other details I almost overlooked this
one. We managed to scrounge up enough
loose change and dollar bills to set one up in a plastic divided container with
a lid.
Accept Cash Only & Keep It Secure – we didn’t accept checks at ours and we
kept ours tucked out of the way inside the garage.
Engage Your Customers & Say Thank You – saying thank you seemed obvious to me
but it was a tip I read over and over so apparently it is worth stating. I did welcome people that came by and asked
how they were doing when they arrived and I hope I thanked everyone. I certainly intended to.
When
all was said and done we loaded up the leftovers after inviting one of my
neighbors to come over and pick through and take whatever she wanted for
free. Then we headed to the thrift store
and gave them all of our remaining treasures.
They were really happy to get what we had left and we made sure we didn’t
give them any junk. No point in donating
something they would just have to throw away.
It was
a lot of work and a lot of fun. We met a
lot of neat people and some real characters too.
My
personal tip is to Stay Hydrated. You don’t realize how much you are moving
around and on a warm day you forget to stop and drink water until all of a sudden
you don’t feel so great. Drink lots and
lots of water.
If you
are planning a yard sale this summer I hope it is a great success and that you
have a lot of fun with it as well.
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