How to Have a Perfect Yard Sale
Many people, myself included, always cringed at the thought of yard sales or garage sales. But a particular set of circumstances forced me into the process of de-cluttering an over-run house, full basement, a separate workshop and a garage, in one year’s time. After eleven yard sales, I finally got it down to a science, or an art form, I’m not sure which.
Tools you will require:
-magic marker
-masking tape
-large garbage bags
-empty boxes
-bonus buy is those little blank tags with strings on them
-a large quantity of sticky dots in a various colors like red, blue green and yellow
-at least one large table that items and boxes can be placed on
-poster board
-a large quantity of plastic or paper grocery bags
Preparation
Step 1: The very first thing you need to do is to decide what you are ready to part with. This first step is often the very thing new yard sellers get wrong. Repeat after me: The purpose of a yard sale is not to make you money. What’s that you say? Not make money? No, the purpose of a yard sale is to de-clutter your surroundings and perhaps give you a little bonus money for the time you invest in de-cluttering.
Step 2: In keeping with that idea, your second step is to go through your belongings, sorting them into three, and only three, categories: Keep, Trash and Donate. How you separate these is up to you but the Trash and the Donate need to be taken away from the Keep items and kept separate. Do not take something out of your Trash pile or Donate pile, once you have placed the item in that category and haul it back over to the keep pile. Over-thinking breeds pack-rats.
The Keepers – Items in this category should be working, functional, highly sentimental, in use or quite valuable. If there are tears, breaks, dents, scratches or other things you know you won’t really fix, it should not remain in this category. If you haven’t touched it in years, you probably won’t for several more. Reconsider whether you really need it. If you decide you really want to keep it, place it in one of the boxes if possible.
The Trash – Self explanatory but lets be a bit brutal here. If you have set something aside because it is not working or it needs fixing and you haven’t already fixed it, you probably won’t. If you were going to fix it, you would have already started the process. If you actually think you are going to fix it, then stop what you are doing right now and go fix it. If you don’t, consider it Trash and put it in the large garbage bags.
The Donate Category – Notice I did not say The Sell Category. This category is one of the biggest keys to your yard sale success. This is stuff than is not broken but you don’t want it anymore. Place these in different boxes than you did your Keep items. Yes, we will try and sell these but you have to make a commitment that what you don’t sell is going to be given away to charity. Once you do this, pricing your item will become a whole lot easier.
Step 3: Step three helps you to feel better immediately. Take your trash pile and get rid of it. Either put it out at the curb for the sanitation truck, or take it to your municipal dump yourself. However you do this, you want it out of your house, basement or garage. You will be amazed at how much space this one step will give you.
Step 4: Now, you are left with two piles, your Keep pile and your Donate pile and you’re ready for Step four. Here is where your next step in brutal de-cluttering comes in. Step four is to go through your Keep pile and put every item you have in that pile into the proper place in your home. If you don’t have a place for it, then you need to move it to the Donate pile. We don’t keep things we don’t have a place for. This will force you into some hefty decisions, but it’s for your own good. If you keep everything, you don’t have room for anything new and you won’t be able to find the things you do have. So, with that in mind, put it away without piling it back up into another mess, or move it to the Donate pile.
By now, you should have considerably more room to work with. If you have done your Trash and Keep piles with brutal but efficient enthusiasm, you will have more room to sort your Donate pile into items you can use in your upcoming yard sale.
Sorting your items:
Step 5: Now you are ready to sort your Donate pile into several boxes or places for pricing. Like should go with like. Put all clothes together, toys together, books together, and kitchen appliances together, and so forth. If you have a variety of clothes sizes, take a piece of masking tape, write the size on it with a magic marker and stick it to the clothing. Believe me, customers will want to know what size it is and if you end up donating it, it helps in preparing your tax receipt.
Checking out the Competition:
Step 6: Okay, you’re not really spying here, but you are trying to get an idea of what sells in your area and at what price. The only way to do this is to take a weekend and visit yard sales, garage sales, thrift shops or estate sales in your area. Consider this time as research.
Remember you are in a pack-rat intervention period. Unless something is a missing piece to your good china, or something you have needed for a very long time, your job here is to browse and not buy. The last thing you want to do in this step is to bring home more things to store. Here’s a plan to keep you honest: If you bring home anything, then something in your precious keep pile that you put away so carefully in Step Four, will have to be placed in the Donate pile. Those are the rules.
Pricing your items:
If you have already sorted and you have browsed the area for general prices, then you should have an idea of what your items should go for. This next step is critical for your success.
Step 7: For every item you are going to sell, decide what your bottom price is. What is the lowest price you are wiling to sell this item for? Now, if you do not sell it, you are not going to keep it. Whatever does not sell, you are going to pack up and donate to a local charity like Salvation Army, Goodwill, AMVETS, or some other charity in your area. So this price you are deciding is the lowest price before you say to yourself, “I would rather donate this than to sell it for that!” Once you have done this, get an estimate of how much your yard sale should bring you if you accept the bottom price on every item. This will be your goal. Anything above that number will be a bonus.
Now you are ready to price your items. You know what you want to sell it for and you know what you will actually accept. With your tags, tape and colored dots, price your items at the price you want to sell it for.
Step 8: No matter how much you think you will remember, please do price everything. I made the mistake of throwing a bunch of little items in a box and pricing them all for 50 cents. Imagine my surprise when I got swamped with customers and people were grabbing things from my 50 cent box and mixing them with the one dollar box. Could I remember what was what? No. Did they remember? Of course they didn’t.
Price everything you’re going to put out, and that’s where those little colored dots can be a life saver. Pick a color and have it be a particular price. That way all your items at 50 cent can be a red dot. All your one dollar items can be a green dot. Little items are best used in this manner. Masking tape and the tags with strings can be used on larger items.
Pick a day:
Step 9: You may wonder why I didn’t have you pick your day right off the bat. I don’t do that because sometimes it takes us a while to really decide that we mean business and pricing everything can take longer than you would expect. I’d rather be completely prepared than to find myself at the deadline and I haven’t really followed the previous steps. Remember that you’re looking for a successful yard sale, not something that is going to aggravate you and make you feel cheated. Once you have your items priced and you know your bottom price, you can check the 10 day weather forecast and pick a day to run your sale.
Advertise:
Step 10: There are several places you can advertise for your yard sale. Some are free and some will cost you. It is up to you as to how much you are willing to spend here. Please do keep in mind the point of the yard sale before you spend a lot of money. If you don’t understand why, go back and read Step One again.
Some options here: church bulletins, local newspapers, email your friends and ask them to email their friends, make small posters for your local telephone poles (if you put them up, make sure you also take them down) and of course a poster on your mail box or a stake in your front yard. Bulletins, emails and newsletters can be done 1 and 2 weeks ahead of time. The posters should not go up prior to 1 week before your yard sale.
All Advertising should clearly say: Date of the yard sale, Time the yard sale will run, the address of the yard sale, whether you will accept vendors and whether you will accept checks or just cash
My personal recommendation is cash only, paid at the time they remove the item and make it a rule you will only hold the item for one hour before it is released for sale again. This prevents someone from saying they want your item and need to go to the bank, but then deciding on the way to the bank against buying your object.
If you didn’t understand the statement about vendors, I’m referring to the “professional yard sale buyers”. They usually have a flea market or thrift shop and they get their items by being the first person at your yard sale, picking the very best things or the entire lot and offering a low ball figure on them. Now, is this a bad thing? Not always. It’s only a problems if you don’t know how much you’re willing to part with your items for. Remember Step 7 and don’t sell for less than that figure you had in mind.
Grab some help:
Step 11: Unless you are Superman in disguise, don’t try to run a yard sale solo. There are times I felt very relaxed during my yard sale and there were times when I thought I’d pull my hair out. You will be talking to a great number of people and many will be asking you questions. Having someone to help you watch your cash box is a must. That cash box must never, under any circumstances, be left unattended.
You will also need some help putting the items out on the day of your yard sale and boxing up any unsold items at the end of your sale day.
At least one day before the Sale:
Step 12: Go to the bank and get $100.00 divided into a couple of 10’s, a couple of 5’s, at least $30 in singles and the rest in quarters. This will be your bank. Make sure you write down your starting bank or you will have no idea how much you made at your yard sale.
Step 13: Visualize where you will be placing the items you have for sale and where you will be sitting. Make sure you have a chair available for both you and your friend. Make sure your table is ready to place any items on that you wish to have on display there. Also, make sure you have your bags ready. These will be used to aid your customers when they are purchasing more than one item. They will greatly appreciate this.
On the Day of the Sale:
Step 14: Start very early! If you stated that your sale will start at 8am, expect some early shows at 6am. It happens. You can use your discretion here but I suggest you ask them to come back at the appointed time. This will allow you to put your items out to show at their best advantage, make sure that you are organized and you and your friend have time to breathe before the fun begins. You really do need this setup time.
Make sure you can see your items; breakables are on a steady surface and yours and your friend’s chair are in a good location to see and be seen. Make sure you have your cashbox with you and you are ready for your day.
The Sale:
Step 15: The sale begins. You’re excited and perhaps a little nervous. One thing I discovered about yard sales that I had not known before. They are a chance for you to meet your neighbors, chit-chat with local people and just be friendly. You already know that you can’t lose here. You know the bottom price you are willing to sell for and know that you can say with confidence that “No, I’m sorry. I can’t sell it for that price. You’ll have to come up a bit from that.” If they do, that’s great. If they don’t, then Salvation Army will get a nice donation and you’ll get a tax receipt. Of course, if someone offers you something between the price you’re asking and your bottom price, do take it. Your object here is to de-clutter your house and as long as you sell it over your bottom price, you will be ahead for the day.
The Clean up:
Step 16: At the end of the day, first put your cashbox back in the house and in a safe location. Then box everything up and put it out of site in your garage or home. Since you will be donating the remainder to charity, make a quick inventory of all that is left. Call the charity for pickup at the first convenient time and what their packaging requirements are. Follow those and be ready for their pickup.
Yard Sales can be Addictive:
In following these steps, you may find you will become more relaxed about having yard sales or garage sales. You may even find that the time visiting with your neighbors is actually nice. Many of us don’t have time to socialize anymore. This type of sale can actually become a neighborhood social event. Take your time and enjoy it.
