Simple Tips for a Successful Yard Sale {Part Two}

Thanks for coming back for round two!  Part One was clearly a huge success (ha!) but I wanted to stay true to my word, so here’s the rest of what I wanted to share with you: 

6. Have plenty of change, in all amounts.   

  It’s a standard fact of life that ATM machines give out $20 bills.  So, as annoying as it is, be prepared for the fact that a lot of people coming to your sale will be paying with $20s, especially in the early morning, before some other lucky yard sale host has already broken it for them. :)  Knowing that going in will keep you from getting frustrated.  Personally, I like to take out $100: $10 in quarters, $30 in fives, and $60 in ones.  That’s just what I’ve found to work. 

7.  Realize that there’s something for everyone.

  It never ceases to amaze me what people will buy at yard sales.  Sometimes the craziest things are just what people are looking for!  For instance, I had a super cheap-looking tankini top from Wal-Mart that I haven’t worn in forever.  I contemplated just chucking it, but I put it in the 50-cent women’s clothes bin, and sure enough, someone bought it.  Same goes for some picture frames that I thought were hideous, and on and on.  Unless it’s truly broken or really worn out, you might get lucky and sell it – so just try.  :) 

8.  Free signs get rid of things for you.  Fast.

  Every time I have a yard sale, I do have at least one “Free” box at the end of the driveway, where I put everything that I consider truly unsellable.  Inevitably, without fail, the majority of the stuff in there is gone by the end of the day.  Everyone just loves to get something for free – what can I say? :) 

  The same goes for the end of your day…rather than automatically put all your leftover stuff in the car for Goodwill, place it on the end of the driveway with a “Free” sign.  I have done this for every sale I’ve had – after my two in PA, big ol’ totally creepy vans drove up and took every single item left.  Unfortunately, this didn’t happen here, but a ton of people did come by throughout the afternoon to look through our leftovers (Chris and I were totally getting so excited every time we saw someone taking it away. ;)  It’s a win-win: they get free items, and you have to fit that much less stuff in the car for a donation store.

{Poor Luke looking at all the neighbors’ cool toys for sale that mommy and daddy did NOT buy for him!  haha}

10.  Realize going in that yard sales are a lot of work. 

  Not to be a Debbie Downer here, but I just want you to be prepared in advance.  To run a good, smooth yard sale takes quite a bit of effort.  I spent hours on and off for a few weeks (and then more intense time in the two days prior) making sure that this would be a success.  For someone like me who has way more time than money :), this is not a problem.  It was worth it to me to clean the house out and make money, even if it took a while.  If I was working full-time and had triplets and a dog, I probably would have just hauled the stuff to Goodwill and called it a day.  Only you can decide if it’s worth it for you.  But for me as a stay-at-home mom, it was a no-brainer that a yard sale was a great idea.  

Which brings me to my last point…

11.  Host a yard sale with friends. 

  We had good traffic from about 7:30-11, when it slowed down dramatically.  Even though we were busy consistently, it was so much fun to have my mom and aunt and sister there to talk to and laugh with.  Plus, the more people you have selling with you, the more attractive your sale will be.  We had tons of items, in all different home styles, for sale.  I’d much rather stop at a giant sale than one with only a little table out front…just because odds are that I’m much more likely to find lots that I want to take home with me.  So talk to your girlfriends and family members, and get others involved.  Odds are, you’ll make a lot more money and have a lot more fun.  :)

 

Well, that’s a wrap!  Again, anything you’d like to share, I’m more than willing to listen!  What have you seen or tried that has worked well?  What has totally bombed?  I’m all ears eyes!

Simple Tips for a Successful Yard Sale {Part One}

As I mentioned in Monday’s post, I hosted a yard sale at my house last weekend, along with my mom, my sister, my aunt, and a couple from our church.  I made about $245, and that’s without selling any large pieces of furniture or electronics.  (To give you a better picture: the most expensive item I sold was $8; every other item besides that was $5 or less.)

I go to yard sales about every Saturday, so I’d estimate that over my 26 years (yup, my Mom hauled us to yard sales as kids), I’ve been to well over 1,000 yard sales in my day.  As an adult, I’ve done three of my own now in addition to selling at a local flea market (which is similar but also a lot different).  So, I think it’s safe to say that I’m pretty knowledgeable about what makes them work and what makes them doesn’t. 

Here are my top ideas for having your own successful sale – and please be sure to share with me at the bottom….because odds are I’ll be doing this again many times in my future. ;)

1.  Advertise, and do it well.  
  Imagine for a minute that you’re in your car.  What’s going to grab your attention more easily: an 8.5x11 sign with teeny-tiny directions on it, or a brightly colored poster with big letters telling you which way to go?  Sounds obvious, but I can’t tell you how many people place those standard “garage sale” signs around town and expect that people zooming by will be able to squint their eyes well enough to read the itty-bitty directions. 

See what I mean?  Can you read anything on the right?!

    
{via and via}                                                       

  Use a bright colored paper, and cut the crap. ;)  I bought giant yellow poster-boards ($3 for 6 at the Dollar Tree), cut them in fourths, and put them on a bunch of telephone poles…WITH ARROWS.  (I learned the hard way that making them too big only makes the ends flap over and then no one can read what it says.)  I also put a bunch of smaller posters on stakes that simply had an arrow on them to point people in the right direction.  Being consistent with the color is key…it was so helpful to be able to write on my Craigslist ad, “Follow the yellow signs!” 

  Which leads me to another point… advertising in the paper is fine, but a lot of people don’t get the newspaper anymore (and I can’t access our local paper’s classifieds online).  So Craigslist is a great choice (it’s how I find a lot of yard sales now!).  Place an ad for free, be detailed, and please, for the love, use good grammar and spell-check!  :) 

 

2. Decide what’s more important to you: an empty house, or money in your pocket.

  I can’t stand it when I go to yard sales and people try to convince me of the worth of their item.  I always want to say, “If it’s so wonderful, why aren’t you keeping it yourself???!”  You’re having a yard sale to get rid of items that you no longer want; be at least a little flexible when it comes to negotiating. 

  At the end of the day, all of that stuff in your driveway has to go SOMEWHERE.  Now, if you’re like me, there are a few things you’re not going to go rock-bottom on.  For instance, I sold some clothes last week, but not everything.  I know that I can bring them to my local consignment shop and attempt to get money from them there…which is why they weren’t offered at 25 cents a piece or placed for free at the end of my sale.  Same goes for an in-the-box kitchen vent we were trying to sell for $20…odds are that someone on Craigslist will want it for $50, since we bought it for $100. 

  So there might be a few things that are important enough for you to try “round two” on, but the rest…well, be willing to part with it.

 

3.  Have your items priced before you open.

  Some people love to haggle, but most people don’t.  Personally, I hate asking the owner about each and every item I hold up – it gets really old, really fast.  Pricing things allows people to know immediately if it’s in their affordable range. (And interestingly, people are less likely to haggle when the price is on the item.  I’m not sure why, but it’s true!) 

{via}

  Another benefit to pre-pricing is that when you have a few people waiting on you to “check-out” (and that happened to us, off and on, all morning), you can zip through the payment rather than having to negotiate each and every item with all the buyers.  Ugh.  That makes my head hurt just thinking about it! :)

  Pricing everything most certainly does not mean that you need to put a price tag on everything.  Get some old boxes, fill them with like items, and take a sharpie to them:  Books 50 cents, Frames $1, Kitchen Plastics 25 cents, etc.  You can even set a little sign on a table describing what each item is worth. (I did this with my lamps table:  I made one sign that said, “Lamp bases, $4; Shades $1.”)  Doing stuff like this is waaay easier than having to make a sticker for each individual item!

  Oh, and another tip:  don’t price anything for less than a quarter.  Trust me on this.  It’s not worth your aggravation, or your customers’.  If you truly think it’s worth less than a quarter, just mark it as free. 

 

4.  Use tables, if possible.

{you can click to enlarge!}

   I was very lucky that my parents’ church was only a few miles away, and we were able to use all of their folding tables for free.  You might not be in that position, but try to be creative in getting things off the ground.  Use drying racks, boxes turned over, kitchen benches or chairs, plywood over sawhorses…anything you can think of to get products up!  A lot of people don’t like to bend over to reach things, and I’ve noticed that my stuff within easy reach always sells a lot well than those that I’ve had to place on the ground because I simply ran out of room.

 

5.  Be organized.

  This ties in with number 4, but it’s really important to be organized.  People enjoy looking at things with visual cohesion  - it’s just human nature.  So if you have 15 Christmas items, place them in a group, not scattered throughout your sale.  Same goes for baskets, or books, or frames.  You’re more likely to make more money that way, since the person looking for Christmas items will most likely be interested in more than one item that you have. 

 
{click to enlarge}

6.  Place baby items somewhat close to the road.

  I realize that at first glace that might seem odd, but hear me out.  On the rare occasions that I yard sale with Luke, I am very selective about which ones I actually get out at.  Why?  Because each stop means unbuckling him and lugging his chunky little self out of the car.  So when I’m on the lookout for baby clothes (which I usually always am) and I see boxes of infant clothing or kids’ games out front, it’s a good clue that there’s going to be something there for me, and that it’s going to be worth my time to get him out.  Just something to think about if you’re trying to get rid of kid stuff. 

Whew, well that went even longer than I thought!  Come back tomorrow for Part 2 – and PLEASE share your feedback with me below!  I’ll probably do some kind of yard sale every year or every other year and I am always looking to do it better than I did before. 

 

Oh and one last thing: Darlene is hosting another giveaway on her scrapbooking blog!  All you have to do is comment on this post and follow her blog to get a chance to win Echo Park’s newest release, “Country Drive.”  So hop on over! :)

 

Linked to:

Works for Me Wednesday

I need some furniture advice…

I feel like I’m going through a home-style transformation.  When we first got married, I was all about black, silver, and red.  Crisp and modern.

Over the past few years, I’m definitely morphed into a “brown” kind of girl – there is brown in every room in my house, along with golds, reds, creams, and greens (although our bedroom is soft blue and brown).  It’s warm, but I think I’m getting ready for a change.  Maybe it’s the fact that I have a very active, growing son – my house just feels like it could be infused with a little more color. 

I’ve discovered some wonderful home blogs lately, and now I’m re-thinking the brown.  Do any of you read Edie’s blog, Life in Grace?  I mean, her kitchen is fantastic.  Here’s a picture for you:

I know that I’m personally not brave enough to paint my cabinets turquoise, but I love the concept – it’s a bold, fresh kitchen that still looks homey.  I love it! 

So here’s my dilemma:

I have this great white desk (which I’m planning on keeping white at this moment),

And a cool vintage chair to go with it:

 

Abby had commented in my last post about how great these two would go together, and she read my mind exactly. 

I just can’t figure out what color to paint the chair!  Do I go with a nice, shiny black?  Crisp and classic?  Do I stain it a nice deep brown?  Or do I go with paint – a soft green or a soft blue – or maybe even a soft red?  If I go with color, it has to be soft enough to blend in with my current decor, since I don’t have the money to change everything in my house at once. 

So, any thoughts?  I will take any and all suggestions! :)

Linked to “Backwards WFMW” at We are THAT Family.

 

P.S. Darlene is hosting a Cricut-related giveaway on her blog for all of you interested in scrapbooking!

Help with Meal-Planning

When I was doing the Eat From the Pantry Challenge last month, I really had to stretch my creativity when it came to cooking. Since I was barely shopping, I had to look into my pantry and just make it work!

I decided to help myself along in the process by creating dinner-time lists. I've seen this idea in its most basic form in books and around blog-land (as I'm sure you have too), but never quite like this. It totally works for me and I thought I'd share it in case it helps one of you!

In the front of my recipe binder, I've made lists of every major "meat" category and the standard ways I like to cook those meats for dinner. The list only includes tried-and-true favorites - things I know that I can turn to. As I try new recipes (and we approve of them), they get added to the list.

This has been really helpful in preventing that 5:00 burnout!

My categories are currently:

- Chicken

- Beef (multiple forms)

- Pork/Ham/Bacon

- Turkey {for my recipes that taste better with or call for ground turkey}

- Seafood

- Meatless

Some of the recipes are in two categories - for instance, "Mac 'n' Cheese" is under meatless and the ham category because I usually put chopped ham in it but it stands alone fine as a vegetarian meal.

I put a dot by the recipes that need to be put in the crockpot, so I can easily see that option at a glance.

I'm loving this system and I don't see any reason why I'll ever stop using it!