yard “saling”
Let it be known that I hate yard sales. I hate going to them and I hate having them even more. However my husband and son through some faulty gene love both. In this post, I’ll teach you some tips and trick to host a successful yard sale and how to boost it using Facebook marketplace
So I occasionally will get out of the car at a yard sale if they’re selling outdoor decoration, plants, or when I used to look for toys for P when he was little. Otherwise I am the chauffeur for Michael and P to the yard sales about town. I search the listings, find a few within reasonable driving distance of each other, make a plan, and drive the boys. Why? Because I love my boys and they love going.
Found these great directional signs for our lemonade stand but will definitely use a few for the next yard sale.
I really hate, hate, hate having yard sales. So much work to categorize, price, set up, host, and take down. We also had a few washouts with horrible storms wasting all our hard work. I wasn’t keen to do it anymore. The dichotomy is that I love cleaning out old stuff from our house and I admit I like the extra money. Is it a ton of money, no, but the last yard sale we had we pulled in nearly $400 for hanging out in the front yard.
Michael wants to do it again this year in an additional attempt to downsize, minimize, and bring in “vacation” funds we always put this money aside as extra spending bucks for our trips like a slush fund for souvenirs, arcade games, etc..
So as I face yet another yard sale, I want to share what we’ve learned over the years.
Advertise with good pictures - I usually use Garage Sale Finder and Yard Sale Search as my two main outlets to find local yard sales and advertise our yard sale. We are drawn to yard sales that have good pictures of good merchandise. We have also had a lot of success when we post good pictures, with good descriptions of what we are selling. Try to take pictures of items that will most likely move - kids toys, garden tools, collectibles, etc. Avoid taking pictures of glassware, dinnerware, and unless it’s a spiffy espresso machine, other kitchen items. Those rarely sell and don’t draw people to your yard sale.
Can you read this sign? Neither could we. Great sign color, but the font is so small it was difficult to read.
Good signs are key - Sounds simple, but I can’t tell you how many bad signs we see each spring and summer. Use stiff cardboard that won’t curl in the sun and wind and write in LARGE BOLD LETTERS. No one wants to squint and struggle to read a sign while driving through an intersection. Arrows on signs or arrow signs (see picture) are great as you get closer to location.
Set up early - We thought because we posted “no early birds” that would be enough. Nope. I think because we had collectibles, it drew a lot of interested parties much earlier than the posted start time. We had folks showing up at 7am for a 8am start. I was scrambling to get stuff set up as people were rummaging through boxes I was trying to pull stuff out of. I was a bit flabbergasted, but didn’t want to be rude to folks because I really wanted them to buy stuff and take it off my hands. So I highly recommend setting up two hours earlier than your opening time.
Cross post - Two yards sales we had that were successful were because I cross-posted on every local yard sale Facebook Marketplace feed I could. I used the same pictures I used in the yard sale advertisements. In some cases, I would allow holds on items if they paid up front with Venmo, but most times it was in person, first-come, first-serve because with Facebook, I find you have no idea if the person is going to show up or not. I didn’t want to miss an in-person sale for a person who may not show up at all.
Price correctly - Too many times I go to yard sales, or see posts on Facebook, for merchandise that is priced to high. Unless something is in its original box, or a collectible, you should aim for 10% - 15% of original value. That means for something that was $30, it would be $3-5 at the yard sale. Tough to swallow? Not if you are really ready to let stuff go. Price things to move. It makes folks happy to know they’re getting a deal and will make you happy to get it out of your house. Yay, less clutter!
WHY DON’T YOU DONATE?
Someone commented on one my Facebook posts selling a lot of boys clothes. It was a half-dozen shirts and four pairs of jeans for $15. They wrote “Jeez, why don’t you donate that to someone in need?”. I told the poster to mind her business and move on. Someone else bought the lot a half-hour after I posted it. A couple of things to unpack here:
We donate lots of clothes, linens, kids books, adult books, and all many of goods to local charities. However, a lot of the charities these days are so overrun with textiles or other products they can’t turn around and sell, it’s actually better to try to move them to a secondary marketplace yourself.
When P was little, I was thrilled to find used toys and bagged-lots of baby and toddler clothes. These are the best! Littles grow so fast and the clothes are so gently used at those young ages, it’s a wonderful thing for moms to be able to do this with each other. Especially if you don’t have friends your age that have kids to either give or receive clothes from.
Massachusetts now bans throwing away textiles. I’m so proud of my state for doing this. Each year in Massachusetts, 230,000 tons, yes tons, of clothes end up in landfills. We give to friends, sell what we can, donate what we can, and then recycle the rest. Reuse, reuse, reuse, then recycle!
The Positive Take-Aways
We got to chat neighbors as they went by and got to meet and chat with new people.
We purged a ton of unused stuff from the house and it didn’t end up in a landfill.
We got to take the $400 we earned and put it towards vacation extras..
At yard sales we go to, I sometimes come home with more plants, and you all know how much I LOVE plants.
