How to have a successful yard sale

Got a lot of so called “junk” to get rid of, but don’t want to just throw it away? Have a yard sale.

I know what you're thinking: “Yuck, a yard sale, they are so much trouble.” Yes, they can be if you just throw a bunch of stuff in your yard in boxes and wait for people to fish through them. And we all know garages are better, but if you don’t have one then you have no choice but to have a yard sale.

reason being they are going to “freak” when you are going through their “stuff”, so you need to let them help by this I mean, let them help you pick and choose the toys they have outgrown and are willing to give up, let them sell their things on a table of their own and make sure you are always close by, but let them take care of their own little store, so to speak.

Also, the money they make on their own should be theirs and how you work this out between them is up to you.

1). Once the kids are settled, gather all the items you have collected ahead of time, separate them in little piles or boxes based on price, size if it’s clothing, or by items tools in one box, toys in another, knick knacks and other

small items together and so on until everything is neatly placed in a box, and I suggest that you purchase a couple plastic boxes with lids on them from your nearest dollar store so that way if it starts to rain you will always have a nice dry place to store your items. When pricing your

items you have to be fair and reasonable. Maybe you have something that cost you $50 a few years back: customers really don’t care, they just want to buy it and hope you will come up with a price that will make them buy. Clothes which are very poor sellers should be priced accordingly, 50 cents and up to $1.50 seems to be the going price for used clothing.

Baby clothes and children’s clothes sell much better than adults and when you're selling clothes don’t just pile them up on a table. Fold them in order of size and color so that your customers will take the time to check them out, if they are a mess no one will look. Just remember that pricing is everything you don’t want to be too high, but not so low that you don’t make a profit. Plus, it’s always a good idea to have the price tags right on the front or top of your items so that way customers will know right off hand what they are paying and they won’t have to ask you over and over what the price of something is.

2). Setting up the yard sale can be a chore in itself. You have to make sure you are allowed to have yard sales in your neighborhood and make sure that you can place signs at the end of your road and in your yard. Once that is taken care of these signs should be placed a couple of days before your sale, maybe place them on Thursday before you have the sale and make sure that you have enough information on the signs, but don’t over crowd it.

3). You will need to have enough tables to place items on, these you may need to borrow from family and friends.

4). If you are able to run a clothes line from tree to tree do so and hang up most of your clothes, it makes for less clutter.

5). There are going to be items that are just too cheap to sell: you may want to place a box somewhere that you can place a sign on that says “Free to good home.”

6).I have been to yard sales where the person having the sale does not have a garage, but does not want to be outside so they rented a canopy tent or had one of their own then placed all their items under it and stayed out of the sun and rain. I thought that was a neat idea: they were able to have the clothesline on both sides of the tent, which made everything look appealing to the customers eye.

7). You should never leave money laying around in a box unless someone will be standing guard over it the entire time: you could carry a fanny pack. They are cheap and can be purchased in a dollar store. That way you can straighten up your tables and be available to your customers at all times, not sitting there on guard.

8). To make things easier for your customers, have some paper or plastic bags around: that way they can purchase more than a few items. You would be surprised to see how much more they will pick up if there is somewhere to put things.

9). Some yard sales I have been to have taken time out to make grab bags of items like clothes or toys priced at $2.00 a bag. Even some of the items that are just too small to put a price on, place in a bin or box and lay a pile of small brown lunch bags beside it, place a sign on the box that reads “fill this bag for $0.50.”

10). You should always have your calculator on hand to help total your sales, makes for less fuss with customers and I can’t stress this more make sure you always lay their bills that they give you to the side and then give them their

change, you would be in shock if you knew how many people tried to cheat you out of extra money by saying they gave you a $20.00 bill when they gave you a $10.00.

11). If the weather is hot outside set out an ice chest filled with cool drinks like sunny delight or kool aide splashes and charge .50. This will give customers another reason to stick around and browse.

Most of all have a good time with your yard sale: maybe even gather family and friends and have them bring some items to sell. No matter what happens have fun and good luck.