How to Have a Yard Sale

Summer is coming to a close, and fall will be among us. Who said you have to wait until spring to clean? Decluttering your home should be something you do regularly. One way to get rid of things in your home that you no longer need or want is to hold a yard sale. Yard sales have been going on for years, and you can find some great things if you go to one. There’s more that goes into a yard sale than you think though. Here are the steps to take to have a yard sale:

1. Clean out your house: Go on a supreme cleaning spree. Leave no room (or shelf in your garage) untouched. Find everything you no longer want, things you don’t need, and the items that have gone unused for months (or years) and put them aside. These will be the items you sell during your yard sale.
2. Pick a day: Yard sales do best on Saturdays and Sundays, when more people are off work. Find a day that works for your schedule, and make sure it works for your family and friends who are going to help you put the sale on.
3. Visit your city hall for a permit: In many cases, you can’t just set up a yard sale whenever you feel like it; you have to obtain a permit. The permits are inexpensive, and outline what’s allowed in your city or town, and what is not.
4. Decide on pricing: Yard sales are known to have things priced well. One thing to keep in mind is that you’re not going to receive the same amount you paid for a lot of things. When setting prices for yard sale, I suggest pricing your items at least for a 40% discount than what you paid. For items you may consider a collector’s item, check to see how much it’s going for online, on websites like eBay. You may be surprised at what you can get for the price.
5. Get the essentials: Yard sales are usually a couple hours during the day, so you’ll want to be comfortable. Get some chairs to sit on, tables to display the things for sale, a cash box to keep your earnings, some change for your customers, hangers for clothes, price tags, and promotional materials like flyers to post in your neighborhood.
6. Set up shop and start selling: The day of your yard sale, set up everything at least an hour before your “opening”. Make sure you tell everyone you can about it to get more people to come. Flyers should be posted around the neighborhood a week in advance. Post your yard sale on sites like Craigslist, as many people go there to find yard sales.
7. Be flexible: Remember, you’re not an actual store. You should be willing to be flexible on the pricing. People will appreciate bundles of things for 1 price, or even knocking off a dollar or two. The point of a yard sale, besides making money, is to get rid of the things. When I sold my things, towards the end of the sale, I let a lot of stuff go for a dollar just to get rid of it. Consider a “closing sale”.