My best friend and I teamed up this past fall for an epic yard sale. Seriously, we had so much stuff.
You may recall last spring when I wanted to hold a yard sale, but I chickened out. I'd never done one before. Thankfully my best friend has, so I decided to learn from a pro. Our sale was a HUGE success. Together we brought in over $1,000. Not bad at all. We made money and got rid of a pile of stuff!
10 Tips for Having a Successful Yard Sale
1. Organize. My best friend is an organization queen, so this was all her doing. We set up a table for each category of stuff: home decor, kitchen, baby, clothes. Her husband built a hanging rack for the clothes. People kept telling us it was the most organized yard sale they'd ever seen. I'm pretty sure that helped us sell more.
2. Facebook. Make the most of Facebook by joining local buy/sell groups and posting your sale there. I also posted the bigger items individually. Those groups brought us several interested buyers. And don't forget to post on your personal account, too. A few friends came by and shopped our sale.
3. Craigslist. I listed our sale and all the larger items under the right categories on Craigslist. I sold one of my bigger pieces through the ad, and several people drove in from far away just for our sale. It really paid off! Oh, and photos, photos, photos. I never go to a yard sale that doesn't show me what it's selling! (I didn't post our address on Craigslist, but had people call for directions. I feel weird about putting an address online.)
4. Extras and details. We covered our tables with tablecloths to make our stuff look a little nicer. We also played music to fill the awkward silence. Keep things tidy, and as items sell, shift the rest around so the tables still look full. Whenever something sold off a table, we moved what was on the ground up onto the table. It made it look like we still had loads to sell.
5. Price everything. Nearly. I know pricing everything is a pain, but we bought pre-priced stickers to help. (I LOVE these stickers. They make life so much easier.) We had a few bins marked "$1 for each piece." Just make sure your signs are easy to see. You don't want people walking away because they can't figure out the price and can't find anyone to ask. We didn't price all the baby clothes, but we made a sign saying "every piece is $1," and that worked fine for those.
6. Describe items. If you have something a bit obscure, make a sign explaining what it is. It also helps to mention what it costs new. That way people know what kind of deal they're getting.
7. Place a sign at the entrance to the neighborhood. Put it up well in advance. We had a sign on the main street three days before the sale. I heard many people say they'd been planning to stop by. You want to build momentum for your sale.
8. Multiple families. I think it's key to get several families involved. A sale draws more people when they know there's a LOT of stuff. At least, that's what I like to see when I shop. I know it'll be worth my time when there's plenty to look through.
9. Multiple days. We opened Friday afternoon, and honestly we made more money on Friday than on Saturday, in fewer hours. Several people said they appreciated the Friday opening because it was more convenient. If we do this again, I think we'll open even earlier on Friday.
10. Prepare. Prepare. Prepare. We did a LOT before the sale, pricing and organizing. We'd both been piling up stuff for months. Don't wait until the night before, or even the week before, to start collecting things. Start pricing a couple of weeks ahead. Price EVERYTHING days before the sale, because you'll spend plenty of time right beforehand just setting up and organizing.
All in all, it was a great experience and well worth it. But it was also a lot of work. Plan on long hours and being on your feet a lot. Arrange for someone to bring you lunch or breakfast. More than once we were starving and didn't have any way to leave.
Have you planned a yard sale for this spring? Or maybe you've already held one? Do you have any yard sale tips to share?
