I hate clutter. I mean, I really.hate.clutter. 
I’ve said this before, but I once read, “the more stuff you have, the more time you waste dealing with that stuff.”
Isn’t it so true? How much time have you ever spent looking for that certain book, shirt or the ever-so-lost, car keys – simply because you have too.much.stuff? Bah.
Over the past few months, we have started “purging” our house from the top down. We are finally at a point where everything we don’t want or need is in the basement. The next step? Planning a yard sale.
Nothing says “welcome Spring” like a few extra hundred dollars in your pocket and a clutterless house. Well, that maybe a stretch, but it IS an awesome money maker!
As simple as it sounds, holding a yard sale isn’t always an easy task. Actually, it’s rather exhausting. With a little planning and coordination ahead of time, you’ll lower the stress and be happy with a successful sale. Here are a few tips to help lessen your madness:
- Sort through EVERYTHING. Pull out outgrown clothing and toys, rid of unused towels and sheets and gather odd dishes and coffee cups (how many mugs do you really need anyway?). Have any home office furniture that you want to replace? Out with the old, in with the new.
- Price each item. Get yourself a roll of masking tape and put a price on everything. Unless you are having a sale where everything is a buck, people will bother you over and over about prices. Not that it’s difficult to cost everything, but when you are trying to get everything set up that morning, the less bother the better.
- Pick a date. Find out what day of the week in your area is the most popular for yard sales. Watch the weather, get a permit (if one is needed in your city) and put a small ad in the local paper yard sale section.
- Prepare. Save your grocery bags (if you don’t use re-usables), get a money box with change and put up signs the night before. In my town, they give you four yard sale signs to put up when you pick up your permit.
- Get up early. Believe me…if you state that your yard sale opens at 8:00 am, people will be stopping at 6:00 am to dig through boxes that you haven’t even put out yet. It just happens. The earlier you get up and at it, the better off you will be when people start showing up.
- Have fun! When it’s all done, whatever you do, DO NOT take the “stuff” back into your house. Take it directly to a donation site. In my case, I can put it all at the end of my driveway and a little blue truck drives around and picks it all up. It’s just that way. All I know, is I worked way too hard to finally get the clutter out of my house, only to bring it all back in.
Depending on how much “stuff” you have to sell, you can make anywhere from a few hundred to a thousand dollars, just by selling unwanted items. Totally worth it!
Honest Blogger Found Here: CSN Stores is providing me with product code in exchange for post link. As always, 100% my opinion.
Great tips! We are planning to have one in mid- to late- April. We’re still in the decluttering, getting things ready for the sale stage. Next will be pricing, then advertising, then selling! Oh my goodness, I cannot wait for that part! Get this stuff outta here already!
That’s the way I feel too. I can’t WAIT to have my basement back…amazing how stressful “stuff” can be, isn’t it? Good luck with your sale!! Woo hoo!
I held a 3-Day yard sale this past Fall. It was a huge success, plus it kept me from hauling 4 truckloads of junk to the Goodwill.
I recommend using something like Craigslist for advertising. I began posting a list of my items for sale about 3 days before the sale with a note at the bottom stating I would post my address at 5am the first day of the sale. I had 80 people the first day! I kept updating my sale items on Craigslist each day of the sale. It was the best yard sale I’ve ever had, and well-worth the effort. Visiting from 5MfM. Great tackle! Thanks for sharing! 
What a great idea using Craigslist to promote your sale, especially if you have big ticket items! Some people just go out yard saling, not expecting to purchase anything “big.” So the advertising really helps people who are looking for certain items. Thanks for visiting and sharing your ideas!