It's an unavoidable part of life: Spring cleaning leads to massive amounts of unwanted junk, but that's OK! Your junk can be someone else's bargain treasure. Summertime has arrived and it's time to earn some well-deserved spending cash via a yard sale. With a little bit of effort, provided by you, and some well-thought-out planning ideas, provided by Charm, your place can be clutter-free and your pockets full of money.
Things You'll Need:
A free weekend
Pen
Price labels
Calculator
Large yard sale signs
Balloons/ Streamers
Refreshments
Petty cash and change
"Old-school" fanny pack
Step 1: Gather the Goods
This is the time to decide what you want gone and what you can't let go of yet. Go through all closets, attic, basement, garage, shed, etc. Don't be afraid to open boxes to find stuff you've forgotten about over the years. Chances are if it's been in a box, you can let it go.
Dust and clean the items. No one wants to pick up, let alone buy a dusty, web-laden item. Once you clearly see the condition of each object, it's easier to accurately gauge a value. Label prices on everything.
Don't try to sell broken items. Instead, mark them as free and watch them disappear.
Start collecting grocery bags and old boxes to package your customers' purchases.
Step 2: Single Out a Weekend
Pick a weekend that you can completely dedicate to your event. Then, watch the weather reports the days leading up to you sale. This is Texas after all, so even if there's just a slight chance of rain, be prepared. Get out the canopy that you use at the lake or have the garage cleared out just in case. Not many people like shopping in the rain, even for garage sale bargains.
Clean your garage, mow the grass and trim the hedges a few days before the sale to create a presentable and welcoming appearance for potential customers.
Step 3: Shout From the Rooftops
Not really, but you get the idea. Get your up-coming yard sale made known to the public, the more people that know about your sale, the bigger your payoff, literally. This can be accomplished via newspaper, online, word of mouth and signs.
Zoie Perry, classified advertising manager at the Longview News-Journal offered a few suggestions about garage sales based on feedback received from garage sale advertisers. One, be as descriptive as possible. Cite varied categories of items and be specific about unique items. The more description given, the bigger the sale appears, and the more traffic you will get. Two, if you say in your ad that the sale starts at 8am, for instance, people will be lined up at 7am or earlier in your driveway. Be prepared for early birds! And, three, warn your neighbors in advance. They may have been planning to mow the lawn early that day or may want to put their cars in their driveways. It does get hectic at times.
In your advertising, create a theme (i.e. Christmas in July) or identify specific items that will attract attention (i.e. baby clothes, washer/dryer) to your sale. Don't forget to list the address, time and date. End the ad by stating you?ll have donuts and coffee.
Step 4: Prepping is Essential
For the next two steps let's pretend this is Wal-Mart. Set-up shop by grouping similar items together and spreading them out over several tables. This gives the appearance of more stuff and lets customers walk around and browse. For clothing items, consider a portable hanging rack.
Head to the bank the day before to get plenty of one dollar bills, a few fives and some coins for when customers need change. Know exactly how much you start with so you'll know what you earn. Consider wearing a fanny-pack during the sale. That way you can walk around, talk and help people without leaving your money vunerable.
Step 5: It's Showtime
Greet your customers as they approach with a sincere "Hello, how are you," offer to help them with finding anything in particular and recommend refreshments. This does two things: It establishes that you are the go to person and it relieves the anxiety some may have about shuffling though your belongings.
People shop yard sales for bargains. If things aren't moving, start reducing prices. All sales equal money on stuff you were just going to throw out anyway.
Donate leftovers to a local charity, and use it as a tax write-off. Everyone wins with a good yard sale.
