Too much clutter and a little strapped for cash? You need to have a yard sale. Even if you aren’t in need of money, a yard sale is a great way to get rid of collected useless stuff while making a profit.
The first thing you need to do before having a yard sale is to clean your abode. It doesn’t matter if you live in a house, apartment or trailer, cleaning out the clutter will provide you with some excellent stuff to sell and with a lot of room. Be ruthless. If you haven’t used it in a year, add it to the yard sale pile.If you hate it (even if it was a gift from Aunt Bessie), add it to the pile.
Once you have cleaned and sorted your belongings, you should have a good selection of stuff to sell.
Decide on a date. When can you have a yard sale? The best times are in the summer and to maximize your yard sale, you should run it from Thursday to Sunday. Many die hard yard sale shoppers will shop on Thursday to get the best deals. If you can’t get away from work, see if you can find a friend or relative willing to give up a day or two to a yard sale. If not, Saturday and Sunday will do.
Once you have decided on a date, you need to contact you local town or city hall and the newspaper. Some towns and cities require a permit to hold a yard sale, so you need to make sure you get one of those if necessary. When you contact the newspaper you need to ask for the classifieds. Put an ad in the paper under yard sales. It will be well worth it. Again, many die hard yard sale shoppers read the yard sale section of the classified ads to find yard sales.
Time to make the signs. You need to make enough signs to get a person from the nearest major intersection to your yard sale location. Putting your address is not enough. Make sure that you have signs with clearly marked arrows to indicate which way a potential shopper needs to go. The more signs, the better. The brighter the signs, the better.
Now you need to price everything. Remember, the object is to get rid of your stuff. If you want to make lots of money on it, sell it on eBay. But I’ll warn you now, eBay takes a whole lot more time to get rid of stuff.
Then the big day comes. Put your signs up, set everything out and get ready to sell. Just a warning but there will be haggling. It’s up to you how you want to deal with it, but remember, the point is to get rid of stuff.
When it’s all done, pack what’s left in boxes and call your local Salvation Army, Purple Heart or other local charity to get the leftovers. DON’T THROW THEM AWAY! Not only is this wasteful, it’s shameful. Give what’s left to charity so it can help a good cause. Many charities will even do a house pick-up, so you have no excuse. And, your donation can become a tax write off for a charitable donation.
Once it’s all over, you will feel so much better. More space, more money. Who could complain?