When Sherry and I hosted our first yard sale over four years ago, we remember feeling rushed to get everything outside and set up, being stressed about how to price everything, and constantly obsessing over how much money we had made as the day went on. It’s like we were both so excited to sell stuff that we didn’t like (so we could go buy more stuff that we did like) that it became a bigger deal than we initially expected.
Fast forward a few years (we also had a moving sale back in 2010) and we found ourselves hosting another clear-things-out yard sale now that it’s 2012 (I guess our pattern is every two years?), but this time we aimed for a distinctly more relaxed attitude. Why? Because this is how we approached it:
- Our singular goal was to get rid of stuff. Any money that we made was just icing.
- We sold a few higher-value items on craigslist ahead of time (to get more money for them and not have to stress about them during the sale).
- Everything else was priced to sell. If someone picked it up, we wanted them to take it even if it meant selling it very cheaply.
We were so focused on getting rid of stuff because somewhere between moving to this new house (and not having a use for everything that worked in our first house) and generally collecting items for various blog and book projects, we found more and more of our house turning into storage (hello playroom or basement – even our sunroom was filling up). So it was about time to send a slew of stuff home with other folks (where it would get more love than we could show it, and free up three rooms that we’d love to be functional for us instead of piles o’ stuff).
Oh and since we know folks will ask- the reason we didn’t tell the entire interweb about our yard sale was safety and manageability. We didn’t want to dole out our home address to the world at large, and since we didn’t want to spend extra money and time hauling everything to a more neutral location (the goal was to get rid of stuff simply and cheaply), it just had to be something that we did the old fashioned way- with signs and an ad on craigslist without revealing we were the hosts. Hope you guys understand!
Even though we were trying to keep it low key, it still took a bit of pre-planning on our part. We had to pin down what we wanted to kick out of the house for good, so last month we got our purge-hats on, sorted through closets, cabinets, and full rooms to sift out what we could part with. We did our best to be ruthless. If it hadn’t been used in a while and we couldn’t articulate a specific future use for the item, it got moved right to the yard sale pile. That pile lived in our sunroom for the days leading up to the sale, but starting bright and early (actually it wasn’t even bright yet) on that Saturday morning it all made its way out into the driveway.
Our inventory was actually a mix of our stuff and my sister’s – although some of the tables that you see below were just for display (we didn’t sell those two white pedestal guys on the right). We didn’t bother pricing anything ahead of time (again, this is our low key approach) and since we both agreed that the goal was purging, we didn’t stress about how accurately our prices were set (truth be told, they were all probably lower than they could have been, but it meant things moved quickly and no one walked out empty handed). For us, if someone left with something, that was a victory. It was really freeing to just say “how about a dollar?” and watch things clear out nice and quick. Of course the bigger items like chairs and dressers and bookcases went for a little more, but all of the stuff on the tables and laid out on blankets was pretty much a dollar or less. I think if you’re in the mindset that we were in our first sale you might want to price things higher, but it does mean that you run the risk of selling a lot less.
We didn’t get any great shots of the sale in action since there was, well, lots of action that kept us both busy. It was only at lulls like this that we broke out the camera. But this was after around 60% of our items had sold.
The crowd was pretty strong through about 10am. When things started to slow down, Sherry and I made the decision to expedite the process and we dropped prices to ridiculous lows. At this point the goal of getting rid of stuff overrode even our patience to sit in our driveway all morning. Yup, we priced our pile of kids clothes at five for fifty cents, pillows were two for $1, and we even stuck “free” stickers on items like the old ladder that the previous owners had left in our basement (easy come, easy go).
Oh yeah, and if you’re wondering where Clara was this whole time, her Grammy took her on an outing when she woke up around 8am (we were up a few hours before she arose setting things up, and were so grateful that she slept so long) and then returned her around 11am. After that she just hung out and upped the cute factor of our sale by drawing in the driveway.
By about noon things were so slow (and our inventory was so low), that we were actually only left with these four big-ish items (and about 30 small things that fit into two manageable Goodwill boxes). So we slapped a “free” sign on the few remaining large items and posted a curb alert on craigslist for them.
They were all gone within a few hours. Hooray for curb alerts. The great thing about them is that you don’t even have to be home. Which was handy since we weren’t. We were busy dropping off those two boxes of leftover stuff at Goodwill. Yard sale key: nothing comes back into the house!
By the end of the day I think we made somewhere in the neighborhood of $350 at the sale itself. Not our most profitable, but once you throw in what we made by selling a few items on craigslist ahead of time we were more in the neighborhood of $650. Not bad, right? As for those other items that we sold on the side (via craigslist & neighborly word of mouth) we happily sent all eight of our old dining room chairs off to live with someone else (she’s planning to recover them all – and send us pics!).
And we also sold our two extra new dining chairs to another person (for our purchase price of $62 each) who already sent us this photo of them living it up on her porch:
It felt great to give all of that stuff a nice new home. The lesson there? Had we wanted to make more money we would’ve sold more stuff on craigslist. But since photographing, listing, and coordinating pick-ups eats up lots of time, it was more efficient to achieve our “get-rid-of-all-the-things!” mission by putting most of our stuff in a kill-a-million-birds-with-one-stone yard sale. In the end, we’re both really happy with how the yard sale turned out – mostly because it taught us that we don’t need to be all uptight about hosting one. Which will hopefully encourage us to hold them more frequently and keep unwanted things from building up in our house.
Has anyone else hosted a yard sale recently? Do you have any tips or interesting stories from yours? We had a tense moment during ours when our wires got crossed and Sherry accepted money for an item that I had already set aside for someone else. Neither woman would back down so we did the mature thing and let a coin toss decide who took it home. Take that Judge Judy!
Ashley@AttemptsAtDomestication says
Oh man yard sales. We had a huge yard sale to raise money for our wedding a few years ago, but it was so stressful I definitely didn’t think it was worth the money. We don’t have enough for a yard sale now, so we are generally sticking to making donations instead. When I get to cleaning I just can’t stop!
Sarah says
This post is perfect timing!
I’ve been going through all my stuff and getting ready for a yard sale.
I live in California.. and you wouldn’t believe how outrageously over priced people try to sell their junk for.
I like your tactics.. I too, would not enjoy sitting out there all day. I just want it gone! My time is worth more to me than a pile of old clothes. :)
Stephanie says
NOOOO! You sold the rocking chair?! I would have driven from Raleigh to Richmond for it had I known!
YoungHouseLove says
Sorry Stephanie! It went pretty quickly.
xo,
s
jeannette says
i think this universe of yard sales is the real economy. i’ve been reading this book about System D (for debrouillard, which in French Africa sort of means hustler, or independent business dude) which is the back channel economy where something like 60 per cent of the world’s workers now make a living.
http://www.amazon.com/Stealth-Nations-Global-Informal-Economy/dp/037542489X
it doesn’t sound like one could make a living off it, but your blog and so many others are teaching us how young families upcycle furniture and children’s things with real creativity and frugality. you can’t make a living doing it, but you can create a utopia from it as a customer.
is anybody doing any work on deconstructing/upcycling kids’ clothes? i know for example in england there’s a whole art/fashion school movement to get off the grid and wear only locavore handknits and re-tailored thrift shop clothes. but here in the us? for kids??? love to know your ideas about this. (for an example, the knitter kate davies, who i call the intelligent craftafarian, has the best vintage books on repurposing worn grownup clothes for children:Odham’s Big Book of Needlecraft.
http://katedaviesdesigns.com/tag/mending/
here’s another blogger’s review:
http://cherryandcinnamon.com/2012/05/14/odhams-big-book-of-needlecraft/
i’d love to see you all start reviewing upcycled kids’ stuff ideas. it’s an important part of your ethical idea of letting stuff go and resurrecting that which you can.
your work on clara’s kitchen and playhouse were inspiring to me in ways you’ll never know. xxx
YoungHouseLove says
Fun ideas! Anyone know of anything like that in the US? We like doing things link building things and up cycling Craigslist and secondhand items for furniture and toys!
xo,
s
Penny says
I just happened to see this today, great tutorials about upcycling mens shirts into girls dresses:http://www.danamadeit.com/2008/07/tutorial-the-shirt-dress.html
Amy E. says
the kids clothes week challenge at elsie marley is all about making/upcycling/retailoring clothes for kids! LOTS of good tutorials and ideas link up to her site and her flickr pool.
Sara says
We had our first yard sale a few weeks ago. It was kind of a bust. But we really had just odds and ends. We made $70 (with selling two items ahead of time) and hauled everything else over to Goodwill. We had the same motto–everything out of the house!
Christine says
We had a yard sale in July. Really smart of us to do that in the heat of a midwest summer (105 degrees that day), but we both had the day off work and just decided to do it! We made about $500!
Of course, we have had all the leftovers in the garage until this week when I finally got rid of the last of it.
Heather says
Ugh, I hate yard sales. We have a ton of small things to get rid of, but I just think a yard sale without a few pieces of furniture is pointless.
There are a couple of local “yard sale” groups on facebook that I’m in. I’ve tried to get rid of a few bigger items that way (mostly old Coach & Vera Bradley handbags), but everything else I’m tempted to box up and take to goodwill.
We’re moving to VA in June/July, and I do not want to have to move all this crap with us.
Kate says
This post is perfectly timed, as I’m planning for a yard sale in two weeks! May I ask you a few questions?
– How far in advance did you post signs?
– Did you place an ad in the newspaper, or do any other advertising?
– Did you post your actual address on Craigslist, or just your street name or general location? I want to maximize advertising to get good traffic, but am wondering about the safety of posting specific details on CL (of course, I’m not famous like you guys, but still)
Thank you!
K.
YoungHouseLove says
We hung signs on Thurs night after being sure it wouldn’t rain. And we just listed it on Craigslist (not in the paper) and gave our address but deleted the ad as soon as the sale ended. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Karen F says
I think $350 is actually a pretty decent haul for a yard sale. I desperately need to have one, but have been putting it off (thinking it’s too much work, and do I want to spend a Saturday on it, etc). I love your tips for simplifying the process – I may just give it a try after all!
Chelsea {Whatcha Makin' Now?} says
My in-laws needed to get rid of an old couch to make way for the new one arriving the next day. I posted a ‘curb alert’ on Craigslist for them and it was gone within 30 minutes. Kind of a fun social experiment too! Congrats on the extra spending cash; you know we all can’t wait to see what you buy with it.
Tracie@MiddleClassMod says
You know I’m looking at these pictures like they’re images from the Zapruder film and I’m a JFK conspiracy theorist. A Malm dresser for sale! Maybe they got a new one/book project’d one for the guest room! etc.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha we actually just have a bare spot in the guest room so we’re on the lookout but the old broken-drawered Malm had to go! Although we did use it for the book in a weird way, so see if you can look for it in there ;)
xo,
s
cindy says
At our last garage sale we told every customer that at 1:00 p.m. we were going to pass our lawn and garden trash bags and they could fill each bag to capacity for $1.00. It was so awesome to see at least two dozen people pack up our garage sale leftovers and drag it to their own car. We literally had nothing to take to Goodwill. We had nothing to clean up and people paid US to take our crap away. Best yard sale ever. Another tip for the big furniture and household items: I called a thrift store early in the week and the owner came over a few days before the sale and bought all of the furniture and nice sets of dishes, pots and pans, glassware for a better than average yard sale price to resell in her store. We didn’t even have to move it outside and display that stuff. She picked it up in a big moving truck before the sale date.
YoungHouseLove says
So smart!!
xo,
s
Trisha says
I can’t yard sale. I just can’t seem to collect enough stuff to sell. I donate/Craigslist everything as soon as I don’t want it.
Tracie says
You had to do a yard sale post a week after this happened (and the first time I felt sick after reading a post of yours lol) – we were walking out of our house last Saturday morning to go to my son’s soccer game and my neighbor across the street was having a yard sale and my mother-in-law took my sons across to check it out. Well, apparently my 5 year-old had his Nintendo 3DS (3D DS that we gave him for his birthday that cost $175 plus the Nerf cover plus the $40 Super Mario game inside) with him, put it down on the table to look at something, left it as we went off to the soccer game and the neighbor who was selling things for some of his other family members thought it was something they had brought and apparently had the same pricing idea as you because he sold it for $3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We found this out the next day after turning the house upside down looking for it and then walking over to talk to him with that sinking feeling :( Still love you guys even though you wrote a yard sale post :)
YoungHouseLove says
Oh no! So sad! Sorry to bring up bad yard sale memories!
xo,
s
bekah says
Oh fun! My sister and I had a stall at a community hard sale this year, and honestly, it was just so much fun. Like you guys, I really didnt care too much about making money, I just wanted that crap out of my basement. Im such a pack rat – WHO CARES that I can still fit into my high school jeans if they are wide-let JNCOs? I mean…really – that better never come back.
So anyway – we have decided that it will be a yearly tradition, mainly because we 1. cleared out some clutter 2. giggled a lot 3. got to drink coffee WHILE IT WAS HOT, because our children were elsewhere.
Ashleigh says
Thanks for this timely post! I’m having my first-ever yard sale tomorrow and am really looking forward to clearing out and counting my profits!
Amanda says
The last time we had a yard sale, I was a child and we were literally robbed. In addition to selling our random junk and toys, my dad was trying to sell a very expensive chainsaw. It was a two man team, one guy distracted my dad, by purchasing my ninja turtle life vest while the other threw the chainsaw in the car. Luckily my grandma had the presence of mind to memomorize the license plate as they sped off. Turns out one of the guys had borrowed his girlfriend’s car and the police were able to recover my dad’s chainsaw along with my life vest. I remember my mom telling the police officer that they could keep the life vest since they had actually paid for it but the policeman wasn’t interested in returning the life vest to the culprits. That was the last yard sale we ever had.
YoungHouseLove says
Wow that’s crazy and so mean! So glad you got them!!
xo,
s
Mark A. says
My neighborhood has a huge sale every year. I counted this year and we had close to 300 people stop by our house. I take the same approach you all did, get rid of the stuff and the money made is just icing on the cake!
I do also post some larger, pricier things on Craigslist the night before and tell people to come to the garage sale to purchase. I also set out some pricier things that I will sell for the right price but I am ok if they end up back in the house…usually sell about 50% of those items.
This approach really makes for an enjoyable event we always look forward to.
bria s. says
just had a sale at our pad and it went pretty much the same way (even down to the coloring toddler)! we even sold 2 for $1 Hot Dogs for fun.
YoungHouseLove says
Fun!
xo,
s
Anne says
Ahhh….just lived vicariously through your purge! Hope it feels great. Happy Weekend! ;-)
Julie says
We participated in a townwide garage sale a few years ago, where you rent a space/table in our town’s community center, and take it from there. You man your table and set your prices, but the allure of tens of sellers brings in the bargain hunters. We priced our stuff so low ($1 for a cordless phone/answering machine combo, etc) because like you, we just wanted to get rid of it. I would have been happy if we made our $10 rental fee back, and instead we made over $100 for junk! The people with tables next to us were irritated our stuff was going so quickly, but they were way overpriced. We got rid of most of our stuff, and the rest went straight to Salvation Army!
Lindsey says
I remember our family garage sales being a huge production when I was younger–serious thought was given to pricing, lots of organization was involved, and my brother and I even sold popsicles and lemonade during the sales. My parents recently participated in their neighborhood garage sale, and their mantra was definitely “nothing comes back into the house.” They were so much less stressed and got rid of everything!
Brenda says
I’ve always said there are two types of yard sales: the money-makers and the clean-house. Sounds like yours was a successful clean-house sale.
I’m having a sale tomorrow and hope to get rid of everything. I went through each room in my house and asked myself, “Do I want to move this to my new house in 6 months?” Needless to say, the sale pile is huge!
Lynn @ Our Useful Hands says
Every single yard sale I’ve either thrown or help to throw has ended in disaster and I’m pretty sure the stress and time it took to set up ended up setting me back financially instead of any kind of gain. I once helped a little old lady up the street who just bought her house and needed to sell the old owners things with her garage sale…long story short: who knew she was a crazy racist that used the term “That lady can’t Jew me down on those buttons. They are practically collectibles!” right in front of another customer that was just about to buy one of her big ticket items – who had the star of David hanging from a necklace around his neck! Needless to say, he didn’t buy anything and instead grabbed his wife and left and I got “sick” about 1/2 an hour later and took off when her kids finally showed up. Ugh…people be trippin’….
My best, Lynn
*needless to say, I’m cured of any desires I may have to host another yard sale. Ha!!
Leigh says
My husband actually said this week that he wants to have a yard sale. They are always so stressful but with your approach I might can handle it! Love it. It’s all the pricing and negotiating that really gets to me. Maybe if I can just focus on getting rid of things I will feel better. Thanks for the tips!
Ashleigh says
What time did you guys start setting up?
YoungHouseLove says
We were up at 6:30 for a sale that started at 8. Takes a while to drag everything out there!
xo,
s
Jenny says
I used to host garage sales in middle school. I think the most important thing is making sure you have easy to read and follow signs and having at least a couple of things that are big items that get people to stop and take a peek.
Christine says
We used to do yard (or tag) sales about every two years until we moved into an HOA subdivision that doesn’t allow them (boo!), but we got to the point where we were pretty good at it. The key, I think, is to give away ahead of time to charity most clothing (except for kids) – you won’t make much and charities can really use good clothes. Throw all little stuff (small toys or household appliances, etc.) in bins marked a $1/pc rather than price singularly, and finally, and you guys figured it out – don’t use a yard sale to make money. Consider it an event to get rid of stuff. Any money you make should be a bonus. And the biggest tip I give everyone is to NOT bring any of that stuff back in your house when it’s over. BEFORE the event, schedule a charity to come pick up your leftover stuff the following day. That way, everything is cleared out and cleaned out – you get a little pocket change and a charitable deduction on the leftover stuff. Great job, YHLers!
Karyn says
We also just had a yardsale. I feel like with kids, it has to be an annual, if not semiannual thing. Kids come with so much stuff! Now I just cleaned the playroom and thought… We need another yardsale already.
Nicole Lindquist says
I love garage sales! We’ve had three of them and the memorable funny stories are what make them so fun!
http://www.lifeasalindquist.blogspot.com/search?q=garage+sale
MJ says
Have you considered consignment? I’ve done so well consigning! I bought a pillow at a yard sale for .50 with the intention of using it and never did. The consignment store sold it for $12! They sold a $12.50 yard sale picture (that I used until I got tired of it) for $32 meaning I “made” $3.50. I’ve been cleaning out my detached garage for several months and have the intention of yard saling for profit once I get the garage’s mess organized.
YoungHouseLove says
Love that! I have consigned my clothes but didn’t think about Clara’s stuff.
xo,
s
Jenny @ House Full of Pretty says
Why can’t you be my neighbor??? There are a good 5 things from that photo I would have snatched up (maybe even at full yard sale price!) :)
jen says
What, no shoes this time?? I’m a size 5 and gladly would have made the trek from DC to buy some of your shoes and furniture!! :-)
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes there were some shoes, but maybe I shouldn’t tell you that! Haha.
xo,
s
Susanne says
Last weekend I stopped by a garage sale and saw two nice canvas paintings. No price. How much I asked. $10 each, he replied. I walked away. Later back to them, I asked will you take $10 for both? He hurried to barter with me, saying how about $8 for both (meaning instead to say, how about $8 each). SOLD! I said, smiling, to which he sheepishly said, $10 will be fine for both. LOL It was fun.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha! Such a deal!
xo,
s
Samantha says
I totally understand why you guys didnt, but I wish you had told the whole entire interwebs about this because I for sure would have driven my butt to Richmond, haha!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, aw thanks Samantha!
xo,
s
meerasedai says
The rocking chair??? Oh man, I would have driven from Charlottesville for that! I understand not advertising your home address on the internet though :)
YoungHouseLove says
Aw you’re sweet!
xo,
s
DaveN says
We had a “just get rid of it sale”once. After we put up our free sign a lady who was abviously a hoarder came by. And I helped her put A LOT of stuff in her car…even stuff she didn’t initially want and I convinced her to take
Amanda says
Man, if there was ever a yard sale I’d want to visit, it’d be yours! Jealous of those Virginians.
Stephanie says
We held a moving sale two weeks before we officially got the keys to our first home. We were so thrilled do get rid of all kinds of junk, and I had high hopes for the proceeds.
We made $40. Less than what I had gotten from the bank to make change with!(Garage sales on a rainy Seattle weekend are difficult at best.)
Luckily, we had invited a couple yard-sale-savvy friends over to soften the blow. We used our proceeds to buy some great steaks and a bottle of wine, and toasted our misfortune. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Aw that sounds like fun!
xo,
s
Megan says
I tried to have a garage sale this summer – purging the basement to make room for my fiance to move in! I couldn’t get off work so ended up donating all of it to a charity (www.restorationministries.net). Can’t get much easier than that!
rebecca says
Kudos to you for focusing on purging and not making money! A lot of people make yard sales or craigslist ads ways to earn money. Sometimes they need the money, but sometimes they go overboard.
We’ve been doing similar things to get rid of unwanted items. If you put something on craigslist for free, the response is ridiculous! We got rid of an ancient a/c unit; I couldn’t bear to make someone pay $20 for this energy-hogger, so I made someone happy instead.
Anne says
I LOVE your attitude and approach to a yard sale! It makes me happy to think about items getting reused and loved in new homes.
What are you going to do with the money you made from the sale? Are you going to save it, or is there something specific that you are going to put it towards?
YoungHouseLove says
We pretty much save all that we can from those things and it helps make purchases like the french doors sting a bit less :)
xo,
s
Amy says
We just had a massive moving sale in preparation for an overseas move. We put quite a few bigger things in storage, and we brought a few things with us to our furnished house, but we sold a ton of our stuff.
I had the same idea about the bigger items, several of them went on Craigslist in the weeks before. I even did a facebook sale for friends and family to ‘shop’ our house and get first dibs on the good stuff. All of our bigger kids toys went to friends in the area.
I borrowed extra tables and a canopy from a friend, ours was a multi day sale and it was easier to just leave things out in between.
I learned from a previous garage sale to have a a “All Sales Final, No Returns” sign after a previous uncomfortable situation.
I am looking forward to going to my first Norwegian garage sale now that we are over here. It is a little bit different from what I am used to, I am curious to see what pricing is like since everything else is so expensive over here.
Glad you did well at your sale.
Jen@The Decor Scene says
We had one early this year and we make a few hundred out of it. So worth it to us to get it out of our home. We felt we priced things well, but I guess some people didn’t. Whatever didn’t sell went to Good Will. Nice donation for that too. We still had a lot of stuff left over, but two days for a garage sale and we were done with it. The only things that came back in the house were the more expensive stuff we had like Lenox we don’t want anymore. That I will put up on Craigslist I think. Yup I have not done that yet. lol :) Looks like yours turned out really well. Win, win!!! :)
Stefanie says
Would you ever consider doing an online sale? I only ask because I’ve seen other bloggers do it and the buyer pays for shipping. I’m sure it’s probably more work than it would be worth for you, but just an idea. :)
YoungHouseLove says
I just know I love a deal like you guys and when you factor in shipping for things like a rocker or a bookcase I gets crazy expensive. Who knows though…
xo,
s
Patti says
We have bulk pick up in my area every Saturday, so on Friday night I put out whatever I don’t want and it’s always gone by the morning, whatever it is. In fact, one time I forgot to put my rake away and the next day it was gone! I’ll never make that mistake again.
Mona O | Renters in Love says
We don’t have a yard but our storage facility hosts a bi-annual parking lot sale for its tenants. Even though it ended up with more sellers than buyers, we made a cool $80 but spent $20 of it on take-out while we waited for the scant customers. :/
YoungHouseLove says
Aw that sounds like fun.
xo,
s
Kim @ Yellow Brick Home says
I noticed your rocking chair made the sale!
We host a building wide “condo” sale every summer with our neighbors. We have so much fun hanging out, chatting, grilling and sharing convo over drinks. Here’s a few shots from this year’s sale:
http://www.yellowbrickhome.com/2012/08/06/sale-successful/
We were so lucky to meet a handful of our readers, and some of them were shocked we were getting rid of sorta recent DIYs! But when it doesn’t fit anymore… there’s no point in forcing it. Right? :)
YoungHouseLove says
Fun post!
xo,
s
Marie K says
I’m glad you didn’t give out your address or announce your sale to the whole world. My other fav blog is The House Of Smiths. They had a garage sale that had a line down and around the block an hour before they even opened. Cray-azy.
JennieM says
We have a neighborhood garage multi-day sale every two years. I always group price and price to sell. I usually hear “oh you are too low” several times….but when it comes down to it, I never have anything left and am closed the last day. It is a wonderful feeling to purge and have a bit of cash at the end….