Organize a Successful Yard Sale | Family Economics

By Tanna Clark

I wasn’t a huge fan of yard sales until our first one brought in an extra $300. Something about sitting outside for six hours and watching people rummage through my stuff wasn’t very appealing.

However, by the end of the day after meeting new people and walking away with some extra spending cash it wasn’t all that bad. It equaled out to making $50 an hour on a Saturday afternoon, not too shabby! I think the biggest reason we had a successful yard sale was the upfront organization.

1. Get together with the neighbors. A community yard sale will draw in much larger crowds than just a single yard sale.

2. Publicize clearly. Our community has two yard sales every year and we had signs made up at a printer so people could clearly see we were having a huge yard sale. We can reuse the signs so it was very cost effective. List your yard sale in the newspaper and make sure you highlight that it is a community wide yard sale. Often times people will scan for these types of sales.

3. Price your items. A good place to start would be Goodwill’s Donation Valuation Guide. Remember you’re not going to get what you paid for your clothes no matter how few times they were worn. When we had an abundance of baby clothes we sold some items for fifty cents a piece or we gave shoppers the option of filling up a plastic grocery bag for $3.00. This went over great and saved us time counting out the baby clothes. For designer clothes and collectible items look to EBay first to get an idea what these items are being sold for. You might do better selling online if you have a valuable collector’s item.

4. Set up shop. Think like a retail store. Set up all the clothing together, hanging up the pricier items and laying out the less expensive items. Organize the clothing by size and keep it neat. Create separate sections for toys, books, and kitchen items. Make it easy to browse by laying out items on tables. Use wood and saw horses if you have to.

5. Have supplies on hand. Keep a stash of plastic grocery bags on hand to help people out when they have an armful of goodies. If you are selling anything breakable, use newspaper to wrap it up. Most importantly have plenty of change on hand!

6. Make it fun for the whole family. Make a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies and let the kids sell them or set up a lemonade stand. Have fun and enjoy!