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!
Whitney Dupuis says
Oh my goodness! I wish I lived in your area. I would have snatched up those rugs, some pillows, the ladder, and some furniture! The yard sales around here rarely have quality stuff and it really irks me. Nice job, guys!
Melissa says
I love yard sales! My aunt gave me a general rule of thumb… sell it for around 25% of what is worth… not your most profitable way but it gets stuff moving quickly!
bethayblntn says
Wish I has known. Were heading to Richmond today. Totally would have made an early trip for that rocking chair that would have been so sweet in our soon to be nursery. Glade you guys all had fun and got everything gone. Does this mean an upcoming play room/ big girl room remodel now that suff is up and gone?!
YoungHouseLove says
We still have to auction the secret book stuff in there but then hopefully we can start thinking about that!
xo,
s
Misty says
This is perfect timing, I’m supposed to be getting ready for a garage sale next weekend and I had no motivation because it seems like they are always a hassle. I’m going to use your approach and price it to sell! Just get rid of it is going to be my new motto!
Misty
P.S
I love a good yard sale and I’d love to stumble across one as nice as yours!
harmony says
THE ROCKING CHAIR?! Man, I wish I lived close enough to guys to have come and bought that! I love it so, so much!
sarah says
i spy the famous leopard slippers in the April 2008 yardsale :) orrrr, were these just added for photo styling? haha
YoungHouseLove says
Hahaha!!!
xo,
s
Kate says
IS it bad that I still have those same slippers? They’re actually under my desk at work right now for the winter if I want to take my shoes off but still have warm feet. Lol!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, that’s awesome!
xo,
s
Stefanie says
I love this post because every time I start to think about having a yard sale I instantly get overwhelmed and put it off for another year. This post brings me hope. =)
Also…where are you guys in the Instagram pictures you posted? Seems like an apple festival…just wondering where it’s located. We’re going up to Grave’s Mountain next weekend (if you’ve never been…go!) for their Apple Festival but would love to hit some other ones if they’re going on. Thanks in advance!
YoungHouseLove says
We were at Carter Mountain! So much fun.
xo,
s
Kimbercrafts says
Doesn’t it feel so good to get rid of the excess? I try to host a garage sale every summer to tame the clutter. Of course, some of that clutter happens by being a garage sale patron myself! ;)
PS – I wrote a post about my garage sale hosting tips here: http://kimbercrafts.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/tips-for-hosting-a-garage-sale/
YoungHouseLove says
Love the tips!
xo,
s
Lana says
Hi! Do you guys get recognized and overwhelmed by people when you’re out in public? Or do you manage to go under the radar most times?
YoungHouseLove says
Definitely under the radar most of the time!
xo,
s
Tara G. says
I am not fond of hosting yard sales! Thankfully, our base has a great thrift shop and after unpacking boxes we hadn’t seen for 2.5 years while we were overseas, it has been our dumping ground! It’s like a 2 month yard sale that I don’t have to monitor! :)
Kelsey says
We had a garage sale this summer to raise money for our adoption. We collected donations from friends over the course of about 6 months, recruited friends to help us price and manage the sale, and we made about $1200! The sad thing is that my iphone was stolen during the sale. The guy who stole it distracted us and swiped it when we weren’t looking. We were actually able to track it to a neighboring city and the police even met my husband there and the guy who came out of the house was the guy we suspected. But, since he wouldn’t own up to it, the police said they couldn’t do much because it wasn’t worth enough to get a warrant. It was beyond frustrating. So, a warning to all your readers – be aware of your valuables during a sale! Oh, and be sure to download the “Find my iPhone” app. That way you can track it and even wipe it of its data remotely. We didn’t have the app and I still cringe at the thought of some guy having pictures of my daughter in his possession. It was really sad to have such a sour taste left in our mouths after such a successful sale and all the generosity given to us by our friends and family! Hopefully our tale of woe will prevent someone else experiencing this, though!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man that stinks! Such a smart thing to get that app, I’m going to do it right now.
xo,
s
RLR says
Oh, man – that’s even worse than getting your actual for sale stuff lifted! That’s what happened to us last weekend. No biggie – just disappointed that someone would steal bargain-priced stuff from our fundraiser garage sale. Over the course of 3 sales we have made about that much – we just don’t have room to store that many donations at one time (we are also fundraising to adopt!). We’re getting ready to order our passports :)
Meagan {Green Motherhood} says
That was totally our M.O for our first (and only) yard sale adventure. But we did not do as well as y’all! Granted, it was cold and a Sunday.
http://www.thegreenmother.com/2011/11/moving-on.html
Instead of taking things to goodwill, a local charity picked everything up! Even better.
For being low key, y’all made more than you did in 2010, so it seemed to work out!
Sabrina says
You sold the rocking chair? So sad lol We are having a yard sale this weekend but just found out that temperatures are going down to the teens! Maybe I should sell hot chocolate too lol When you guys sell something on craigslist do you meet the person somewhere or give them your address? I ask because we have some big ticket items and the hubs doesn’t want me to give out our address but who wants to lug a ride on mower around town?
YoungHouseLove says
We have had a bunch of craigslist questions so we’re planning to write a post all about how we buy and sell with all the details for ya!
xo,
s
Michele Daggar says
My sister and I used to have a garage sale every year. We always got the strangest people though. I remember one year a lady came up to us and asked if we had any turkey basters for sale. We just thought that was a strange thing to ask for!
Another lady was offended that we were selling old Barbies that didn’t have any clothes on. My sister wants to write a book about garage sales called “Naked Barbies Don’t Sell and Other Garage Sale Stories.”
I love this post because it involves getting rid of things. Decluttering and organizing are my favorite things to do. I guess that makes me as weird as the turkey baster lady!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha I would buy that book!!
xo,
s
RLR says
We had a garage sale last weekend – made about $325! While I think our prices were fair (we didn’t tag anything, just went with our gut about what things should cost) I was still surprised by how many folks tried to bargain – especially since our signs clearly indicated that we are fundraising. But, the stuff is gone (we took a lot to Goodwill, though we did keep some of the nicer things that didn’t go this time – we will be doing it again) and our garage is a little more manageable. Have a long way to go to our goal, but we are $325 closer – and the stress of less “stuff” is worth something, too!
We did have one item “lifted” and two folks who paid and then asked for their money back. Oh, well. And now I’m going to take your cragislisting tip – only have a friend who is super-great at CL help me out!
Kristan says
Can’t believe you guys sold that rocker that you took the time to re-upholster!!!! hope you got a decent price.
YoungHouseLove says
Yes we got a great price from a sweet lady! We just couldn’t find a spot for it and realized it needed a new home.
xo,
s
lisa says
funny story…a month ago we got rid of our old dresser….so, we put it out with a sign that said “free-take” the next day, someone took it…4 days later, i was driving ona road near our house and saw our exact dresser on the bottom of someone’s yard with a “for sale sign”–and saw a person coming to buy it. 2 minutes later, it was gone…i say good for them. haha. they amde some money off of our dresser. although, i wonder how much they made?
a question-i see the picture with john stapling a sign to a stop sign…does your town allow that? where we live we aren’t allowed to staple signs to any poles, stop signs, etc….
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes in our town it’s how folks hang their signs for yard sales and missing pets, etc. you just have to remove them after the sale (or once the pet is found).
xo,
s
Chana says
Will we be seeing pictures of a much emptier playroom soon? ;)
YoungHouseLove says
Yes as soon as we auction the book stuff! Woot!
xo,
s
Allana says
We had a yard sale when moving a year ago at our realtors urging. I was just going to donate it all! Took a few hours prep but just piled stud on the driveway. I was happy to sell things really cheap and had people come back twice. One woman came back that evening and knocked in our door to ask if one of the paintings had sold, and another came back the next weekend an asked if we sold the jolly jumper. Kinda creepy!
I got so into it I was running thru the house to grab things to sell!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha that’s so funny!
xo,
s
Gretchen says
I think my yard sale pace might be more like once every 20 years than once every two years (or maybe just never again), so I’m impressed with you guys!
Stephanie N says
Well, after reading through the first page of comments, glad I am not the only one to FREAK OUT about you selling the rocking chair! I would have loved to have it!
I just donated almost a moving trucks worth of “stuff” just because I couldn’t figure out the logistics of having a yard sale. (Pricing, no tables) Besides, I live in the country without a driveway. A charity got it instead which in some/most ways I guess is better.
So glad you got rid of your “stuff”! :)
Kristin L. says
Omg, I think I saw your craigslist posting! I didn’t go yard sale hopping because I’m broke, but I would have been such a total spaz if I got to your house and realized it was YOUR sale! Haha
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, that’s so sweet! Wish we could have met you Kristin!
xo,
s
cyndee says
Our local dance group has an annual garage sale, lots of household goods from about 35 families. We hold it from 7 AM to 1 PM. At noon all goods are discounted greatly. Each shopper purchases a medium size kitchen trash bags (8 gallon size), which we sell for one dollar. Whatever fits into the bag goes for the dollar. People absolutely love the idea and we actually were left with one box and one old vaccum cleaner to donate to organized charity. The crowd actually cleans up for us (almost).
Pamela says
Hi John & Sherry,
Y’all may already know this, but Salvation Army picks up your donation items (at least in my locale). No need to haul your stuff to a donation center…just leave your items outside for them – they pick them up and leave you a donation receipt for your taxes (you don’t need to be home). Love them!
YoungHouseLove says
So smart!
xo,
s
Melissa van Herksen says
I am telling you…you guys read my mind. I just came up to my office after hours of sorting and pricing things. I am going to have a yard sale tomorrow at 9 am…in 11 hours…whoo hoo. This will be my first yard sale in Chile and bargaining in Spanish. I speak Spanish, but i get all nervous…wish me luck. I promoted it through an English Speaking Mom’s group in Santiago, Chile as well as the email group for the AMerican School. Also sent to some local emabssies for thier local staff. I hope people show up. Trying to raise some money for some new mid-century pieces I have my eye on. One thing that has been very successful for me is that I started an online yard sale site. I actually have done this in Mozambique, Bolivia and now Chile (countries I have lived in the last 6 years). I found that we didn’t really have a “craigslist” equivalent so I just created my own. Very easy to do…I guess if you live in the states there are tons of more services…but might also be a good idea if you have a large school, church community and you want to email folks about your items for sale. Here is the site: http://www.santiagoyardsale.blogspot.com
I accept ads from other people for free. Once they sell their item I remind them the service is free, but they are welcomed to make a donation to my breast cancer walk (that i do every year) through a link i send them. some people give $1 some people have given me up to $50…others give nothing…okay, so i will stop now but I LOVE YARD SALES!
YoungHouseLove says
Lots of luck!! I bet it’ll be awesome!
xo
s
Melissa says
Made 550 USD!!!
YoungHouseLove says
Wahoo!
xo
s
Monique says
The past 2 yard sales my family has done has been “Everything for a Dollar” which is awesome for those people shopping for deals, and I love it because it makes making change so easy, I don’t have to deal with coins!
Someone actually left and came back, and although they couldn’t exactly remember what street we were on, they saw our sign w/ our info and “Everything for a Dollar” and knew it was us!
Kylie says
Got excited when we saw you guys strolling through our very own neighborhood two weekends ago, no? S-bury?
YoungHouseLove says
Yes! We love going on walks in different neighborhoods to stare at all the houses like weirdos! Haha!
xo
s
Micha Davis says
Honestly, this is the only way I’d ever have a yard sale. I figure one something gets to the yard sale pile I’d be happy donating just to clear it out so even getting a quarter for things would be worth it.
Viva My Wedding says
The fact that your goal was to get rid of stuff and not make money was great. To many people thing that they will become rich doing yard sales.
Amanda Sheren says
I’m one of the pregnant women who took your poll and follow you guys on your blog (love your blog!), and we are due to have our (1st!) baby here in a couple of weeks. About 4 months in to our pregnancy we, read I, decided our house needed to be purged of anything and everything that wasn’t necessary or something we used in the past year. (My husband was pretty decent about it all thank goodness). So, that little decision took me 3 months to get all the way through but on the back end of it our shed is completely cleaned out and organized and we also now have very nicely organized closets! :) My husband decided to have a yard sale with the things I wanted gone, and I didn’t make it out there that morning until several hours in to it. I told him to run it how he wanted to. Little did I know that meant he sold almost everything for a quarter. He, like you guys, didn’t pre-price anything and when I discovered how he was selling it all I have to be honest, I kinda freaked out. But he said how he just enjoyed seeing people getting things and smiling because it was so cheap and I realized how I had originally just wanted to donate it all to Goodwill anyways, so after a couple of minutes I came around and was happy with the whopping $13 he made while sitting outside in his hammock for 6 hours. :) You just have to let go sometimes and this was one of those times! And now I have a very organized house and shed! You can’t beat that.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, that’s sweet! And organization = priceless!
xo
s
lindsay says
SHERRRYYY, $herdog….the rocking chair??!! i hope the lady who got it loves it as much as i do because it was beautiful, you did such a great job on it! it feels weird calling the rocking chair “it” since everything else in your house has a name :)
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, thanks Lindsay! A very sweet lady got it and seemed over the moon about it!
xo
s
Steph says
We recently had a yard sale at our house and I followed your advice from the previous sales. We started early…we had cars pull up at 6:45 even though we didn’t start until 9! We also found ourselves doing the, ‘how’s a buck sound?’ tactic and watched things really start to move. By the end of the day, left everything out with a free sign and watched it all move away! There’s something so freeing about getting rid of your old stuff to make room for the new. I’ve paired down a lot since following this blog. I especially like your sections on ‘simple living.’ Maybe we’ll see more of those in the future? ;) And I’m totally digging the gray rocking chair!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, thanks Steph! I love jabbering about simplifying, so I definitely think there are more posts on that coming up!
xo
s
Kaitlyn says
We are selling some big items on Craigslist right now (guitar, grill, patio set, hockey gear etc.) and it is SUCH a hassle to coordinate pictures, descriptions, and pick up. One guy was buying two of our chairs from more than 100 miles away and mixed up the time of pickup. He drove down to our area and of course we weren’t planning to meet him for the pick up. He started harassing us and was unwilling to work out another arrangement but insisted on wanting the chairs. He even pre-paid on PayPal! We refunded the money and walked away–it wasn’t worth it to sell the chairs we literally pulled out of the trash two years ago!
allan cool says
Aloha YHL
Yard sale yay out with the old in with the new. I so know the feeling. Just moved out of my childhood home of 28 years and had my first sale a couple months back and can I just say it was kinda crazy… well so crazy I was almost giving the stuff awar for free. We (friends and family) made it a one day only (Saturday) 6am-11am. We had about 5x the amount of stuff that you had. It was pretty insane. Long story short my dad passed away in 2006 and he was a army mechanic turned construction worker and we have been cleaning out the garage since 2006!!!!!! At the sale this was the last of the LAST of my dads junks. Car parts scrap metal the works. I also had a faux leather chair from pier 1 imports with the square cut out too which no one bought which was weird but it was kinda busted up any who. Thought that was so wierd. Well I live on the big island in Hawaii in a small town called Kailua-Kona also know as just KONA. So our local clientele is a bit different from where you are. But let me just say I would die die diiieeeee to go to your sale. You guys would soooooo have to give me a bundle deal because I’d be buying things up like a crazy lady. That moves to buying a brand new condo (here in kona). So yeah the old house is gone and we are moved in the new condo so you could relate it to that one house you crashed called “downsized and upgraded” kinda thing. So I’m 28 and have been getting into the house world lately and have been into DIY-ing things. I have sooooo much to share with you! I was looking for your email but couldnt find a link so I want to apologize for this looooooong reply to your yard sale blog. I can’t wait to share my DIY’s with you. We did 4 bar stools (paint and recover) a wingback and we also did a 9 ft built in. Let me just add I’m so excited for your book launch! Congrats!!! Allan, Hawaii
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, thanks Allan!
xo
s
Elizabeth T. says
We are in the middle of a huge garage/yard sale right now. We are raising money for our adoption and our community donated items to sell. We realized it was way too much to handle on our own (we have/had over 1000 items to sell) so we asked more even more help setting it up. We set up great signs with balloons and told everyone who came why we were holding the sale and just to make an offer if it wasn’t priced.
People have been super generous and it has been so much fun being able to share this experience with our family and friends.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s so sweet!
xo
s
Marianne says
I can understand why you didn’t announce the sale on you blog, although you might have made more money. You guys are celebs now. Imagine how much the chairs would have made if they were “The Chairs That Sherri Sat On” or the Clara’s cloths “The Shirt That Clara Wore”
I have been cleaning up in the past few months. Like you I sold some stuff through the internet, but a yard sale or flea market sale is not my thing. I brought the rest the a thrift store and the dumpster.
Have a nice weekend!
Vanessa B. says
We finally adopted the “nothing stays after the yard sale” policy when we had our last yard sale. It was so amazing to just be rid of everything! And we stopped tagging things years ago. Other best decision ever.
Off topic- just cracked open my new Country Living this morning and what a great surprise to see some eye candy from your new book! Cannot wait to get my hands on it. That dresser and bar cart are amazing. As always, you guys ROCK!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw man, ours didn’t come yet! We’re dying to see it! So glad you like it!
xo
s
Reka says
Oh man, I SO wish I lived closer to you guys! Honestly, yard sales are one of America’s greatest inventions! That, ziplock bags and wedding registries, haha! Glad the day was a hit.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, thanks Reka!
xo
s
Leslie@MsMagpieWrites says
Is Clara a lefty? It looks like she’s coloring with her left hand in the pic.
YoungHouseLove says
Yup, 100%! She even crawled leftie (dragging her right leg and leading with the right). So cute!
xo
s
sophie says
good rethink on the yard sale-ing. Yard sales are to get rid of things. That’s the only reason to have one. Any money you make is a bonus that you spend on pizza afterwards. If you really want to make money, you sell on kijiji, craigslist, ebay, etc. Not at a yard sale. Yard sales should be cheaper than thrift stores and if they’re not, things won’t sell.
And plus, it’s just so much LESS STRESSFUL when you put the prices low. Everyone has fun: you get rid of stuff, the people who come think they got a steal of a deal and at the end of the day you have nothing left to drop off at the thrift shop and can just sit back and relax.
Taht said, did you at least make enough for dinner out with the family?
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes it was pasta night out!
xo
s
Aryn says
This is in no way related to the yard sale (congrats on how successful it was….I’m super sad that I didn’t know you guys were having it! Buuuuuut, it saved you from having to call security on the girl jumping up and down in your driveway screaming “it’s John and Sherry! It’s John and Sherry! OMG, it’s John and Sherry!”), but do you guys know if there are any locally owned stores here in RVA selling your book? Or, will they be sold at the event on the 8th? I want to come and see you guys and I obviously want your book, but I’d really live to support a Richmond business if I could. Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, they’ll be sold on the 8th right at the event! The proceeds of that event go to kids whose parents can’t afford to get them ballet lessons, so it’s an awesome cause!
xo
s
Jennie says
Haha – I see those leopard slippers in the 2008 yard sale picture at the beginning of the post!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha heck yeah!
xo,
s
mattie405 says
Hubby is always after me to clean out this house with a big garage sale. The place is packed to the rafters, we had consolidated 2 NYC apartments plus this house into the space while I was a long distance commuter between the city and the south for 12 years. My problem is the people who attend the sales here in the south, they are some of the rudest people you would ever want to meet when they go to these type sales. My neighbor had one and all her things were top of the line appliances and stuff, most that had never even been used after they had moved into the house. They had bought the place after it had a major fire and it was re-done beautifully with all top of the line everything. Shortly after they “settled” on this house their “dream” house came on the market so they had a huge garage sale of just about everything in the house. People came and offered horribly low prices for the things, like $5 for the convection oven that had never been hooked up or used, it still had the wrappings on it. When they would say no to the offered price the people would get so nasty with the wifes elderly mother who was running the sale for them while they were at the new house. One particular group of women came and when they couldn’t get what they wanted they trashed everything, throwing things off the tables and just wrecking stuff, then they ran for the hills and jumped in their cars and took off before anyone could get their plate numbers. It isn’t an unusual occurance down here in the deep south and the cops usually don’t have time to respond to such things. I spent the rest of the time the mother had the sale going just sitting with her and keeping an eye on things and yet things still disappeared without being paid for. I tell hubby if we ever do decide to have a garage sale here I would probably be armed after seeing what that elderly woman went thru that day. Other neighbors here who have braved garage sales say “never again”, just too many threatening people show up and destroy whatever they can’t have.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s terrible!
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Stephanie Warner says
Wow it’s great to read about your experience hosting a yard sale! I’m always the early bird out looking for that box of old photos to restore and reprint for my shop. Seriously, my Friday, Saturday and Sunday starts at dawn and ends when I’ve hit that final yard sale on my list!
Thank you for having them everyone who has posted comments and I apologize for all the pesky early birds you have to deal with… we just want your stuff!
Steph
Tara says
Yes! I organized a multi-house/block sale with my neighbors last weekend. I figured the more participants, the more buyers. It paid off for everyone. Literally! :) http://www.taraism.net/?p=6276
YoungHouseLove says
That’s awesome!
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Lena (Wishing on Stars) says
Great approach to the yard sale. I’ve never had one although I’ve tried many times to get both my mother and my mother-in-law to have one. They have way too much stuff haha ;-)
And I would NEVER expect you guys to post your address for the yard sale lol. I wouldn’t do that on my own blog and I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who reads it.
Katie says
Was reading my Country Living magazine and audibly gasped when I saw you guys in it! Loved the pages they’ve devoted to you guys! Making me super excited to get your book, which I’ve pre-ordered! Can’t wait!!!! Just wanted to drop in and let you know about my excitement!!!!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks so much Katie! We just saw it for the first time yesterday and couldn’t stop pinching ourselves. Ok, and I’m all nervous and sweaty too. Hhaah!
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Eleanor@SavingOurWay says
So you’ll were in my dreams last night! You’ll came on out to good ole Powhatan to surprise me with a bathroom makeover but I was horrified that I hadn’t cleaned my bathroom! lol! The bathroom in my dreams look a lot like my bathroom did from my teens in terms of clothes & towels everywhere – tons of products strewn across the counter. Lol! Random but had to share! :-)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- so funny!
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Emily says
I go yard saleing every week…but man oh man I would LOVE to be at THIS yard sale!!!
EvaB says
Hi guys. Oh boy, do I regret not checking your blog on Friday! I helped my sister and mom host their garage sale this Saturday and we sure could have benefited from your refresher on what these things are all about; regrettably, we ended our sale by hauling THREE sofas back to my mom’s house…all because of a $20 difference between bid and ask price! Prime example of people’s #1 mistake in yard sales…we tried to make a profit instead of just being happy to pass our old “treasures” on to someone else…