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!
Marissa C says
Oh man, I’m sort of crying at that cute chair that was free at the end! Why don’t I live in Virginia!!
Keith says
We don’t really have these yard sales in Ireland John. I’m not sure why it never caught on but people here either dump items, sell them online or give to charities.
Elizabeth @Food Ramblings says
I wish I knew about the yard sale– I absolutely would have made the trip from Williamsburg :)
sarahbclark! says
wow, you have the most stylish yard sale stuff i’ve ever seen! also, i’ve been looking for a “demilune” table like the one on the right side of your 2008 picture. planning to paint it yellow and put it in my entryway.
oh, and i drove through Richmond on the way to Williamsburg last week (from Indiana)! i thought about you guys and wished i could have checked out some of your thrifting spots.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, I hope you loved Richmond, Sarah!
xo
s
Suzanne says
Having a garage sale is the best feeling! Nothing like purging! BTW…I picture a window box with flowers on the window immediately to the left of the garage! House looks great!
Anne says
You make a yard sale seem like a piece of cake. maybe it’s time for me to give it a go…
Elizabeth says
I am feeling the need to host my own garage sale (or “tag sale”) as they are called in CT.
BTW – opened my Redbook mag this weekend and turned to a page with picture of a shelf having a white rhino and a butterfly shadow box and thought “wow! this looks like Sherri’s and John’s!” And then I read the article and realized it was yours :) Love it! Congrats on the spread!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Elizabeth! It was a huge surprise!
xo
s
Laura says
I have wondered for a while what you would do about the stuff problem. Gone are the days of “everything I own fits in my car”. Stuff does multiply. Good job!
Amy E. says
our HOA only allows yard sales twice a year. i dont’ like this policy because i want to go shop but i also want to get rid of items and the hubby doesn’t have the patience to sit in the driveway and deal with potential customers. thus we usually just end up bring a box or two to goodwill whenever we get the urge to clean out a closet instead of saving it up for a sale. the only downside: we already claim too many deductions (student loans, etc) to have the tax-write-off benefit of donating. oh well, i dont’ mind giving without recieving anything but a smile in return. isn’t that what donating is all about?
Pam C says
I think too many people try to get rich with their yard sales. You have the perfect attitude – just get it out of my house!
If I can’t pull together enough items to replace my “day job” salary for a day, then what I do have goes to goodwill. I can write off the donation when tax rip-off – oops! tax time rolls around. My days off from work are to precious and few to spend haggling with people for a dollar or two.
I’ve even priced items at “everything you can stuff in this bag for $1”. People will take things they don’t want just because there’s still room in the bag!
Congrats on another successful sale!
Shannon @ Fabulously Vintage says
What a coincidence! We had a yardsale this weekend! We, too, just wanted to get rid of these things and any money made was an added bonus! Everything that didn’t sell was donated to Goodwill. :) I feel so much better now that there is less clutter in the house — it’s unbelievable! :)
http://fabulouslyvintage.blogspot.com/2012/10/de-cluttering-our-lives-part-1.html
Shannon
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, congrats Shannon!
xo
s
Runt says
I had a yard sale this past Saturday too! I knew I wasn’t going to make much money because my husband and I have only been in our house a little over a year so we really didn’t have anything “old” that we could sell. I personally had a bunch of clothes and never used Bath and Body Works lotions and stuff that I thought I could make a couple of bucks on. I did have a few kitchen things (but really not many). I had the “just take it” mentality so all of my stuff was pretty much marked $1. I made $23 which isn’t a lot but hey, I got a new pair of shoes for $22! =] Everything I didn’t sell went straight to the Goodwill too! It definitely wasn’t going back in the house!
Congrats on your yard sale! =]
YoungHouseLove says
Aw I love that you got some new shoes and cleared old stuff out! Success!
xo
s
Jill says
This is totally unrelated to the yard sale post…
I was looking at my bank account this morning and saw a random charge from Barnes & Noble. I didn’t freak out b/c well, I do order e-books from there a lot. So logged into B&N and looked at my recent orders and nothing matched up. Then I went to my email inbox and looked for purchase orders. One popped up on Aug 14th, so I opened it and it was for the same amount that came out of my account! Lo and Behold it was the purchase of yall’s book!!!! That means it is shipping early and I am SOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!! Supposed to get it in 1-3 business days. WOOP WOOP!!! (Also very excited I don’t have to change all of my banking information due to a possible scam. lol)
YoungHouseLove says
Wahoo! That’s awesome!! Holy cow we haven’t even gotten ours yet! Supposed to arrive later today. I’m a BALL OF NERVES!
xo,
s
Jill says
I know! I’m so happy! Altho my Mom is going to say “you should have let me give that to you for Christmas”- she always says that around this time of year when I buy something for myself.
Well, I wanted it ASAP. :) not later… NOW. :)
SOOOOO EXCITING!!
Debbie @ PinkTexasChick says
I’m glad I am not the only that has low key garage sales. A lot of my friends and family think my hubby and I are crazy for having almost free prices at our garage sales. But just like you two, the point is to get rid of it or else it goes to Goodwill. $1 for a pair of jeans? Okay! :)
Kim S says
So glad you guys posted about this! I’ve been trying to convince my husband that we could host a yard sale with a lot of our extra stuff that’s accumulated. After 4 years of marriage, I think I can part with the wok pan that we registered for and haven’t used a SINGLE time. He thinks we should use Craigslist, but I’m the Craigslist coordinator in the family, and I keep telling him that it’s more work than he knows to take the pictures, coordinate the pickups, etc. I’m definitely showing him this post to convince him we can do one big purge-and-sell!
Katie says
We live in an apartment, so yard sale is outta the question for now… but, we have realized that our neighbors love free stuff, so we’ve left a few items (seat warmer, dry erase/cork board, etc.) at our complex’s dumpster with a “Take Me Home!” sticky note and they’ve all disappeared within 24 hours! It feels good to just get rid of things and know someone else is getting good use out of them!
Miranda says
We’re long-time garage sale veterans. What we’ve learned from our sales (and from shopping at others):
1- “Price low, move volume”
2- Price everything. A lot of people just won’t bother if you haven’t priced your stuff.
3- Make sure everything is clean (seems obvious, but you wouldn’t believe the disgusting stuff some people try to sell)
4- This is kind of sneaky, but if you want to get people to come to your sale, advertise that you have furniture for sale. Even if you don’t. You can always tell people it already sold.
5- Hang up clothes rather than having piles of folded clothes on a table. It’s easier for people to sort through.
6- Big, strategically placed signs. Keep the wording simple. All you need is “Garage sale,” an arrow, and street address.
I actually have a lot more tips I could list, but it’s lunchtime :)
Lisa in Seattle says
Oh man, I am *terrible* at yard sales. As a buyer, I never haggle and have been known to offer *more* than they’re asking, out of sheer guilt. As a seller, I end up undercutting my own pricing! “No no, I couldn’t take that much. Let’s say fifty cents!” Totally unclear on the concept.
The hubs became a true believer in yard sales when he found an unpriced bag of weird aluminum and plexiglass hollow tubes. The seller asked for $20, and my husband handed it over and hissed at me, “Get in the car!!!” It turned out to be antenna masts worth hundreds of dollars. His other great find was a CL sale of more antenna gear for $200 – worth $2,000! People, antenna stuff is clearly where it’s at.
YoungHouseLove says
Woah! Who knew?!
xo
s
MizLottie says
I HATE hosting yard sales, probably because I’ve had to do it for my elderly mother who insists that everything is very valuable. While I’d be happy to do your approach and let stuff go for a dollar, she’d jump between me and the customer and insist on triple the price. My brother and I ended up hauling most of the stuff back into the garage. It was very frustrating, a huge waste of my time and, even worse, it was really hot that day! But great tip re posting on Craigslist about free for the hauling, I had no idea that even existed.
Miss E says
We plan to have one this weekend! It would be frustrating to have to put it off until the spring and have all that stuff lying around. Glad you were able to get it all out the door!!!
how2home says
Nice yard sale! Love the old school ladder but too bad we live so far away :(
Felicity @ ourlittlebeehive says
I love me some purging. Of the stuff kind I mean.
We have a local moms group that is really just a few zip codes and there’s a yahoo group marketplace. My new goal is to sell two things a week. It’s awesome. When I’m done with something, I take a photo, list it, get an email, stick it on the porch and a couple hours later someone stuffs money in the mail slot. It’s A.W.E.S.O.M.E. Makes me never want to move from this area!
april says
did your daughter draw that moon and face all by herself?? I am impressed. So…we had several yard sales (actually, I am from Western Massachusetts so we call them tag sales out there, but then I moved towards the eastern part of the state and now they are yard (yahhhd) sales) at our old house, but now we are at a house with a VERY steep driveway. We want to do one, but we just can’t muster up the desire to drag things up and down the mountain of our driveway. Sigh. Maybe someday when the kids are older and can use their muscles and help us.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha the moon and face were all me! She likes coloring in and around things, so she asks me to draw things and then she scribbles away!
xo
s
Nicole J says
Thanks so much for sharing! My hubby and I recently had our very first yard sale and blogged about it, too! http://thisislifeatourhome.blogspot.com/2012/10/yard-sale.html
I love reading your blog!
YoungHouseLove says
Love that! Looks like a fun sale!
xo
s