With Spring on it’s way, you are probably doing some Spring cleaning and that means you probably have junk at home that you are wanting to get rid of. One way to do just that is to hold a yard sale and make a little profit on your unwanted items. After all, they say, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” for a reason and the things you are just going to get rid of might be exactly what someone else has been looking for.
Before you do anything, make sure you are allowed to hold a yard sale per local restrictions or your home owner’s association. Some communities do not allow them, so make sure you won’t get into trouble for holding a garage sale to begin with.
Tips For Holding a Successful Yard Sale
Make good quality signs that stand out. Don’t write too small and use bold permanent marker in black or dark blue. Write the word “Yard Sale” in big letters. It is also a good idea to post many signs that help direct people to the your location. Using brightly colored (neon) signboard is also good as it tends to grab more attention than cardboard or plain white board. Make sure your signs are attention grabbing and readable by passing traffic.
Before you do your sale, get change from the bank. It’s a good idea to have change to make for at least 50 dollar bills in the form of 5’s, 10’s 20’s and 1’s. Also, have some loose change available if any of your items are priced below a dollar. A good amount of money to have available is $100 in change. You could lose a sale simply because you don’t have change for a customer. Also, unless you know the person very well, do not accept personal checks as it will be very hard to recoup the money if the check is bad. Also, keep your money on you at all times during the sale. Get an apron and hold your money in the pockets of it.
To avoid making enemies of your neighbors, let them know you are planning a sale for a specific date at least 2 weeks in advance. If you have good neighbors, this will allow them to even make room on the street for your customers and be ready for the increased in traffic.
Price things fairly. Know that you will probably not get rich holding a yard sale, so price things as if you actually want to get rid of them. Word gets around in the yard sale community if a particular sale or area tends to have over-priced items and your sale will not be successful if you do this.
Be willing to haggle. Some customers come to yard sales because they enjoy it. Don’t set a bottom line on your pricing that does not allow for haggling as you might sell more if you are willing to allow customers to haggle for a price.
Make things easy to hunt through and keep things neat and orderly. Arrange like items together. For clothing, Hang some of the nicer items and leave the rest in sizes. At the end of the day, do a bag sale.
Have clear opening and closing times. Make it clear that you don’t take early birds if this bothers you.
Set out some of your best items in the front. This makes it easier for people to see what you have and to entice them to stop and check out the whole sale. Many times, people will drive by locations to see if they see anything that interests them before deciding to stop.
Have prices clearly marked so people do not have to track you down to ask for a price. If your items are not clearly marked, some people will just skip purchasing at all because they don’t want to ask.
Advertize your yard sale on a free sites like Craigslist. Unless the local newspaper is really cheap, it is usually not worth what you will pay since many people no longer get the local paper.
Virginia Hoffmann says
I began reading frugal tips from Pinterest and have saved money in 3 months. I ditched the paper products, using leftovers, stretching the dollar by not shopping weekly, and have used a lot of other tips. was giving all of my usable stuff for donations, but have decided to have a my first yard sale. Great tips from bloggers, a lot of them are the same, everyone can’t be wrong. I set a goal of $300, we’ll see how I do this Saturday (6/15 & 6/16). If I make my goal great, if I go over greater!!! If I go below my goal, it’s more than I had when I started. It’s a win, win for me. thanks for the tips.