The Year of Living More With Less: How to Rock Your Yard Sale

Although The Year of Living More With Less is supposed to be all-inclusive; less stuff, less stress, less waste, less negativity, less fat, etc., it has become more focused on the material things we lug around with us from duty station to duty station. That sort of happened last year, too. The Year of Living Better evolved into a quest to cut chemicals from our home and replace them with non-toxic cleaners and essential oils. I never really know how these things will play out when I start in January.

In March, Neal and I decided to have a yard sale before we moved. That's not to say that we have more stuff this time, but that I had more time and energy to prepare for a yard sale this go round. I've said it before, I will say it again: Yay, Kindergarten! Children are amazing creatures but their propensity for keeping every little bread tie and broken toy does not create an environment that is conducive to selling all of your worldly possessions. Ultimately, we told Blue that he would get the money from everything he sold and that's when he finally starting unloading the goods. Unfortunately, he's 5 and has no idea that we only gave him about 1/500th of his actual profit. But he has yet to hold down a job so he's basically still freeloading from us. I think it all evens out in the end.

I made a pretty good chunk of change at my little yard sale last weekend. More than I thought, considering most items were priced at $1.00 or below. I think that directly correlates to how much joyless stuff we had. I had never held a yard sale before so I read about 10 blog posts on Pinterest about how to have really successful yard sales. And then I began. It took about 4 full days of sorting, pricing, arranging and rearranging but Neal and I agreed that it was worth the effort. So, I'm going to share with you what I did. In the Army they call this an AAR - After Action Review. It's not good, it's not bad...it's just what went right, what could be improved upon and what you'll do differently next time. AAR sounds a little too much like AARP so I'm going to call mine

THE YARD SALE RUNDOWN - HOW TO ROCK YOUR YARD SALE

1. Let it Go
Look, Elsa, you can't be clinging to that bread maker with your icy grip unless you are actually going to make some bread. And if you aren't going to make some bread, come to terms with the fact that you are someone who wants to make some pumpkin spice bread in a loaf pan in October and buy the sliced stuff at Weis the rest of the year. You can't have any attachment to what you're selling or it's going to affect your entire yard sale. I would refrain from advertising your yard sale with signs that say "come put my junk in your trunk" but that's pretty much how you have to feel about it. If you aren't sure how to do this, read this piece I wrote about sparking joy. No joy = detachment and you're ready to let it go (thanking it for the role it played in your life is optional).

Everything we let go. I no longer feel frozen in stuff. Sorry...I'm done now. I love warm hugs. 

2. The Price is Right 
To be honest, the necessary step of pricing my stuff has kept me from having a yard sale for a long time. It seemed like an impossible task. I have an incredible memory for prices. I know what I paid for my Chi flat iron and the scarf I bought at the airport in Rome and the Edward Hopper print I found at a yard sale. You can't get caught up in what you paid for something. Being detached is especially important in this step because most people suggest pricing yard sale items at 10% of what you paid. Not 10% off of what you paid. 10% OF WHAT YOU PAID. So that entertainment center we paid $2500 for? It absolutely sold for $250. And the bicycle helmet that Blue had to have? The one with Lightning McQueen? We paid $10. It sold for $1. This kind of pricing is key to a successful yard sale because people cannot freaking resist getting something for $1. The founders of The Dollar Tree have known this for years. And if folks can get something for 25 or 50 cents? All the better. They don't need it, but it only costs a quarter. They'll find something to do with it. What they do with it isn't your concern because you're detached, remember? What matters is that you now have their 2 quarters to rub together. And trust me, those quarters and dollar bills add up. Just ask an exotic dancer. You are going to make it rain.

If you are pricing something that was a gift or you can't remember how much you paid for it, ask yourself, If I was at this yard sale, what would I be willing to pay for it? You might be surprised at how quickly you will drop the price from what you think it should be to what you would actually pay. And know that the item's condition will affect how much someone will pay. If it's damaged or broken, 5% of your original cost may be more realistic.

3. Did I Mention Detachment? 
I only come back to this because it's really that important. Let me give you an example. On my 3rd engagement (the one where my ex-fiance couldn't decide if he wanted to marry me but let it get so far down the road that I actually had a bridal shower), I was given a set of beautiful wooden salad bowls. I wanted them, I registered for them. And on that glorious day in August, I got them. But when I moved out of his house, I took the bowls with me. Because, at the time, I didn't have much and they were necessary if I didn't want to sip tomato soup out of my hand. But Neal and I have been married for almost 12 years now and I had only used them once and that was probably 11 years ago. They've been moved all over this country but never made it out of the box. So, I decided to sell them. I broke my 10% rule because I wasn't 100% detached. I priced them at $5. They were beautiful but they weren't $50 to begin with. They sat on the shelf for 3 hours when I finally decided that I was being ridiculous...and worse, attached. I knocked it down to $2. They sold 5 minutes later. At the end of the day, I could have $2 or some bad juju salad bowls in my hand. I think I did the right thing.

4. When the Stickers Don't Stick
One of the best pieces of advice that I gleaned from those bloggers about their own yard sales was how to attach the price to the item. In this Age of Amazon there are about 3374 ways to affix a price sticker to your worldly possessions. All you really need is a roll of masking tape and a Sharpie. Seriously. Those little brightly colored dots will fall off. And they are small which means if your average shopper is like my husband, who forgets his reading glasses half the time, they won't be able to read the price. And if they can't read the price, they aren't going to buy. Masking tape is sticky, durable and doesn't have to be torn with your teeth. Plus, it's comparatively cheap. Make your price big and legible and watch the items fly off the shelves.

5. Everything Gets a Price
The other super helpful piece of information I got from Pinterest was that I needed to price everything. Yes, Vern, I know what you mean....that is a giant pain in the ass. But...necessary. You will have some shoppers who don't mind to ask you what stuff costs but most people will not, especially if you are busy helping other shoppers. Again, if I was at a yard sale where nothing was priced, I wouldn't stick around. It's too much work. And the burden of the work is on the person making the money, not the person spending the money.

6. Groupies
Pricing every single stupid little thing gets tedious. I had these jars from Michael's that were like $1 each. I bought them at Christmas because I was going to make sugar scrubs for each jar and give them as gifts. That was 4 years ago. They've moved twice. They had dust on the inside of the jars. So I put them all in a gallon bag and priced it at 50 cents. They sold by 9 AM. Group it, put it in a bag or wrap masking tape around it a couple of times and call it done. The same is true for books, DVDs, jewelry, shoes, or any like item. I bought an entire set of Jewish children's paperback books at a consignment sale last month just because I wanted the one about gefilte fish.

Drill Sargent Blue keeps the groupies in line.

7. Tables Need Not Apply
We don't have many tables. Make that any. We don't have any tables besides our dining room table. So, having a yard sale where everything was laid out on tables wasn't going to happen. But what we do have is a lot of shelving. It's the kind they sell at Lowe's that you put in your garage to organize your Christmas decorations. We have a ton of that stuff. So, instead of laying it all out on tables, I just laid it out on the shelves. We secured broom handles to the shelving with zip ties and used that to hang clothes. The point is: use what you have. I even used plastic bins and cardboard boxes to display books and DVDs. It helps if stuff isn't stacked on top of each other and if it's a bit cluttered to begin, as soon as people start buying, take a moment to spread it out as the space opens up. But you don't need to rent or buy a bunch of tables to make a yard sale work. Even a door laid across 2 saw horses makes a flat space that is perfect for a yard sale.

Who needs tables? Bust out the shelves!

8. Hang It Up
Clothes sell better when they are hung up. It's easier to slide a hanger across a broom handle than it is to bend over and search through sizes. I understand that unless you are a Lularoe consultant, you probably don't have a clothing rack laying around, but improvise. Find something that will support the clothes you want to sell and make it work. I tossed clothes with stains and holes in the "free" box - but they were still there at the end of the day...meaning that people don't want that stuff, even when it's free. I also used hangers with clips to pair pajama bottoms with tops and any matching sets. You could separate your clothes by size but I only had Blue's 5T stuff and my size 16 stuff so there wasn't anything to separate.

Prices posted above each group of clothes keep me from having to price every single piece.

9. Make Some Change
I have heard horror stories about someone walking up to a yard sale first thing in the morning and handing the person a $20 for a 25 cent item. I decided that if I prepared for that scenario, everything else would be easy. So I made change for $100. I got $60 in $5s, $30 in $1s and $10 in quarters. I also gathered up the spare dimes and nickels we had in the cars and around the house. This was plenty of change for the entire day.

10. Think Like Target
I arranged my yard sale like a department store. Kitchen items were grouped together, as were toys, clothes, household items, books, rugs and jewelry. I also kept clothing hanging in the garage so the hot sun wouldn't fade them. (Side note: pray for hot sun on your yard sale day. It was rainy and 40 degrees the day after my yard sale. I'm pretty sure that would have affected the bottom line.) 

11. Stock Your Station
I used a patio table and chair as a cashier station. As a frequent yard sale shopper myself, it feels awkward if the person is pacing as you're shopping. I played a little 70's music on my phone, answered questions as needed and hung out in my chair until someone was ready to pay. I also had a notepad, pen, calculator, a ton of plastic bags from the grocery and Target (that I've been saving up for months because I'm generally a resuable bag kind of girl but I knew this day was coming), a little bubble wrap for fragile items, a measuring tape, extra masking tape and a Sharpie and extension cords for testing electronics. I made sure all battery-operated toys were functioning before the sale started.

12. Advertise on Social Media
This works really well if you have lived in an area for a really long time and know half the county. But even being here for just under 2 years, I still pre-sold a lot of big pieces just by posting a photo of my garage on Facebook. You can also post to a local buy/sell/trade page to get more interest.

13. Speaking of Pre-Sales
Get in good with the neighbors by offering a preview night to your neighborhood. I posted to our neighborhood Facebook page that I was opening the door to neighbors on Friday afternoon from 4:30-6:30. And then we went out to dinner with some folks who stopped by! They appreciated the early shopping and I was able to make a little space for the next day. As Blue says, it's a win-win! 

14. Adjust 
My yard sale lasted 6 hours but by the second hour I could see what was working and what wasn't. I was selling a pup tent and a rooftop carrier but they were both in their carrying bags. People weren't unzipping the bags to look. So, I pulled them out and laid them on the grass. I also had a lot of shoppers checking out the La-Z-Boy chair. They were sitting on it, reclining in it, enjoying it immensely. But not paying the $25.00 I priced it at. So, I dropped it to $15. Watch your shoppers to see what they are picking up, what's getting ignored and what needs to be more visible. If something isn't selling, move it or drop the price slightly. It doesn't hurt to try something different.

A well-loved but still fully functional water table gets dropped to $1.

15. Signs, Signs, Everywhere are Signs
So, this was my biggest mistake. I didn't put up enough signs. Mainly I was concerned about annoying my neighbors with my fluorescent posterboard all over the neighborhood, but I needed 2 and maybe 3 more signs to help guide shoppers to the house. I made very clear, concise signs that simply read:
YARD SALE
SAT 4/14   7 AM - 1 PM
MY ADDRESS (which was my actual address but this being the internet and all..)
I taped them with packing tape to some wooden stakes I found in the yard sale aisle at Walmart. Walmart sells fancy "yard sale signs" for $4.50 per sign. You don't need that. And I was concerned that putting them up on Friday morning wasn't enough of a heads up, but it was going to rain so I waited. As it turns out, yard sale shoppers really don't need more than 24 hours notice, but they do need some trail markers. I just assumed that everyone out there is using Google Maps or Waze to get around in this world. Don't assume that because it's not true. I was told multiple times on Saturday that people were driving around looking for our house and that they almost gave up when they finally found it. So, I'm sure some did give up. Don't make this mistake. Put enough signs up so that someone can find your house, even without a smart phone.

16. Sticky Fingers
I've been told by my neighbors, who are veterans of the annual neighborhood yard sale that much of the city looks forward to every spring, that some shoppers have sticky fingers. And that things will get stolen. The worst case scenario is your change box (I used a waitress bib from when I was Sookie Stackhouse for Halloween a few years ago), but it isn't uncommon for other, less valuable items to disappear. I only noticed that some of the jewelry was gone, but considering it was 25 cents per piece, if you are stealing the jewelry from my yard sale, you have bigger problems than I do and probably need Jesus. Peace be with you.

17. Send 'Em Away With Something Free
On the advice of several bloggers, I had a free box. This was mostly filled with happy meal toys, Dollar Tree party decor, a box of oven bags that I don't remember buying and some of Blue's pants that had holes in the knees. My Mennonite shoppers grabbed these right up as they know their way around a needle and a thread. It gave the kids something to look through while their parents shopped and several people found something free first but then shopped until they found something to buy.

This bin was still half full at the end of the day, proving that sometimes folks don't even want your free stuff.

18. The Extras That I Skipped
There are people who say you should have snacks on hand or bottled water, or even treats for sale. They also suggest that kids set up a lemonade stand. First of all, unless they are super helpful or entertained by a device, kids underfoot while you are trying to tally and make change is extremely distracting. I lent my husband to the neighbors so they had help hauling off a fence and in exchange, their kids watched Blue. It was a lovely arrangement. Also, while I do feed the people who come to pack our house, I don't feel it is necessary to feed the people who are coming to pay a quarter for a scarf. So, sorry...you will not find rice krispie treats or lemonade at our yard sale. But Sheetz is right down the street and they make a killer cappuccino.

Before...

 After...

Not pictured is the giant entertainment center and 2 matching end tables or the washer & dryer we sold.

There are a lot of great blog posts out there about how to host a successful yard sale (sometimes I feel deep pity for our parents who never had Pinterest to turn to) but this lady is pretty great. And she's way more succinct than I am. Someday I'm going to get paid per word and then I'm going to make it rain.