Yard Sale Tips

So recently we had our second yard sale since living here in our Clover House.  It was a very profitable and BUSY day.  We did good yall!  We did have a few things stolen (sad huh?) but all in all, it was a great day.  We even met some of our new neighbors!  In this post I'm going to share some tips that I found very helpful from this yard sale.

Before the Sale

• Start gathering up your items early.  We started 2 weeks before the sale.

• Place an ad in your local paper or advertise in some way. Use the ad to highlight your most awesome items to draw customers. Also, you may want to add the phrase "No Early Bird Shoppers".  It works!

• Purchase or make your price tags. Write clearly and large enough for people to read them.

• Make your signs or purchase them. They should be brightly colored and easy to read.  Have plenty of signs with directional arrows pointing to your sale.

• Wipe off the dust or wash items and make them look nice. Throw away really stained or broken items.  If you wouldn't buy it at a yard sale, no one else will want to either.

• Price your items. I know its a pain, but it will be so much easier on you and your shoppers. The only things I didn't price was the clothes and I made signs around the clothing area listing the prices.

• Gather grocery sacks and newspaper to hold your shoppers treasures.

• Have plenty of change on hand. We had a roll of quarters, 50 ones, 8 fives and 5 tens. I wore my honey's home depot nail apron to keep my change in, worked great!

The Day of the Sale

• Hang tarps or sheets over areas of you garage you don't want to be included in your sale.

• Have an electrical outlet available for "testing" of electronics.

• Arrange your tables with plenty of walking room for your shoppers.Be careful with things sitting on the floor so that they don't become a trip hazard.

• Hang things that can be hung and fold things that need folding. Make your tables look nice.

• Arrange like items together.  Holiday items, kitchen items...etc.

• Make yourself a "sitting area" to take money and sack up the goods.

• Have someone to help you, this is not a one woman show! Thank you honey and Jake!

• Put out your signs when you are ready for shoppers.

• If someone wants you to "hold" something  for them, politely ask them to pay first then gladly hold it for them,  This way you wont just be stuck with the item or miss out on a sale if they don't return.

When sorting and gathering, we tried to stack like items together to make it easier when setting up the day of the sale.

Bigger items like small appliances got hang tags, others got little sticker tags. Be sure to write clearly if you use the hang tags.

Use boxes with the prices written on them for like items.  We had two boxes of books, so instead of tagging each one, this was an easier way.

Grouping your like items at the sale makes it more eye pleasing and your customer can mix and match easier. Since it was close to Halloween, these items went fast!

Here's our homemade signs.  We used bright red poster board and I cut out letters and arrows using my Cricut Expressions machine.  After we had it just like we wanted it, we placed it all on a piece of ply-board and used packing tape to make them rain proof.  Make your signs all alike and large enough to read from a distance.  Use arrows pointing the way.  Always list your address so shoppers know who's signs they are following and where they are going.

Hang your clothing if possible, if not, fold them neatly and in alike stacks.  I made a sign listing the clothing prices.  Can you see it there taped to a hanger and hanging at the end of the "clothes rack"?  That clothes rack was my honey's idea.  He used a heavy rope and a piece of conduit pipe and hung it from the rafters of our car port.

Give yourself a "sit down and take money" area.  You can see mine there to the right.  We just used our patio chair and table.  I kept my little stickers and hang tags in that basket under the table for just in case I needed to reprice something.

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

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