I was pumped about having a yard sale this past weekend and thought I had prepared by doing my research on how to have a successful yard sale. The weather was supposed to be beautiful, so I was hoping for a good turnout. Well after a full day of selling, I made a whopping thirty dollars! My sister’s family did about four times better.
Weather-wise, the rain held off, but then the wind blew in and brought with it wildfire smoke. That was out of our control and for hard-core yard/garage salers, not a big deterrent.
Here are my post-sale thoughts and some tips I followed that may benefit you if you’re considering having your own yard sale in the next several months.
YARD SALE TIPS & POST-SALE THOUGHTS
1. GATHER ITEMS… THE MORE, THE BETTER.
Here, less is NOT more. The more selection of items, the better. A full yard or driveway appeals to potential customers more than an empty, sparse-looking one. But what you include matters, too. Be sure to clean and make things look presentable! No one wants to buy something covered in a layer of dust!
Although we decluttered before we moved and have decluttered since we’ve been here, with kids, you can still easily accumulate things in ten months’ time. There were more things I could have put out in the sale but just didn’t get around to cleaning or finding them.
I found out about the street yard sale a few weeks in advance but didn’t really get items together until a few days before the sale. We still have stuff in boxes from our move and I’ve been listing things for sale on Facebook Marketplace from time to time, but I probably could have done a better job of going through ALL our stuff and getting organized for the sale.
So if I were to do this again – probably not this summer – I would start gathering a greater variety of items, SOONER THAN LATER. Also I would have asked my sister’s family and my parents sooner. Even though my mom didn’t think she had anything worthwhile to sell, my parents’ basement is pretty packed with various “treasures”. One man said he was looking for some, as you never know what you’ll find at yard sales. Another was looking for books and the only ones we had out were for kids, which he jokingly said was only slightly below his reading level.
I think having a variety of things, beyond kids’ stuff, would have improved customer reach. There were several comments about there being “so much kids’ stuff” but that’s just the stage of life that we’re at right now.
2. PRICE EVERYTHING!
This allows people to browse without having to go to the trouble of asking you about prices. If someone is too shy to ask, you could lose a potential customer by not having the price obvious.
I put a sticker on almost everything. Some things the stickers had fallen off of but almost every item had a price on it and if it didn’t most people were not afraid to ask.
When pricing, think fair value.
What would you pay for something like this? Don’t go too low but also don’t price too high. Leave a little wiggle room for bargaining.
Our neighbour from the house kitty corner to us was also participating in the sale and came to check out our goods, probably to gather intel and see how much we were selling things for. Their daughter who looks to be about nine or ten, came to check out our stuff too at one point, but didn’t find anything she was willing to spend money on. I must say, their cat is much friendlier than they are, having come over to “chat” with us ever since we moved in.
Brighton and Blythe both went to check out their goods and Brighton bought three items for only a dollar. I think they purposely gave him a deal because he was a kid. I may have priced a little high on my items. The most people seemed willing to spend was about $30-$35 TOTAL for a bunch of items.
3. DETERMINE YOUR END GOAL.
Do you want to get rid of stuff or make money? If you want to simply declutter your house because there’s no breathing room left and kids’ toys are becoming dust magnets, then price accordingly.
My sister’s family probably did better than mine because they were pricing to sell and they had a lot of stuff in good condition (baby gear, shoes) that happened to be what our customer base was looking for. They also said they wouldn’t take anything back home, but they did. I think they will either be donating items now or listing them online.
I was happy to help them sell some of their stuff instead of simply giving it all away. They are generous people but they also deserve to recoup some of their costs!
I was also wanting to declutter, but hoping to make some money, so did not want to essentially give away things by pricing too low. I could have made another $35 by giving a customer a deal but I knew I could list those same items elsewhere for higher prices and most likely sell them, so chose not to close the deal. Our house is bigger and we still have room to store the unsold merchandise for a little while longer.
4. ADVERTISE!
It’s going to help your sale a lot the more people that know about it! The local newspaper, Facebook Marketplace, Kijiji, and word-of-mouth. And put up signs along the nearby major streets!
Since I was not the organizer, I’m not really sure how the woman in charge advertised. I did ask people who came to the sale how they heard about it. A few said they saw it posted online and others said there were signs posted.
5. SET UP EARLY!
Anyone who is into yard sales will either know that there will always be early birds or be one of those early birds. So be prepared for people to show up an hour or two before the advertised start time.
Our yard sale didn’t officially start until 9 am, but there were some eager beavers showing up around 8 o’clock. I was just getting stuff outside so missed out on a wider selection of goods for customers to choose from. The first sale was two toy hats of my sister’s. When I mentioned that I had another of my own, inside, the woman said that she’d leave that for someone else to buy. If I had had all my items out, then it may have sold then too. But it ended up selling later, so it was fine.
6. MULTIPLE HOUSES/BLOCK SALE.
If you can get other people in your neighbourhood interested in participating, this will draw more potential buyers to your own house. Think of how mall shopping appeal to the masses. A whole bunch of stores are in one place, so it saves people the hassle of having to go all over the city to different individual specialty shops.
There were about nine or ten other houses participating on our street, so I think this definitely drew people to the sale. Apparently this is the first one in many years, according to our next door neighbour.
7. ORGANIZE ITEMS LIKE IT’S A SHOP.
Group like with like. Use tables and set them up in a u-shape or in a way that provides flow. Have things at varying heights for interest. There is a really good “floor” plan here that I loosely based my set-up on.
I did this and think it was pretty well organized. My sister is likely a bit biased as she went around to all the other sales on our street and said ours looked the best. When we lived in Toronto, I used to sell my handmade goods at St. Lawrence Market so have some experience with displaying merchandise outside.
One thing I would have done differently is have clothes on a clothing rack and labeled better by size and their selling points. We had a bike rack sitting in our garage that I ended up using to hang some clothes on, but I feel like a clothing rack would have showcased them better. I couldn’t justify the purchase though and had also read that adult clothing does not usually sell well at yard sales. Go figure that Whitney, our eldest went and bought a pair of women’s jeans at one of the other houses, a gift from her auntie.
8. ORGANIZE YOURSELF AND YOUR STATION! HAVE A BACKUP CREW TOO, IF YOU CAN!
Have bags at the ready, scissors, tape, a sharpie, pen, notebook, string. A personal chef and water!
I didn’t have a ton of bags, but I had some just in case. Most times I asked if anyone wanted one, they didn’t. Almost everyone who came by, drove and could simply pop their purchases into their car, so there was no need. The one customer I did give a bag to had biked and bought five pairs of shoes for his grandsons.
I had a notebook and pen to record all the sales, since I had to give my sister and her family their share of them. The crowds were never too crazy that I didn’t have time to write down what sold.
Matt brought me breakfast, lunch, dessert and water throughout the day and I took bathroom breaks when needed. Most of the morning I was on my own except for our kids coming outside for a few minutes at a time. My sister’s family hung out for about three hours in the afternoon which livened things up. Literally, when they arrived, they sold a whole bunch of stuff, the profits of which my sister then spent some of at neighbouring sales.
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN?
Yes, of course. Probably not again this year. We’ll see if anyone else organizes another. I don’t really want to be in charge of advertising, etc.
NOW, I am itching to get back into craft shows and sales that focus on handmade goods, something that has been put on the back burner for years. We finally have a car that makes a bit easier, the kids are a bit older and more independent (maybe) and we also have potential help from family (babysitting or show help).
Matt kept saying that he wanted to try to sell one of his chairs at the yard sale. But that is simply not the right venue for them. He even put up a sign on our lawn advertising his business… do you think anyone asked about it?
People who shop at yard sales are looking for a bargain, not an artisan piece of furniture. At least not one they’re willing to pay top dollar for. I had some vintage folding chairs from my parents for sale and no one seemed interested in those.
As much as I don’t thoroughly enjoy the selling aspect, it pushes me out of my comfort zone and helps me grow. And I would love to meet like-minded creative people in our new city. Otherwise I will probably end up being a crazy cat lady one day.
Congrats on a well organized first in many years community yard sale! We did this in St Andrews a lot, as they had every year what they called the “Town Wide”! It was more a social experience than a money maker for us. One year, we did sell a lot and made a lot. It was definitely in the hundreds.
It is a lot of work, the weather can play tricks but it is a great way to recycle goods and make a little cash.
We did find that almost all wanted a bargoon, that is usually at least 50% off. So, we had to price up a wee bit. It did get annoying when you had things for 50 cents and they would ask if you would take a quarter for it.
Thanks, Carol! This was a bit of an experiment. I think we could do better with a little more prep and maybe less expectations. Who doesn’t love a bargoon? My sister is so funny, though, she was too afraid to haggle so instead of trying to get stuff for less she ended up buying more because she had “leftover” money.