How to Plan a Great Yard Sale

Why do people think they can just get up on Saturday morning, throw a few boxes out in the driveway and call it a yard sale? I’m here to tell you that is not the way to do it – not if you want to really get rid of stuff and make some money.

A real yard sale (garage sale, rummage sale, tag sale, whatever you want to call it), takes thorough planning and plenty of organization. It’s not a last-minute fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants deal. The last time we had a sale, we went from a garage and driveway overflowing with stuff to one box leftover for Goodwill and sales of over $2,600.00. That’s a lot of money, more than we have ever made from a yard sale, but it would not have been possible without planning!

First of all, we keep our home & garage very organized in the first place. I am married to a neat freak. He has mellowed some over the years, but he’s still fairly rigid. Christmas decorations and keepsakes are in the basement or attic. “Transitional items” (things to sell or give away later) are all kept in bins in the garage. Neatly arranged bins, stacked on the side so that we still always have room to park both cars inside the garage. I do not understand folks (Mom) who have a garage so crammed with THINGS that they can’t park their car inside. I mean, what is a garage for after all?!??! Maybe I should save my strong feelings about that for another blog post.

So when we get tired of something, or outgrow something, or redecorate, we take our old items out into the garage and place them into a bin. After a yard sale has just happened, we usually have 15 or 20 empty bins stacked in the garage. Over the next year or so, they slowly fill back up with items just waiting for a sale. Our neighborhood usually has two sales each year, a spring sale and a fall sale, and we try to participate in both. Last year we only participated in one, which is why it was such a big one for us.

We have also accumulated several folding tables over the years that we refer to as the “yard sale tables.” A couple are from my Mamaw, one from The Dunsmores’ old record table, and some we have purchased over the years. We have six or seven folding tables that we use. We also have a few large pieces of plywood and some sawhorses that Artie stores under the house and pulls out for yard sale time.

We also save our grocery bags throughout the year. We keep them in a bin in the garage, too, as they overflow our pantry-size bag-keeper. By the time a sale rolls around, we have a bin full of grocery bags ready for our customers to carry out FILLED with items!

As you can see, we are pre-organized and we have our supplies on hand. Mom and Mamaw always had yard sales when I was growing up, at least once a year. Artie’s mom always did so, as well. It was not a foreign concept to us.

At least two weeks before the sale, you need to get your ads ready. The Halls Shopper requires that an ad be placed by Wednesday in order to run in the following Monday’s edition. Ads are usually only $5.00 to $10.00 in The Shopper. You have to call the News-Sentinel ads in at least 48 hours in advance. These ads can be quite expensive, but are well worth it in the long run. I believe the News-Sentinel ads for our last sale cost around $60.00 to run two days in the paper and online. Include the date and times, your street address and some directions. List any big items you have for sale, as well as video games, movies, electronics, brand names … any popular items. I usually add “Rain or Shine” at the end because once we’ve done all the preparation, I’m proceeding with the sale one way or the other. We can always pull everything into the garage if we have to, although it would be super-crowded. Here is a sample ad from one of our past sales (with our address changed):

Garage Sale, Saturday May 7, 1234 Halls Road, Beverly Hills Subdivision off Rodeo Drive. Ladies plus-size clothes, men’s name-brand clothes, books, home décor, DVDs, Legos, 19” TV/DVD combo, blue recliner, Xbox 360 & games, Wii system & games, Nintendo DSI & games, exercise bike, portable DVD player, king comforter set, scrapbooking items, much more! Rain or shine!

The more lengthy and specific your ad, the better for your sale. It attracts more people and more people buy more stuff.

So, let’s review so far: You have several months’ worth of items stored neatly in bins. You have tables and surfaces at the ready to display your items. You have placed ads in your local newspaper(s). Now time for the hard work.

At least one week before a sale, we pull the cars out of the garage (which I HATE) and set our tables up inside the garage. Then we pull our bins out and item by item, PRICE EACH THING and place it on a table. We have tables for clothes, tables for household, tables for movies and games, tables for books and toys, etc. Everything is divided into categories and EVERY SINGLE ITEM is priced. Don’t you hate going to a yard sale where no item is priced and you have to ask every time you see something you like? Don’t you also hate going to a yard sale where everything is in boxes and you have to squat or bend down to dig through boxes? Well, your customers will prefer to have items priced and easily seen. Better for sales.

We fold items like shorts, t-shirts, pajamas, swimsuits, and all the other clothes go on hangers. On a hanging rack. They sell small ones at the Dollar Store for about $9.00. Or heavy duty ones on Amazon for about $60.00. I recently sold over 300 items of clothing after my weight loss. Every one of these items was on a hanger, which of course I kept and re-used for the next sale.

If you have small jewelry items, put them in snack-size Ziploc bags. If you have toys with a lot of pieces (i.e. Legos), put them in a giant Ziploc bag or a box. Organize everything! PRICE everything. Don’t put 20 items in a box and say all items 50 cents. How will you remember what came out of that box?

We use the round brightly colored stickers to price our items. If we are doing the sale on our own at our house, we just put a price on the sticker. If we have other people participating with us in the sale (Mom or Kristi, etc.), we put a price and initials on the sticker so we know who gets the money.

The pricing and organizing can take up to a week, so plan accordingly. Specify a “check-out” area and place a chair or two there. Keep a box of grocery bags near the chair, as well as a notepad and pen.

A day or two before the sale, go to the bank and get change. I usually get about $60.00 worth of ones, fives and tens, as well as a roll of quarters. I keep this in an old-fashioned fanny pack around my waist during the entire sale. This is where I take money and make change from all day long, and I don’t have to worry about losing a money box or sitting it down.

Last, but not least, make a few poster board signs. Plan for one at your driveway, one at the end of your street, and one at every street that leads to yours from the main road. Plan on one or two at the main road or the closest major intersection to your house. Put YOUR ADDRESS on the sign and THE DATE(s) of the sale. Otherwise, plenty of people will take advantage of your sign and possibly your newspaper ads and have sales off of your advertising! And don’t forget – when the sale is over – GO TAKE YOUR SIGNS DOWN!!!

Plan to get up early on the day of the sale. Even if your signs and your ads said open at 8:00 a.m., people will start arriving by 7:00 a.m. It will be a busy and stressful morning. Have some help. Don’t try to do it by yourself. Hire a babysitter or call Grandma if you have young kids. Our sales are usually sold out by noon, after which we fold up the tables, sweep the garage, haul any leftovers to Goodwill, and pull the cars back in the garage. Then we go inside and collapse and take a long nap (oh, after counting the money, of course).

So these are my tips for planning a successful yard sale. We have certainly had our fair share over the years. If you do all of these things, you will be prepared for a busy, productive yard sale. And by the time the sale day rolls around, all you have to do is open the garage door.