Tips for Holding the Perfect Yard Sale by Rachel Sanfordlyn Shreckengast

---

Page One; Before Your Yard Sale

Yard sales are hard work...at least if you want to make as much money as possible. There are a lot of things you need to do before having a yard sale. The first thing you need to do is gather your items. Gather everything that you are planning to sell. If you have very few things to sell, it might be a good idea to wait until next year because a number of people will simply drive by if they see you don't have much to offer. The exception to this rule is if your town has a community yard sale and you know that some of your close neighbors will be having yard sales as well. During most community yard sales, people will get out of their cars and walk and there is a better chance that they'll visit your yard sale...even if you don't have a lot of stuff for sale. Once you have gathered everything you want to sell at your garage sale, it's time to clean things up a little. It doesn't have to be perfect, but I guarantee you that you're going to get less interest in items that are filthy or have stains all over them. You don't have to make everything sparkle (although you can get higher prices if you do make everything look as good as possible) but everything should be clean. Of course, it doesn't matter that it is clean if your stuff is not organized. Get a bunch of boxes and separate everything. All glassware goes in one box, all knickknacks go in another, etc. Wherever possible, you should separate clothing by size. Most people are looking for specific sizes and may not sort through a pile of clothing to find out if you maybe possibly have the size they are looking for.

While you're at it, figure out what you are going to place things on. Get out your tables, your clothing racks, your shelving...anything that will help you display your items to their best advantage. Set all of the tables (and everything else) up beforehand if possible. Depending on your area this may or may not be possible, but it will save you work in the long run. Place a sign (handwritten is fine) on everything that you don't want to sell that says "This table/shelf/etc. is for display only. Not for sale.". Once all of that is finished, it's time to price your items. Don't skip this step or you may end up like the lady Saturday who lost a $15.00 sale because she didn't price her items. She may have lost out on more, but I didn't stick around to really look at what she had because she didn't put prices on anything. Yard salers tend to hate it when you don't price things and it also makes them wonder if you give everyone a different price or if you claim higher prices if you think they can "afford it". Just not a good idea not to price items. Their will be more on pricing in the next section of this article, but I'll end this section with a little more advice. The items should be displayed as nicely as possible. Don't just throw things on tables and don't keep everything in boxes. You want people to find things as easily as possible. Another tip is to place nicer and/or bigger items out in front so that they will be visible from the street. This lessens the chance that people will drive on by because they don't think your yard sale is worth stopping at. Below you will find a quicklist of the tips I talked about above.

1. Gather items.
2. Make sure you have enough items for a yard sale.
3. Clean items.
4. Separate everything by type.
5. Separate clothing by size.
6. Gather all display pieces and set up before-hand if possible.
7. Mark items you are not selling with "Display only. Not for sale."
8. Price your items.
9. Display your items as nicely as possible on your display pieces.
10. Don't toss things on tables or keep things in boxes.
11. Place nicer, bigger and flashier items up front to avoid some of the drive-bys.

Pages in this Article; Before The Sale, Pricing Your Items, Your Signs, The Day of The Yard Sale, More Resources

Best Wishes,
Rachel Sanfordlyn Shreckengast
062402