So we went through with the yard sale Saturday. I know I called it a garage sale, but since we had it in the front yard and not the old, yucky garage, I thought it fitting to call it a Yard Sale :)

So, how did it go? Well, not as well as I’d hoped. We came out of it with about $35 and my nephews, who came over for the day and brought some of thier stuff, raked in about $25 from some of thier toys (Bakugan, Yugioh,Bionicles and some Air Soft guns)

What I sold:

• 2 maternity blouses @ $2 each
• 1 maternity blouse @ $1
• 1 maternity skirt @ $1
• 1 blouse @ .50
• 2 of my Homemade Soy Candles @ $6.00 each
• Set of 3 older stainless steel pots @ $3.50
• can opener @ .05
• Craftsman lawnmower that starts but doesn’t run well @ $15(I think the guy knew he could fix it easily, cause after he got it started he asked if we were sure we wanted $15 for it, and then when he drove by after loading it up, he was smiling as he went by! Oh, well, we got it outta here.)
• A funny book about old age @ .25

So, here are a few things I learned. Some are things I did do, and some that I’d do differently next time….

Yard/Garage Sale Preparation tips:

• Start at least a couple weeks beforehand, depending on how much stuff you have, finding things you don’t need, or love anymore to gather up for the sale.  I was a little lax in this area, and my mom and I had to sort through some stuff still, the night before.
• Sort things by kind, and then by price. Like with my clothing, we sorted them into Maternity, Baby, Boy, Girl, Mens, Womens, Jeans, Slacks, Shirts, Sweaters, etc……… You get the idea. It’s also a better idea to hang up as many clothes as you can. Makes it so much easier for people to sort through without making a mess. We were able to hang a few things up.
• Price things low, and then drop prices the last day, if you’re doing a two day sale, or around noon for a one day sale.
• Two day sales are probably better to do. I wish now, that I’d started on Friday, but oh well, live and learn! :)

• Put your signs up two days before instead of the night before. I had planned on doing this, but got so busy that I forgot, so my mom and I ended up taking our dog with us Friday night at Midnight to put the signs up. It was such a nice night out and we had a few laughs! :) Memories made: Check!

• Buy neon green poster board to make the signs out of. We used regular cardboard and on Sat. someone else had put up a neon green sign across the road from ours, and even though it was smaller than ours, it definitely stood out better, and you could read it easier.
• Put the signs on some of the other intersections close by. This is one that if I would have got the signs done and put up earlier, I would have been able to do. We did two intersections, but there are two more intersections I wish I’d thought about.
• List a few popular or big items on the Yard Sale signs (like my maternity clothes, or baby clothes) so that people will want to go out of thier way to stop in, when they may not otherwise.
• Put an ad on Craigslist. This is one that I did do on Thursday. I maybe should have put it up there on Wednesday, though I don’t know if that would have helped or not.

Yard/Garage Sale Day Tips:

• Definitely have someone there to help. This would not have been so enjoyable if my mom had not been there! Especially when you have kids! So make sure to have someone with you. First of all, it helps so you can have someone outside with the merchandise at all times, and even if you don’t have kids, it helps so you’re not lonely. And if you’re garage sale is actually busy, unlike mine, then you have two people that can take money.
• Have probably $40-50 in 1s,5s,10s and change. My mom brought $200 in bills and change so we were over prepared in this area. LOL
• Put any free stuff in front of the fence by the road first thing. We have a fence around our front yard, so even though we had the front gate open by the sidewalk, it’s kind of hard to see into the yard when people are driving by. So I think this was a deterrent since usually people may drive by and see something and stop when they hadn’t intended to in the first place.  So we ended up putting the free stuff out front about noon and had a few people stop to take the free stuff, or to look at it, and then they actually came into the yard and bought something, or at least looked.

• Be friendly, smile and say “hi” when they come in, and “Thanks for stopping by” when they leave, and just have fun!

Oh, yes, and you should check out some of the pics that Allison O at O My Family has from her yard sale this weekend! Great idea for how to hang clothes if you don’t think you have anything to hang them on!