How to Host a Successful Yard Sale

Hosting a yard or garage sale is a great way to get rid of any items in your home you don’t need anymore and make a bit of cash at the same time.

Yes, it can be a pain to drag all of your stuff from your home and take the time to set it up, but it could be worth it. With a little extra effort, you could end up maximizing your profits and ensuring a smooth process.

Before advertising your sale, here are some yard sale tips to give you the best chance at success.

Go Through All Your Items 

No brainer, right?

The truth is that most garage sales are more successful if you have a lot of items for sale. If you just have a small table of things, it may not be worth your time and effort.

When combing through your items, try to be ruthless with what you’re going to keep. Have you used any of these items within the last 12 months? If you have multiples of items, can you pare it down to just one? 

Once you have a pile of items you don’t want anymore, take a careful look at them. See if the items are still in good working condition or clean. It could pay for you to spend some extra time wiping down bowls and plates or even washing some of your old clothes so they look nice. Sure, people are buying your used items, but that doesn’t mean they’ll want to purchase dirty things.

You’ll also want to take a good honest look at what will sell. While your Beanie Baby collection is quite valuable in your eyes, other people may pass on them. Same goes for old items like VHS tapes or ceramic knickknacks.  

It’s probably a good idea to set aside a few hours or more if you have a lot of items to comb through.

Price Your Items

Understanding how to price things for a yard sale will help save you time and confusion. You’ll want to make sure to put a price tag on each item so that buyers know exactly how much something costs. It prevents people from having to constantly ask you about prices.

To save some time, you can group items together and make a big sign for those particular items. For example, if you have a bunch of T-shirts you’re selling, you can make a sign that mentions that all T-shirts are $1 each. For individual items, make sure the price tags are on large labels so there is no confusion as to what the price is.

Clean Out Your Space Where You’ll Host Your Yard Sale

Making your space nice and inviting will help entice people to take a look at what you’ve got for sale. Of course, there’s no need to go all out and decorate your yard, but putting some thought into how you’ll display your items can help you sell more.

Here are a few yard sale decorating ideas:

• Put a few tables draped with fabric or clean tablecloths and space out your items
• Group similar items together or if you really want to get creative, color-code items as well
• Put your clothes on hangers and use a clothesline to hang them or create some makeshift clothing racks with broom handles between two ladders
• Organize books with spines facing out so buyers can easily browse through them
• Use lightweight shelves to display small items
• Group items that go together to help sell more items – put decorative cushions on a couch or drape a scarf around a jacket
• Make sure there is an area where people can test electronic items
• Display large items and most valuables near the entrance to your yard sale to attract customers

Be Prepared for Bargain Hunters

Let’s face it – you’ll think you have priced your yard sale items fairly but there are always a few people that will want you to knock the price down. Bargain hunters are to be expected and there’s no reason why you can’t negotiate a price that works for both of you.

The best outcome is to try to get the buyer to buy a few items and then you can lower the price. You can always encourage people to buy more by putting up signs that offer a discount the more items they buy, such as getting a free shirt when they buy three.

Sure, the point is to make money. However, you do want to move your items and lowering the price can help. Also, you’ll want to have lots of small bills and change around, because you know that there will be a few customers who will pay for items with a large bill.

Most importantly, be prepared to have fun. Yard sales are a great excuse to meet other people and see what items of yours will get more mileage. Even if you don’t sell all of your items, don’t sweat it – you can box them up and take it to your local donation center so others can find value in those items. That way, you’ve accomplished your main mission of a yard sale, which is to get rid of unwanted items. 

What are some tips you have? Share them with fellow readers below!

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