Are Yard Sales an Effective Way of Reducing Clutter?

Many people have yard sales in the summertime in an attempt to reduce clutter in their homes while making a small amount of money from their unwanted goods. Yard sales are extremely popular for these reasons, and every weekend people open their papers to the yard sale ads and begin highlighting those that interest them. However, are yard sales really effective at reducing clutter? In this article, I consider the efficacy of yard sales with regard to their ability to clear space in a home.

In order to have a yard sale, people must have enough unwanted items in their home to draw a crowd. Often, people save unwanted items for several years, saying that they will have a yard sale but putting it off for any variety of reasons. It is important to remember that there is usually a substantial amount of clutter in a home before people finally resort to having a yard sale.

Depending on many factors surrounding the yard sale and dictating its success, the number of items sold at a yard sale can vary significantly. However, even at a successful yard sale, I would say that people would be lucky to sell one-third of the items that they put out for sale. This means that most of the items that are put out for sale on Friday morning might be coming back inside on Sunday afternoon.

Does this mean that a yard sale can't be effective at reducing clutter? No, because saying that wouldn't be taking into consideration the size of the items sold. For example, if you can sell a sizable table, a washer or dryer, a freezer, a big-screen TV, an exercise machine, several boxes of books, or any other large items, you might be making a large dent in the amount of clutter that your home contains. Getting rid of any of these items automatically makes a lot of space in your home, whether it is living space or storage space.

However, you also need to consider that if you bring back two-thirds of the items that you put out for sale, you haven't been completely successful in your efforts to reduce clutter. For example, if you had a closet full of clothing that you wanted to get rid of and you bring back two-thirds of a closet of clothing, you haven't freed up that much space. You need to do more.

So what's the verdict on the efficacy of yard sales with respect to de-cluttering? I think that yard sales can be a good first step at cleaning out a house, but something needs to be done with the items that are left at the end. I suggest giving these items a two week reprieve and posting them on ebay or Craigslist. If, at the end of two weeks, no one has bought or expressed interest in these items, then they should be thrown out or donated to charity. You might feel as if you're taking a loss, but you can't force people to buy your possessions. Consider it the price to pay for having an uncluttered house.

Note: Since publishing this article, Contributor Gillian Wilk left a comment talking about how she donates used kids' clothes and toys to a particular foundation. If you have clothing and toys that your kids have outgrown that won't sell at a yard sale or you just aren't intending to have a yard sale, please donate them to a good cause. You could touch a sick child's life. To me, that's a lot more important than the fifty cents one might get for a stuffed animal at a yard sale.

Have any thoughts on the efficacy of yard sales at reducing clutter? Feel free to share your opinion in the form of a comment. Thank you for reading!