How to Have a Yard Sale

Are you going through a transition in life? If your youngest and final child just grew out of all the handed down toys and clothes, or your oldest is going off to college, maybe it's time to clear some unnecessary clutter out of your house with a good old fashioned yard sale. Maybe you don't have kids, but you just bought all new furniture and the old stuff still looks good enough to sell. Or you're not sure if you could sell it, but you haven't had time to haul it off. Spring is the time when people get in their cars early Saturday morning and drive around looking for a yard sale while they procrastinate on their own spring cleaning. Hey, bargain hunters pick your stuff up off the curb for free if you leave it out for the garbage, so why not sell it?

Start by putting an ad in the paper. Make sure it runs the week of the yard sale, because people won't read the actual date. They'll just show up at your house on Saturday. So make sure it's the right Saturday. List a few choice items that you're going to sell as well as the general categories of the others. Don't exaggerate in the ad; people will come from farther than you think for "lots of plus sized clothes" and you don't want a plus sized riot on your hands when you all you are going to sell is your size 12 wedding dress. Leave out the phrases "serious buyers only" and "no early birds" because the language is off-putting and you may lose a sale. These stipulations go without saying, and if someone is inconsiderate enough to knock on your door at 6 AM you can ignore them.

Put your address in the sale ad and, if your place is hard to find, your phone number. Not comfortable sharing that information? Put the neighborhood, subdivision or street name (or all three) on a for sale sign and make cardboard signs pointing the way from the main road. If you live in a place that is very inconvenient, say in a gated community or at the end of a dirt road on a mountain, consider having the sale at a friend's house in suburbia.

Gather the items you want to sell and tag them several days in advance. People may be too shy (or you may appear too busy) to ask you the price of an unmarked item, especially if it is small. They will leave without their knick knack and you will have lost a sale.

On the morning of the sale, put everything outside or in the garage. Unless absolutely necessary, you don't want strange yard sale enthusiasts coming in your house because they will start bidding on everything they see, even the TV your children are watching at the time. So unless you're trying to sell a grand piano, bring the stuff outside.

People will cruise by without stopping if it looks like you don't have much stuff out, so consider including your friends and neighbors' stuff in the sale. Of course you want to ask them first and give them the money you make when you sell their stuff. Lay out the items on tables, on top of other things for sale, even on blankets and towels laid out on the ground if you don't have enough tables. You can even lay things out on your driveway.

Decide whether you want to haggle. Going to yard sales and haggling is a popular hobby; you even see bumper stickers that say, "I brake for yard sales." Don't be annoyed by this behavior because it is all too normal. Just consider whether you want the item out of your way or you actually want to make some money off of the sale.

You don't even need a yard to have a yard sale. You can rent a table at a flea market or have the sale at a friend's house. But heed this final advice: at the end of the day, when you are sunburned and a little tired, resist the temptation to take all the little items that you did not sell back inside with you. Go directly to Goodwill or the Salvation Army and give them away. After all, you started with the goal of clearing out some junk. Have fun with your sale and remember that the next weekend, you can go shopping for your own new old stuff.