Tips for a successful yard sale – Yard sales are such a great way to get rid of the clutter and make money! We have had great success with our yard sales and today I’m sharing my top 10 tips to help you have a successful yard sale.
10 Tips for a Successful Yard Sale!
1. Location, Location, Location
We lived out in the country – surrounded by cornfields. Our home is not the best location for a yard sale so we packed up all of our bins and boxes and dragged them over to my in-laws house. They have a great neighborhood and were having a neighborhood sale.
2. Have a “neighborhood sale”
Send out a flyer to all the neighbors. Put out a bright sign a few weeks prior to the sale to advertise. If you plan a neighborhood sale, you may want to plan it the same day that other neighborhood sales are happening in your area. People will already be out, ready to shop and it will likely draw a bigger crowd.
3. Advertise Well
List your yard sale on Facebook. Don’t underestimate the power of a newspaper ad for your yard sale, many newspapers share these listings on their websites too. Be detailed and list what items you will have for sale. Put up bright and bold signs with directional arrows to tell people where to go.
4. Children’s Clothing
When selling children’s clothing write the size on the price tag – this will help your shoppers avoid having to hunt for the size. Price things to sell, I kept most of my prices from $1 – $3.00 a piece. Hang up items if possible, it’s a lot easier for shoppers to weed through a bunch of hung clothing rather than digging through bins and making a mess.
5. Organization
Keep all like items together. All books can be placed in a box with the spines up, so shoppers can easily browse. Keep all household items together. Place furniture together so that those looking for furniture can see everything together. Organize your clothing by size! This is crucial!
6. Have a Pre-Sale at your house.
Before I finished pricing everything I had a pre-sale at our house. I used Facebook to invite my friends and family and I allowed them to invite friends. It was VERY successful! We made over $100 in just 2 hours!
7. Make more money at your yard sale by selling food or drinks
Yard sale shoppers are often up at the crack of dawn (or earlier!) to find a good deal. Donuts, muffins, and coffee will sell great if you’re up and ready! If it’s a hot day you can easily sell ice-cold water if it’s reasonably priced! Hotdogs also sell great. The neighbors across the street always sell delicious eggrolls. I only lasted 10 minutes before buying a box!
8. Negotiate when you are ready
I do not negotiate the first 3 hours of a yard sale – No Way! After lunch, however willing to negotiate. I don’t want to pack up everything and bring it home with me so even if I don’t get my asking price I’d be happy to give someone a bargain.
9. 1/2 OFF during the last hour or fill a bag
In the last hour of the Yard Sale, I told all the shoppers that everything was 1/2 off. Another idea would be to hand out plastic bags and tell people they can fill a bag for $5 or $10.
10. Donate!
Rather than pack everything up and bring it back into your house, plan to take a trip to your local thrift shop.
Janet
Great tips. I’ve had some very successful yards sales using similar strategies. I will negotiate earlier in the day but am not as willing to come down on a price as much as later in the day. I love the pre-sale idea. That’s new to me. My kids are always in charge of the food. That’s how they make their money. We’ve found people love rice krispie treats, brownies, oatmeal cream pies and lemonade.
Joules
We are having a group yard sale which will be the first I have participated in as an adult so I am grateful for the tips:) And I am so making Crack Bars to sell – they’re kinda like rice crispy treats but with Captain Crunch cereal and M & M’s. Yum!
Rebekah
I love the idea of selling food at a yard sale! Maybe I should travel from neighborhood to neighborhood as a yard sale food vendor! 🙂
Caroline
Wow, great tips! For any yard sales we’ve done, we’ve never seen great success (even though they’ve been fun!), but these tips look like they’d help everyone – customers and sellers!