Who Doesn't Love A Lil' Somethin' Extra

Gosh, it's been a while since I let the chatterbox in me loose online! Eek! Haha. Well, it's kind of been a busy week for us. Today is Father's Day and although I would like to say we spent all day out and about with the Father of the house, I actually had to wait on my hubby to finish his homework on the computer all afternoon. That's not to say we didn't celebrate. For us, sleeping in is a celebration and we got more sleep in today than we have in a long time...even with the 3 children squished between us most of the morning. Then we went out to dinner and dessert. It was a nice, chill day. The rest of the week was spent preparing for the yard/tag sale I decided to do this weekend. And we had an impromptu dinner at a friend's house Friday night. They are in the middle of renovating it and we were curious to see how it turned out. Somehow, we ended up having dinner there, too. The place looks amazing and I can't believe how similar their taste is to mine - modern, but maintaining a sense of traditional coziness and character. It's got me itchin' for our own home. I hate renting and not having a place to call our own, but am a little nervous about all the responsibility home ownership brings. Anyway, Saturday was the yard sale and we were out from 8a - 1p. After that, we were quite content just laying around for the rest of the afternoon. Actually, I sat here at the desk doing work - Mary Kay related. and posting the items we didn't sell on Craigslist. Unfortunately, there wasn't much traffic so it didn't pan out so well. Which leads me to the topic of today - how to make money at yard sales.

Growing up, I was quite lucky...not that I saw it that way when I was kid. I never got whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. But my parents really provided for my sister and I. The cabinets and fridge were always packed with food and snacks. And we never missed out on any opportunities for financial reasons. So, I was never really keen on the idea of going to or having yard sales or thrift stores. But as an adult, I get a thrill in finding a good deal or finding a hidden treasure amongst other people's trash or making an extra buck. Oh yes, it's the little things in life :) I also get very bored with stuff. So, I decided to plan a yard sale.

(We moved things around as items sold or as we realized that they weren't be displayed effectively).

I took businesses classes in college so I think of myself as being pretty business-savvy. So boy was I disappointed when I made a mere $25. But I'm thinking of having another sale before my family goes on our vacation if I have any of those items I posted on Craigslist left. So, in preparation for that day, here is a list of ways to make any yard/tag sale more successful.

- Set the date for the weekend after pay day, it should preferably not fall on a holiday weekend. I did this thinking that Father's Day wasn't going to be a big deal, but perhaps it was a factor to my failure.
- Start early in the morning, say 7 or 8am. For whatever reason, bargain hunters don't believe in sleeping in so we set up shop at 8am.
- Advertise properly. I put up only 2 signs, but they were in 2 very prime locations - the corner of a very busy intersection and the local mini mart. However, I should have put up a couple more throughout the adjacent neighborhoods and maybe even drew arrows in the direction of our street. I also advertised on my Facebook page and a community Facebook page, but Craigslist is a good resource as well.
- Have a good assortment of items. I included a bunch of newborn baby boy clothes...literally they were sizes newborn to 6 months. Unfortunately, everyone that was out seemed to be looking for clothes for girls or older boys.
- Make sure your items are presentable. Yard sale shoppers shouldn't expect items to be in mint condition, but if you make the effort to clean up furniture or remove stains as best as possible from clothing or what have you, people will be more likely to pay more or buy at all. We didn't really have an issue in this department as I did my best to clean up as much as possible, but there was one pretty finicky individual.
- Price items accordingly. People go to yard sales looking for a deal. There are many a peeps out there who aren't afraid to haggle so if you don't want to get ripped off, you might want to think about pricing just a little more than you hope to get for an item and let your "customers" offer an amount. Or, if it's not one of your big ticket items, go ahead and let it go...at least it's out of your house. :) Also, you might want to do some research on big ticket items to make sure you are pricing accordingly...that is, to make sure you are getting what you deserve or are not overcharging. Most of the clothing that we put out were 25 cents to $3, but nothing over $5. We also charged only about 10% of the original retail cost for the big ticket items.
- Make sure to have change on hand. You should have plenty of ones and quarters on hand because most bargain hunters are shopping with cash and if you don't have change, they may very well change their minds or round down to a lower, even amount. We went hunting in nightstand drawers and on countertops the morning of to find dollar bills and change.
- Display matters. You want to spread your items out so that everything can be seen. We don't have any of those fold-up tables or party tables so we ended up bring the dining table at patio tables out. It wasn't really sufficient, but didn't want to have to pay to borrow tables and couldn't think of anyone we knew who had tables. Therefore, people who stopped by didn't get the opportunity to sort threw the women's clothes we had out and the men's items were stacked on top of each other. And it was difficult to see a coffee table we had out because we kind of used it as a display table for other items like throw pillows and a tea set. We did, however, label sections for women, men, baby boy, etc.
- Be friendly - Yes, you're probably wishing you were still cuddled in bed watching Saturday morning cartoons with the kids, but at least act like what you have could be someone else's treasurers. I personally don't like to buy anything from anyone who doesn't have a good attitude unless it's something that I seriously can't pass up!!

Gosh, that seems like a lot to take in, but it's not so bad, really. A lot of it is common sense. If there's anything I missed, I would love to know about it. I hope to learn from my mistakes and become more successful next time. Oh, and don't forget to get your kids involved. My daughter really enjoyed telling people about some of the items or the cost of the items. She was also pretty good at advertising. She went on and on to my neighbor that we were having a yard sale (not that it wasn't obvious or anything). Haha...let me know your success stories, too!


Hope the fathers in your lives had a special day and felt much appreciated as they should be!