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.