Yard Sale, a Success After All

So we totally did not think we'd be able to have the yard sale this weekend. There was rain in the forecast all week long (an 80% chance most of the time), and chances of isolated rain or thunderstorms. And we don't have an alternate, like a garage or anything of that nature, that would be large enough to house all of our stuff. I advertised the sale to be Saturday May 16 and Sunday May 17, but if it rained, we would have to move it to next weekend. I think we were checking the weather forecast every few hours.

As of Thursday night we were pretty confident we'd just call the sale off this weekend and wait until next week. But then the forecast started changing on Friday and it didn't have any rain chances until the afternoon. So we decided on Friday that we'd start getting ready and set things out early Saturday morning.

We finished getting things ready Friday night and I posted an ad on Craigslist and printed signs off to hang Saturday morning.

The ads were fairly descriptive, and I included a map and pictures of some groups of items, like books, clothing, and a couple of larger items.

Most of the books I priced at .25 to .50 cents and they sold like crazy. One family bought almost all of the books we had. Haley had a lot of Teen girl novels, and Trent had a whole collection of Goosebumps books, and they all sold!

Most of the clothes I also priced pretty cheap, .25-.75 for most tops, and the nicer things $1. Dresses were priced at $1.00-3.00.

I ended up advertising in one of the local papers, on Craigslist, and I also posted the sale on a Facebook Buy and Sell group.

We got up in the wee hours Saturday (about 5:30), and started putting out tables and all of our stuff! There weren't any real rain chances until the afternoon, but the sky was pretty cloudy. There were comfortable temps though, in the 70's and a little breezy, so it felt pretty much perfect, albeit a little humid. I was pretty sure it would rain in the afternoon by the way things looked.

We got everything set up in time though, and started at 8:00 am. Trent's aunt brought some things over, and Haley and I had a ton of stuff, girls' books, Ladies and Juniors clothing, kids' stuffed animals.. and Trent and I had some misc. household items..Trent brought things out from the shed, like his old chair and ottoman, and a desk. We also put his old dresser and nightstand up for sale, $15 for the set.

Someone did buy the kids' bedroom set, but the chair we ended up sitting out on the curb for free at the end of the sale. (A couple hours later, it was gone).

We actually had quite a bit of traffic in the morning. It was pretty steady right at the start of the sale, and after that we'd have a few families stop by. Several kids found a bunch of things they liked and their parents willingly paid for them!

Luckily the rain held off for the entire day! It even became sunny late morning, and turned into a really nice, summer-like day. The afternoon wasn't very busy at all, though. We waited for a while, and my parents came over to visit. About mid-afternoon we decided to pack the rest of it all up, and we took all of the tables down and moved everything onto the porch.

I have to admit the entire day was pretty exhausting! We felt like we got a workout in, with all of the running around, putting things out there and taking them all down again.

My parents helped us clean up after the yard sale, and after they left we took down all of the signs we put up along the sides of the road. We went to the gas station for some ice cream, then tried to relax for a little while and get cleaned up since we both felt a little gross after working out there in the heat. That night we went across the street to Mark and Sandy's and grilled out, then we all took the dogs for a walk around town. It was a long but overall pretty fun day!

We decided not to have the sale again on Sunday, since Saturday was long enough and we were all exhausted by the end of it! It always seems like a good idea, but by the end of the day I wonder why again, did I go through all of this trouble to make a few bucks and get rid of a few things? I guess it was fun though, and you might as well make a few bucks before giving the rest away.

Our main goal was to get a start in cleaning out the upstairs bedroom, so I definitely think we made a good start on that, especially since the dresser and nightstand sold, along with my plastic pink storage shelving that I had from the college days. Those things took up quite a bit of space, so I'm glad to have them gone.

Overall I'd consider yesterday a success. Haley and Trent made $35-$38 bucks each, Sandy and Brennan made around $20 or so, and I made $86, so if you compare this year's sale to our first sale back in the fall of 2012, we did a little better this time all around. But of course, it's a lot of work! And now, I get to sort through everything that's left and decide what to keep and what to give to charity. Most things obviously, will go to charity, but there may be a few clothing items, etc. that I'll still be able to sell on eBay. And there are also several items left over from Haley's wedding that I will try to sell online.

If you're thinking about having a yard sale in the future, just remember that it's more work than you think! It can be fun though, and if you're in a more populated area, you could get rid of quite a few things. You just have to decide if it's all worth it for you in the end. You can check out my post about our first yard sale for some more tips!