Several months ago, a friend and I agreed she had a lot of "stuff" in her small house so I suggested she do a yard sale. Since I figured she might need a little encouragement/motivation, I told her I would join up with her. Right place, right time.
Excited about doing a yard sale, I went through my small accumulated pile of "stuff" and realized it wouldn't amount to a whole lot for a yard sale. Enter my sister. She wanted to do spring cleaning on one of those rare "springy" days back in March and so I agreed to help her go through her basement. Before too long, I made a grand total of three trips of "stuff" she didn't want. Right place, right time.
Then a missionary and his family were planning on going back to Chile, so one day the missionary's wife was in the office wondering how to get some "stuff" to the Goodwill. I offered to take it for her (since it worked for me to do it for another missionary's wife) and then thought about the yard sale that was coming up in the distant future. She said I could sell the "stuff" at the yard sale and take the rest to the Goodwill. Right place, right time.
A few more scenarios happened like that with me being in the right place at the right time. Well today my friend and I joined up together and did my first-ever yard sale! It was so much fun (well, maybe the part of getting up at 4:45 had its downside, but still!) and it was interesting to be on "this side" of the table. Would you believe it if I told you most of the "stuff" that other people had given to me was all basically sold?!? Amazingly enough, it is true... and the little bit that didn't get sold will join up at another neighborhood yard sale sometime in June. So with that said, I wanted to share a few tips I learned while do my first-ever yard sale:
- Join up with a friend! The day went so much smoother because there were two of us working together.
- Another great idea is to ask the neighbors around you to have a sale on the same day. My friend did a yard sale last year with a few neighbors, and had tons of people show up. Today probably would've gone even better if we had 3-4 more yard sales in the neighborhood.
- Have a little bit of everything out to interest all sorts of age groups. I was astonished to see that half of our customers were men. Why were they there? My friend's husband put out a planer (some kind of guy-tool.... yeah, I don't get it either!) and boy, oh boy, did that draw in the crowds. The great thing was that it enticed the men to stop and then the ladies would get out and shop! Also, make sure you have some baby stuff, kiddie toys, and things to interest adults. I think our yard sale was a success because we had such a variety of items.
- Start pricing your items weeks in advance. One thing that worked in my favor was I put all the items in our spare room (which also has the VCR/DVD player in it) and then I would start pricing stuff if I watched a movie. Multi-tasking is great!
- Borrow tables if possible. Our pastor was nice to let us take several tables so we didn't have many things on the ground. I know I usually don't look at yard sales where everything is on the ground.
- Have your testimony tracts or any other kind of tract ready! Where else do people come to you and not turn down taking a tract??? Not one person refused me today and I got to hand out several tracts!
Oh! One more tip... don't blog for a few days before your sale.... it really helps;o).
1 comment:
Oh! How fun! I enjoyed your tips too. I did a garage sale with my sister last summer... fun, fun, fun :) It was a success too--the kind of garage sale I told my sis I wished I was the one out shopping today :D
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