Once we get to a certain age, we may feel the urge to look at our accumulation of possessions and think, “Maybe it’s time to reassess the things I have in my home and focus on having things I really enjoy.” Or we’ve lost a parent and need to go through their collections in preparation to sell their house. Or we spy our grown children’s childhood favorites that have hung around for decades and realize these toys could bring other children joy. One way to channel these musings productively is to host a sale, either on your own, in conjunction with friends or family members, or as part of an organized community effort.
This summer has been full of yard sale experiences for my friends Beth and sisters Val and Marti, and for me. Here I’ll share how we each handled different aspects of our sales and what we learned from the process. For the purpose of this article, I will use the term “yard sale” to cover garage sales, estate sales, rummage sales, tag sales and the like.
Val and Marti and Their Dad’s Expansive Collections
As my childhood friend Val and her sister Marti mourned the loss of their father after a long illness, they faced not only their grief, but a house filled with decades of collectibles, possessions and memories. Their father, a civil engineer, bought the 1950s era house for his parents and returned to it to live out his later years. He retired early and loved picking up household items for a song that he could take apart and repair. He enjoyed fixing irons so much that he built a collection of more than 200! While Val had found a buyer for a few of the irons, she still had plenty to sell.
Val and Marti’s dad enjoyed collecting many types of housewares and decorative items, including Greek pottery, reflective of the family’s heritage. One of their sale customers purchased the entire lot of pottery.
She and Marti also found themselves with collections of vintage men’s magazines, beautifully tailored business clothing, men’s dress shoes, artwork, Greek pottery, photography equipment, and dozens of hand mixers (plus a handful of old stand mixers) he’d repaired. After listing and selling quite a few pieces on Facebook Marketplace, and in preparation to sell her father’s house, Val and Marti decided to hold a four-day sale. They prepared and executed it all on their own (with some day-of-sale help from friends and family). While it was an exhausting endeavor, the sale was a success, putting beloved items into new hands who would enjoy them as much as their father did and giving people a glimpse into his “collect-repair-enjoy” philosophy.
Beth and the Intersection of Downsizing and Community
My friend Beth chose to participate in her community yard sale as part of a personal downsizing effort, but also to support the St. Louis-area town she calls home. Her goals were to “sell stuff, make money, meet my neighbors, have fun, and participate in my community.” She pulled a wide-ranging collection of items that had been well loved by her or her now-grown children and passed on to her from other family members. Her sale attracted not only residents from her municipality but from others in the area as well, and she found she enjoyed playing a role in a successful community-building effort.
My State-of-Life Sale Impetus
In transitioning to retirement and preparing for a soon-to-be empty nest, I found I had plenty of items I loved but was ready to part with: children’s clothes and toys, books I had read and enjoyed but would not read again, and clothing and accessories that had served me well through office life but did not suit this next chapter. However, I had no desire to put together a sale on my own. So when our subdivision trustees set a subdivision sale for late July, I jumped at the opportunity to join my neighbors and release some possessions to their next life.
Ready to Sell? Key To-do Items and a Timeline
A Month Out:
Alight on your goals. Do you want to clear your decks and sell a lot of items, not really caring too much about the price? Or do you want to get the highest dollar amount for your items? Clarifying exactly what you want from your sale will determine some of your next steps.
Gather and sort your items into general categories, such as toys, housewares, clothes, seasonal decorations, and collectibles. Beth noted that separating out items like men’s and women’s clothing or home decor items helps people who are looking for something specific.
Check with family members or neighbors who might want to make some money by adding a few of their own items to your sale. They may say yes and offer help as well!
If you’re wondering whether an item that’s somewhat worn, a bit odd, or just plain strange will sell, put a lowball price on it and see what happens. We had a shoebox full of old dental instruments from a family member that we wanted out of the house, so we put a $5 sticker on the box and were shocked that it was one of the very first things to go. (We learned that day that woodworkers use dental tools for detailing.)
Vintage collectibles can show some use, wear or patina and still fetch a good price from collectors. Incomplete sets of collectibles or dishes are in demand because people are looking for replacements or extras. But obviously worn or stained clothing, broken items or anything you wouldn’t give to a family member or friend should be disposed of. As Beth says, “To make money, you have to part with good quality stuff, not just junk.”
Check with your local government/municipality to see if you need a permit for a garage sale or for posting signage. If you participate in a community sale, some of this work may be done for you.
Decide on your timeframe. Hour wise, our neighborhood sale listed 7 a.m.-1 p.m. on one Saturday, but customers had pretty much finished coming by before noon. Val and Marti held their sale over one weekend, then a later Thursday and Friday. (The latter two days are well-established for estate sales in Kansas City.). Beth found that her community sales’ posted hours of 10 a.m.-6 p.m. were too late for many of her shoppers. Many frequent sale attendees told her they like 8 a.m.-2 p.m.
Collect and/or purchase pricing stickers, tags, pens and signage. I found bundles of pricing stickers and plain white tags with white strings (used for tying around clothing hangers) on Amazon. Speaking of price tags, Val advises making sure every item has one. If you have a lot of items, it can be easy to overlook that each is tagged.
Finalize your location. Beth used her garage and driveway, I utilized my entire driveway, and Val and Marti held their estate sale at their dad’s house because that’s where everything they were selling was located.
Two Weeks Out:
Decide if you will price items to sell quickly or to leave a little bit of bargaining room in line with your sale goal. Research values for any brand-name items or collectibles on sites like eBay, Facebook Marketplace and Etsy.
Keep in mind that yard sale devotees love bargains! If you are wanting top dollar for brand-name clothing or collectibles and don’t want to haggle, it may be more advantageous to list your wares on an online selling platform.
This image of Beth’s ceramic vases and tray, posted online in advance of her sale, proved to be a great conversation topic with several of her sale customers who saw the image and then remarked on the actual grouping at her sale.
Post electronic notices of your yard sale on Nextdoor, other local sites, “buy-sell-trade” pages and sites, and your own social media. Post signs in allowable areas of your neighborhood. Beth notes that Facebook community pages will take notices, too; she said she probably posted notice of her sale to 9-10 pages overall. Marti purchased a $100 listing on estatesales.net and posted 75 pictures of the items she and Val were selling. People lined up for their sale a half hour before it opened, with the more seasoned sale hounds using line markers to hold their place.
Sage advice from Beth: “Sell your kids’ stuff. If they’ve moved out and they tell you they don’t want it, take their word for it and sell it.” One of my sons was happy to make money by selling both Pokémon and the odd items that went before the sale officially opened. My older son, who lives in a different city, was happy to get a few bucks for brand-name clothes he no longer wore.
Settle on your display needs and supplies for the day: one or more large tables, a hanging rack for clothes, a shoe shelf for shoes, a card table and chair for display of a few high-draw items, a small bookshelf for books, trays and baskets for fashion accessories, and bags (plastic or paper) for those who want them. Val and Marti suggest having an old blanket or two on hand to cover large SOLD items, like furniture, for people who will pick up after the sale.
One Week Out:
Price your items. Ask a friend for help if you’re wondering what kind of dollar amount to assign to a particular category of items. Pre-printed price stickers placed directly on most items work well, but for clothing I preferred to attach the stickers onto white tags that I tied around the hangers for more of a boutique look. Beth, Val and Marti all emphasized that some hard-to-value items will move quickly if priced with “Make offer” tags.
Plan your display: Arrange clothes on the same kind of hangers and organize them by color and occasion. Think about how an appealing boutique looks when you walk inside. Arrange jewelry on a tray and fold or roll scarves before arranging them in a nice box or basket. Pair shoes on a shelf (and make sure the shoes are clean). If the shoes are in boxes, open them and nest the lids on the bottom of the boxes so the shoes are clearly visible and easy to try on.
Run an extension cord or determine an outlet you can have ready to use so people can test any electrical appliances. Vintage appliances in particular sell well, Val says, if buyers have assurance that they’re in sound operating order.
Make sure you have enough small bills and coins on hand. I took $100 and obtained from my bank:
Twenty $1 bills
Five $5 bills
Four $10 bills
One roll each of quarters and dimes, BUT if you, like Beth, have a coin jar on hand, you may not need a whole roll of these denominations.
Display a card or sign with electronic payment information. However, even after I did this, all of my transactions ended up being in cash.
Grab a fanny pack or coverall apron with pockets to keep your money close and compile a day-of-sale box with scissors and tape, a few paper towels, a notebook/pen to record sales, index cards for small tabletop signs, a few markers … and a snack for yourself!
Note this one last important “do” from Val: inform your buyers that all sales are final.
Yard Sale Day is Here!
No matter your published start time, people will start arriving at least a half hour early. Even if it means rising with the larks, have all of your display materials staged and ready to set up an hour before the sale. (If your sale is in a house or your garage, you can set up your displays a day or two ahead of time.)
You will likely have people ready to buy before you are done setting up, so if you can get a friend or family member to help, one of you can finish finalizing your display while the other one makes those early sales.
Decide how much you want to bargain. If someone is buying quite a few things, it’s nice to show some appreciation for their interest. I had some vintage new-in-package hosiery and when the person who bought all of it expressed interest in one of my necklaces, I added it as a thank you. Beth, Val and Marti all gave the thumbs-up to bundling as well, especially for enthusiastic purchasers.
As you sell items, walk around all your displays and straighten items. People will look through everything with varying degrees of intensity, so neaten up when you can. Beth adds that moving around your sale items is a natural way of promoting them (and getting to know your buyers). When she saw someone admiring an item of clothing, she would encourage a try-on.
Stay hydrated! Keep water on hand for yourself and consider offering cold bottles of water to your attendees if your sale is outside on a hot day.
Common sense safety tip: Someone may ask you to use the restroom. Unless you know the person or the sale is actually inside a house, direct them instead to the nearest public restroom. In our case, that was the gas station half a block away.
What are people looking for in particular? Each of us fielded specific requests at our respective sales: Record albums and cassettes. Old equipment used to play those albums and cassettes. VHS tapes and DVDs. Video games and players. Military items. Stamp collections. Comics. Pokémon. Old books.
After the Yard Sale
A landscape painted by Val years ago sold to a couple who bought numerous other items. She took this photo as a keepsake because she didn’t know the painting was still in her dad’s house!
You’ll make some money and get rid of some things that were ready for a new life with someone else while keeping still useful items out of the landfill. But you may realize other more unexpected benefits.
Val relates that her dad had 15 pairs of immaculate Allen Edmonds men’s oxfords that he wore to the office in his job as a city engineer. One young man at her sale was overjoyed to find that the shoes were just his size and perfect for his professional needs, so he bought all of them. She was so happy that the shoes had a new home with someone who would wear and appreciate them.
Many of Val’s buyers told them how deeply they appreciated the eclecticism she had loved about her dad and that they wished they could have known him. The experience of compiling items and orchestrating the sale has been therapeutic for her. “He’s kind of living on and bringing joy to others,” she said.
Photo 1: Beth’s baby seat, which proved to be quite a conversation starter. / Photo 2: This older vintage table lamp also generated conversation. Beth said one attendee who looked up the lamp told her he saw it selling on eBay for $25, so that’s the price she attached to it.
Beth noted that her sale was a “really good jumpstart to doing some serious downsizing.” She also observed that some sale attendees are on the hunt only for books and record albums. “Have some of both available. Once I sold 75 percent of my inventory, people were looking at my books. Most of the books I sold, I sold in the last two hours. Put a dollar on them.” She also relished the interesting conversations she had with people about interesting items like an old lamp and the baby seat she had used as a child.
An Additional Resource
This article helped me prepare for my sale and write this reflection: Garage sale checklist: How to have a successful yard sale. It’s long, but worth the read as it’s packed with very helpful step-by-step info.
Laurie White Bergman is a recently retired public relations professional taking the first exhilarating steps into her “next act” armed with an extensive list of places to visit, activities to explore, and skills to learn or rediscover. She lives with her family in St. Louis County, Missouri. You can connect with her on X (Twitter): @LaurieBergman
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Another terrific article filled with useful tips and inspiration! - JS
Great tips and ideas!! Yard sales are a lot of work but a lot of fun too. - BV