Yard sale or no yard sale?

[DawnM]

Our neighborhood is going to have a yardsale on April 24th.   I have all of Spring break to go through things and DH thinks that would be a good goal.

But the kids say they have no desire to help, so I am rethinking.

I could just start piling things up and see how far I get and if I want to just load it to the thrift store or actually do a yard sale......but it does seem daunting.

Your vote for me????

[skimomma]

The answer to this is always a hard no for me!  They potential cash lost in exchange for being able to just quickly get rid of things is for sure worth it.

[marbel]

Yard sales have been a no for me ever since I helped a friend with hers, at least 30 years ago. Hauled all the stuff out of the garage; sat around all day while people came up, looked, maybe made a very low offer, maybe bought something. Then, hauled a lot of stuff back into the garage for the next sale. No thanks!

The only way I would do it would be to price things to go, and to be committed to hauling any  leftovers off to the dump or a donation place immediately after. 

 

 

[fairfarmhand]

Ask your neighbors how well they typically do. Some places have good shoppers, while other places don't. Also ask what specific things tend to do well. Then make your decision.

I never do yard sales. Can't stand them.

[Pawz4me]

Hard no unless you have some larger/higher dollar/easy to set out items. Like right now we've got an air compressor, a hitch mounted luggage carrier and a few other big(ish) things. Easy to set out, not like sorting through bags of little kids clothes and toys that you're maybe going to get a dime each for. 

[JumpyTheFrog]

I love going to garage sales, but hosting one hasn't been worth it for me. When I declutter, I just want the stuff gone.

[catz]

Ugh, never worth it for us either.   And doubly so during a pandemic with those concerns still in play.  What we have done and have had good luck with is anything we can sell for at least $40-$50+, we put on craig's list.  Anything interesting is usually gone within 48 hours.  Everything else we just donate.  

[athena1277]

While I would normally say no to a yard sale, if your neighborhood is doing a lot of advertising, it might be worth it.  They usually get way more people to come by than going it alone.  Just make sure your items have prices on them.  If there’s no price, I don’t buy at yard sales.

[alisoncooks]

I'm a hard no for individual yard sales, but group/community sales tend to be worth it for me. I do a group sale once a year or so. Do I make a huge profit? Not especially, but for a few hours work and then the rest goes to the thrift store. Sure. Plus, my kids think it's fun. 

[Kassia]

We did one as part of a community sale and it was way too much work for what we brought in.  I didn't want to do it but DH did and I don't think he'll ever do one again.

[mlktwins]

Based on my experience, it has been a lot of effort for minimal return.  Not worth my time anymore.

I do sell some higher value stuff on FB sell sites, but that is about all I am willing to do anymore.

[Katy]

It would be a hard no for me this year. 

In the future maybe if you’re willing to price things really low. IME if you price things low ($0.25 per adult clothes, $0.10 for kids), you might make a few hundred dollars over a couple of days. IME you’re more likely to make money selling more if things are super cheap.  I’d rather donate and not deal with people for that. 

[mommyoffive]

It was worth it once or twice for us.  Did a community wide one and did no work before hand.  Just pulled things and set it out the morning of.  We made more than $500 or something.  But other times we made less than a $100.  Even though we still didn't do any work before hand it just didn't seem worth it to drag it out and in and give up the day.  Mostly we donate and give away everything.  Once in awhile I will sell something on CL.    I wouldn't even consider doing a garage sale  now, it isn't worth a bit of extra money to come in contact with more people to me.

Edited March 31, 2021 by mommyoffive

[regentrude]

Not worth it. Even in normal times, it's not time well spent. Did it once, never again. 
Now with a pandemic? I am not going to interact with a bunch of random strangers in my yard. Hard no.

Edited March 31, 2021 by regentrude

[Wildcat]

Normally, I would say no. I had one years and years ago and it was just like others described and swore I wouldn't have another one.

However.  It does depend on what you have. We were selling our house last year so had a LOT of stuff. Like a LOT. What I did was price things darn close to thrift store prices with a small increase for things I knew I could sell on eBay (which I hate messing with), so some of that stuff may have wound up on eBay, but I was just happy to have the $ in hand. What I had left over fit in one SUV trip. I made out like a bandit and while I had a few low ball offers, I simply declined those. The serious shoppers knew they had a heck of a deal when they saw the graphing calculator priced at $20, Lego sets priced at $7 (think cartoon-branded sets like Sponge Bob, etc), rakes & shovels at $3 each. That kind of thing. Not only did I rake in several hundred dollars, but I only made one smallish trip to the thrift store and lots of people left happy.

I will say that the stuff that didn't sell was home decorating items like dishes, pictures and coffee table knick nacks like vases, dried flowers, cute statues, etc.

Kids' toys, anything for kids' rooms, furniture, lawn stuff, holiday decorations... all that stuff sold like hotcakes. Oh, and electronic games. We had a bunch of old Game Boy type games and some of the guys were just drooling over them, buying one or two here and there, and then one guy bought the whole lot of what was left. I had those priced at $3 each.

Also, with COVID  keeping us all at home for so long, people are feeling like venturing out now, so you may actually end up with more buyers than you think. April 24 isn't a lot of time, but it's a decent amount of time to get ready. I say, buy yourself some cheap stickers, jot a price on the stuff, and see what happens! At the very least, it's a great way to people-watch. 🙂

 

[Carrie12345]

If we’re talking thrift store donation type stuff, I’d consider just doing a free table or “as you see fit” jar and leave it at that, but I live lots of miles from any thrift store, and even that one isn’t my preferred organization. So it’d save me a trip.

Anything I’d want to sell for more than $10 or $20, I’d give FB Marketplace a shot but not be excited about it.

[Spryte]

I’m a no.  I would not want to do it this year, not with new variants that are more contagious, etc, even vaccinated.  
 

[mom2scouts]

No! About every 10 years I think I have so much stuff to sell and I need the money so I should join the community yard sale. Every single time I regret it. I've told my family that if I ever want to do a yard sale again they are supposed to stop me. I drag all the stuff out, find a place to store it, price it, set it up, waste a (usually) nice weekend day, haggle over cents, make a couple hundred dollars if I'm lucky, drag most of it back in or load it in the car to take to the donation center, and then spend some of the money on pizza because I'm too tired to cook. We're in the middle of a pandemic and adding a bunch of strangers to all this is even worse. The amount of work and stress involved even in a normal year isn't worth it to me. 

I sometimes put things on FB Marketplace, but if it doesn't sell in a few weeks it gets donated.

[WildflowerMom]

I’d do a community/neighborhood one, but never an individual one again.  
I’ve thrown out the idea of my own neighborhood doing one when covid scales back, maybe in the fall.   

 

[Jaybee]

I can't stand yard sales, to be honest. Mine or anybody else's. (My sister loves them!) We usually give away the cheaper stuff (most things), and for the nicer stuff, we either donate to someone who could really use it, or sell it. We usually donate, because over the years, we have had people be generous with us, so we like to pass it on.

[Guest]

I’m in the NO camp on this, too. I have had two yard sales but they are not worth it! Every now and then, I start thinking about how I might be able to resuscitate two farthings for all the homeschool books I no longer need. But...no. Ultimately, I just know that people don’t pay diddly for homeschool books, even the nice ones, even in perfect condition. They just don’t. 

[Junie]

I would not do a yard sale this year (because of Covid); however:

A few years ago I gathered up stuff that I was going to take to Goodwill.  The neighborhood had a yard sale coming up, so I put my boxes up -- didn't really organize them or anything -- and told people that everything was 25 cents.  We actually didn't have a lot of customers, but most of them bought a bunch of stuff and most of them paid me more than what I was asking.  I think I made $40 or $50.  When the yard sale ended, we put the stuff in the car and it went to Goodwill.

 

 

[2_girls_mommy]

The few times I had a yard sale, I felt like it was way too much work for what little I made.  I started doing children's consignment sales twice a year, and make a few hundred a couple of times a year.  The thing about the children's consignment vs a yard sale are that the people going to the consignment are going looking for children's stuff.  You don't know what the people coming to your house are going to be looking for.  Kids outgrow clothes, toys, books, sports equipment, outdorr clothing, etc. every year, so I am going through the closets and drawers every season.  They get new toys, books, craft kits, etc. every holiday too.  So getting rid of older toys and things to make room for newer ones only makes sense.  Since I have to declutter twice a year anyway and change out all of the clothing, I find I do make money at the children's sales.  (and  a hobby of mine is extreme bargain hunting.  If I find a ton of books on super clearance or art supplies or kids' clothing or whatever, I have no guilt buying them because we use from it what we want, I can gift from my stockpile, and I throw the rest into the sale with the outgrown, rotated items from our household. ) 

So just an idea if what you have is a lot of children's items.  We even have stores doing this kind of thing with trendy teen's clothing now too, but I have never gotten into that.  My teens aren't still growing, so they are getting rid of as much. If they wear something out, it isn't good enough to mess with trying to sell. 

[katilac]

2 hours ago, DawnM said:

Our neighborhood is going to have a yardsale on April 24th.   I have all of Spring break to go through things and DH thinks that would be a good goal.

How about you have all of spring break to actually take a break? 

 If dh thinks it's a good goal, let him take a week of vacation and go through things with you. Probably not the way he wants to spend his vacation, eh? So why spend yours that way? 

Putting that aside, I'd still say no. Yard sales are so much work! And so boring. Donate it. Donate it all. 

[prairiewindmomma]

Donate it and take the receipt to use on your taxes.

You have a crap ton number of demands on your time. Don’t waste what little free time you have on this!

[TexasProud]

Well, I guess I will be the dissenter. I have only done one garage sale. It was at my dad's rental house after he died. My sister and I took what we wanted. I asked his brothers and put stuff aside. Then my sister and I just went around the house tagging everything. I think we made 500 bucks. Then we put what was left in my husband's truck and took it to goodwill. It was an easy way to get rid of stuff so I didn't have to pack up his entire house and take stuff away. 

[katilac]

46 minutes ago, TexasProud said:

Well, I guess I will be the dissenter. I have only done one garage sale. It was at my dad's rental house after he died. My sister and I took what we wanted. I asked his brothers and put stuff aside. Then my sister and I just went around the house tagging everything. I think we made 500 bucks. Then we put what was left in my husband's truck and took it to goodwill. It was an easy way to get rid of stuff so I didn't have to pack up his entire house and take stuff away. 

Well, that's more of an estate sale, it's pretty different. You didn't have to sort and store stuff, you didn't have to set up tables and move things outside, you didn't have to sit outside for hours. You could just walk around the house tagging everything, and then you could just let people walk through the house, because no one was living in it. 

[Selkie]

No. I like to give things away - it's so much simpler.

[sassenach]

I gave up on yard sales because dh absolutely loathes the part where I save stuff up in the garage for months. I finally made my peace with just donating.

[prairiewindmomma]

FWIW, I joined a "buy nothing" group in our area.  You leave stuff on your porch, and it goes away to a neighbor.  It's fantastic.

[Amethyst]

I vote no. Not worth it. Still use spring break to do some thinning, and then donate or trash. 

[Tanaqui]

It's your husband's idea, let him do it, and more power to him.

[DawnM]

On 4/1/2021 at 1:29 PM, prairiewindmomma said:

FWIW, I joined a "buy nothing" group in our area.  You leave stuff on your porch, and it goes away to a neighbor.  It's fantastic.

 

it is a PITB.   So many ask for it to be held, don't show up, ask you to deliver, etc.....

And, some of this stuff isn't stuff I will give away, some I need to sell.

[DawnM]

I am going to get stuff stacked in the garage to either sell or give away, and go from there.

I had the attic looking pretty good, and then my dad came and we put all his stuff up there.

Going up to the attic in a bit and plan to spend an hour today and an hour tomorrow.   Hoping to get a good head start on sorting and listing.