To yard sale or not to yard sale?

[DawnM]

We have a lot of purging to do.   I have tried doing it in small increments and it seems I just stop after a bit.

Our neighborhood is doing a yard sale on the 22nd and I have Spring Break from the 7th-15th, so I could potentially spend that time pulling everything I hope to purge out into the garage and then have the sale.

It would force me to really go through things that I have been putting off, but then again, it feels a bit overwhelming too.    AND I think I need a break from everything for a week and just relax.   But on the other hand, having things out of the house and a lot less clutter also sounds relaxing and helpful.

What do I do?   

I don't seem to be particularly good at "do one per week or month."   But that is probably the best solution....no selling and no money, but get things OUT.   I just do it for a month or two and then stop for some reason.

[HomeAgain]

I'd tackle one day at a time.

If you feel up to going through things that week, great.  Do it and then get ready for the yard sale.

If not, think about how you are currently dealing with too much stuff.  Do you need a solution or are you fine with it even though it annoys you?  Which is worse for you - spending the week purging or having the stuff annoying you?  Large cut or pinpricks?

 

[Bambam]

I might be tempted to compromise. 3 days of decluttering/preparing for yard sale. Enlist (if advisable) other family members to help with this part. Put price stickers on as you go (get those round colored stickers from WalMart, either decide all yellow = $1, etc or just write the price on the sticker). 

If later you decide the yard sale is just too much work (and people will negotiate prices down, some will steal stuff, people will show up early, but many will be nice people you enjoy chatting with), then just make a couple of trips to your favorite donation place. 

[Beth S]

It sounds like you can easily join up with the neighborhood's effort.
This would tempt me, even though I've never been tempted to host a garage sale, and I'm a big fan of decluttering/organizing.
I guess I think: "What if I only made $100?" . . . and I would be hard-pressed to sell that much.

[Katy]

I’d forget about it and donate what you can. You don’t need the money and it isn’t worth your time. 

[amyx4]

If you care more about getting stuff out of the house then making money you could set up a free table.  Put it off to the side away from the sell tables.

Leave it out past when the sale is over. So, if 8-4:00 is the sale, don't pack up the free table till closer to 6:00. People at the end of the day are looking for a deal. So, the free table will be popular later in the day.

Free tables don't have to be organized or priced or look pretty. The stuff needs to get out of the house. So, now the stuff is closer to your car to take to donation places 😂

We have lived in a neighboor that had a neighborhood yard sale. I've also told the kiddos they can keep the money from whatever they sell. But that depends on your kiddos and if you want to make any money. YMMV

Edited April 4, 2023 by amyx4

[MercyA]

I love garage sales. Love helping with them and love shopping at them. But they are almost never financially worth the work involved. When you account for all the hours spent pricing, arranging, getting change, putting up signs, working the sale, tearing down, sorting out leftovers, taking down signs, etc., you generally don't make much per hour, at all.

That said, I find it relaxing to sit with my mom or friend for the day and chat to each other and to customers. And I do like getting rid of stuff, and I love it when people find something they're thrilled with. But if you don't really *enjoy* garage sales, there are much better ways to get rid of stuff.

I personally don't love giving to Goodwill or Salvation Army for a variety of reasons. But I love giving to a cause that I support (animal rescue groups, Mennonite Central Committee). If there is a thrift shop near you that supports a cause you love, consider giving your stuff to them. It's SO much more time efficient. Also, if you itemize on your taxes and keep a list of what you donate, it is often more profitable than a garage sale. 

Other alternatives: give things to friends and family (if they really want them!), have a sale but don't individually price anything (books 25 cents, clothes 50 cents, etc.), or have a "free sale" on the day of the neighborhood sale (no need for great organizing or pricing).

Best of luck with whatever you choose.

 

[Indigo Blue]

It would stress me to do a yard sale. Give away anything nice to someone who wants it. Donate pile gets donated. Trash pile gets trashed. Over and done. 

[Junie]

This is what I did one year when our community had a yard sale:

I decluttered and organized items into large bins -- girls' clothes, stuffies, toys, kitchen, etc.

I prepared the stuff as if I was going to donate it to Goodwill, but on the way to Goodwill I put the items in the front yard for a few hours.

I didn't price anything.  I just told customers that everything was 25 cents.  People bought quite a bit of stuff and some customers paid me more than 25 cents per item.

After the yard sale, we just moved the items into the van and took them to the donation center.  

I think I made $75 -- which was pretty good, in my opinion, for a few hours in the front yard.

[Pawz4me]

We aren't yard sale people and would never ever do a solo one. But we've had very good results setting things out for neighborhood yard sales. We never fooled with clothes or really any kind of small items that are easy to box up and donate, just larger stuff that would have been harder to donate or that we felt like we could recoup some money from. Things like yard or exercise equipment or pieces of furniture. We figured it was easier to attempt a yard sale for things like that than try to sell them on Craigslist or FB or wherever. We didn't treat it as a big deal, just got out what we could the day before and figured out what we wanted to price things. We were always done by noon on yard sale day (all or most items sold). I guess all of that is to say it doesn't have to be all or nothing.

[marbel]

My experiences with garage sales are largely negative:

- a group yard sale for a charity - so much work, so much stuff left over which we then had to get rid of. It would have made more sense to just make a cash donation to the charity and donate the stuff, because the "profit" was not much.

-  helping a friend set up for a sale, and then helping her haul unsold stuff back into her garage, to be saved for the next sale (at which it most likely would not sell).  

But having a neighborhood garage sale is probably pretty easy because you don't have to put up posters, advertise, etc. I think if you decide to do it, be thoughtful as you sort and think about what people would be likely to buy. I'm not saying you would do this, but so often people put out stuff that is literally trash - books that are falling apart, or way outdate (computer, textbooks), wrecked clothing - expecting people to buy it. 

Then, be prepared to donate the rest right away. Plan now for where you will take it so you are ready to go.

[stephanier.1765]

As I've been spring cleaning, I've been keeping a large plastic bag nearby for me to place items I don't want but are still acceptable to donate. As soon as it's filled, I take it to the car so the next time I'm near a donation center I can drop it off. But if there was a community garage sale coming up, I definitely would have put those items aside, already cleaned and priced so they would be ready to go on garage sale day. Any leftovers would go straight in my car to be donated so I could be done with the whole thing. I do love the idea of doing a free table, if you don't want to mess with it. No work on your end and the stuff is out of your house.

[happi duck]

Since it's a neighborhood sale and you don't need to advertise you can just put out what you can... even just ten things!  This doesn't need to be absolutely everything.

I love what @Junie shared.  It's a pretty easy step between home and donation center.

[Carol in Cal.]

To me yard sales are not worth it.  You have to mark all the prices, deal with hagglers, deal with people who want you to save something and then never come back, and deal with all the left over stuff at the end.

Having said that, I love going to yard sales.  I don’t claim to be consistent, LOL.

I love my Buy Nothing group because you don’t have to move things around until you actually have a taker.  And you’re always ‘trading up’ ie getting rid of stuff you really don’t want while getting stuff you want to keep.  It’s been nice.  Ours is starting to branch out into loaning big, uncommonly used items also, which is very convenient.

Edited April 4, 2023 by Carol in Cal.

[Jaybee]

I did a yard sale with a friend years ago, and that was it. I have sold things before a big move, but the setup was different. Mostly, I prefer to just give things away to get them out. So my goal is to not have enough to get rid of to make it worth a yard sale by moving them on as soon as I realize we don't want something. I do like the ideas above of either a free table or an everything for $0.25 table. It takes a lot of the work out of it. I'm putting off posting something on Marketplace today for my son, because I will have to be the one to deal with it, and I don't want to.😂

ETA: You all motivated me to post it, so I did! I'm supposed to get a free lunch out of it.

Edited April 4, 2023 by Jaybee

[Soror]

I'd half-ass it since there is a community yard sale. I'd pull out what I could easily (ie low hanging fruit things easy to sort and I felt like going through) and after the sale, I'd donate what was left. I've put a few things in other people's sales a few times but where I live it isn't worth it to have one. I mostly just donate. Rarely if it is worth more I'll sell online and a couple of times I've done consignment- for clothes and hs books. 

[SKL]

You don't have to finish all your purging before the garage sale.  Just finish what you finish, get it out there, and then box whatever doesn't sell and put it right in your car for donation.

I like to say - anything's better than nothing.

[GoVanGogh]

I detest having garage sales. Have done three in the 25+ years we have lived here. I always swear Never Again. I cannot stand people wanting to barter over a $2 item, which always seems to happen 100 times. Or they keep badgering me to sell something that clearly isn’t for sale. 
I do like Soror’s answer. Since it is a community wide sale, half ass it to get rid of some easy stuff. 

[prairiewindmomma]

If you aren’t planning on working this summer, I would take a breather. You are coming off of a long string of events—a messy adoption, your dad moving in, then his passing. Stop and enjoy the break with your preschooler and the other kids. The house can wait. I would really resist the urge to do anything that is going to add chaos to your life for at least the next six months. 
 

If you feel up to going through stuff over break, great, but give yourself permission to rest. You can always rage purge when you hit an angry moment. 😂🫣

[DawnM]

Thanks guys.   

I am still considering but most likely I will start sorting and then end up not doing it.....😂   Maybe I will just put things out for free.   I do have two large chairs that I want to GIVE away but I have listed them on the Buy Nothing site, and NextDoor and no one wants them.   They do have rips on the bottom from when my dog was a puppy.

I am going to have to pay to get rid of them if I can't get anyone to take them.