When Sherry and I hosted our first yard sale over four years ago, we remember feeling rushed getting everything outside, stressed about how to price things, and constantly checking how much we’d earned as the day went on. We were so excited to sell things we no longer wanted (so we could buy things we did) that the whole event felt bigger and more nerve-wracking than we’d expected.
Fast forward a few years—after also holding a moving sale back in 2010—and we found ourselves hosting another clear-out yard sale in 2012. This time we intentionally took a much more relaxed approach. Why? Because we had a simple plan:
- Our primary goal was to get rid of stuff; any money we made was secondary.
- We sold a handful of higher-value items on craigslist beforehand to avoid fussing with them during the sale.
- Everything else was priced to move. If someone wanted an item, we wanted them to take it—even if it meant selling it cheaply.
Between moving to our new house and collecting items for blog and book projects, parts of our home had turned into storage—our playroom, basement, and even the sunroom were filling up. It was time to send many of those things to homes where they would actually be used and to reclaim three rooms for real living instead of piles of stuff.
We kept the sale low-key for safety and manageability. We didn’t want to publish our home address online, and we didn’t want to spend extra time and money transporting everything to another location. So we relied on local signs and a craigslist ad that didn’t disclose we were the hosts. That kept things simple and secure.
Even with a relaxed attitude, some planning was necessary. The month before the sale we went through closets, cabinets, and rooms and sorted items into a purge pile. If we hadn’t used something in a while and couldn’t imagine a definite future use for it, it went straight to the yard sale pile. That pile lived in our sunroom until the early morning of the sale when we moved it into the driveway.
Our inventory included items from both of us and from my sister. A couple of tables you see in photos were only for display—they weren’t for sale. We didn’t price everything ahead of time; instead, we aimed to make the day easy and quick. Most small items were a dollar or less, while larger pieces like chairs, dressers, and bookcases carried higher, but still fair, prices. This approach moved things out of the house quickly and left buyers happy.
We didn’t capture a lot of action shots, since we were busy helping customers, but we did snap a few photos during slower moments—after roughly 60% of our items had already sold.
The crowd was strong through about 10 a.m. When traffic slowed, we decisively lowered prices to move remaining items faster. At that point, clearing the driveway took precedence over holding out for more money. Kids’ clothes became five for fifty cents, pillows were two for a dollar, and items like an old ladder were marked free and labeled for pickup.
Clara slept in while we set up and then spent part of the morning with her Grammy. When she returned she sat outside drawing in the driveway, adding an extra dose of charm to the sale.
By noon our inventory was nearly gone. We were left with four larger pieces and about thirty small items that fit into two donation-ready Goodwill boxes. We put “free” signs on the remaining larger pieces and posted a curb alert on craigslist. Those items were gone within a few hours—curb alerts are great because you don’t have to be home to hand them off.
By day’s end we’d earned around $350 at the sale itself. Add in the items we’d sold on craigslist beforehand and our total was closer to $650. Not a fortune, but a very satisfying result for a one-day effort focused mainly on clearing space. We also sold our eight old dining chairs to a neighbor who plans to recover them, and two extra new dining chairs went to another buyer at our original purchase price—she even sent a photo of them settled on her porch.
What did we learn? If you want to maximize profit, sell more items through detailed craigslist listings. But because photographing, listing, and coordinating pickups takes a lot of time, a well-priced yard sale is often the most efficient way to purge quickly. We left the day feeling lighter and more in control of our home, and less anxious about hosting future sales. The experience taught us that a relaxed, get-it-out-the-door mindset works well and might motivate us to clear clutter more often.
Have you held a yard sale recently? Any tips or memorable moments to share? We had a tense moment when two buyers wanted the same item and we’d mistakenly promised it to both. In true grown-up fashion we flipped a coin and let chance decide—Judge Judy would have been proud.