When Sherry and I hosted our first yard sale over four years ago, we felt rushed getting everything out, anxious about pricing, and constantly checking how much we’d earned as the day progressed. We were excited to sell things we no longer used—so we could buy new things we loved—but the whole event felt bigger and more stressful than we expected.
A few years later (we also had a moving sale in 2010) we found ourselves holding another clear-out yard sale in 2012. This time we took a far more relaxed approach. Our plan was simple:
- Get rid of stuff—any money we made would be a bonus.
- Sell a few higher-value items on Craigslist beforehand to avoid the hassle of handling them during the sale.
- Price the rest to move quickly. If someone wanted an item, we wanted them to leave with it—even if it meant selling cheaply.
We were motivated to clear space because, after moving into our new house and collecting things for blog and book projects, more of our home had become storage. Rooms like the playroom, basement, and even the sunroom had filled with items we weren’t using. It felt overdue to pass these things along to people who’d use them, and to reclaim three rooms for everyday living.
For safety and practicality we didn’t advertise the sale broadly online or announce our home address. We didn’t want strangers showing up at our door, and we didn’t want to rent a separate location. So we kept it old-school: posted a Craigslist ad without naming ourselves and used local signs.
Some planning was still required. A few weeks before the sale we sorted closets, cabinets, and full rooms to identify what could go. We tried to be decisive: if an item hadn’t been used in a while and we couldn’t name a clear future use for it, it went into the sale pile. That pile lived in our sunroom until the early morning of the sale day, when everything made its way out to the driveway.
Our inventory included items from both our household and my sister’s. Some tables were just display pieces—we weren’t selling the white pedestal tables shown. We didn’t price everything ahead of time. Because our main goal was to purge, we set low prices and let things move quickly. Small items were often a dollar or less, while larger items like chairs, dressers, and bookcases were priced higher. If you aim to maximize profit you might price higher, but you risk selling less.
We didn’t get many action shots because we were busy most of the morning, only snapping photos during brief lulls. By that point roughly 60% of our items had already sold.
The crowd was strongest until about 10 a.m. When traffic slowed, we decided to speed things up by dropping prices dramatically. The mission to empty the house took priority over standing in the driveway all day. Kids’ clothes became five for fifty cents, pillows two for a dollar, and some leftover items were labeled “free,” like an old ladder the previous owners had left in our basement.
If you’re wondering where Clara was during the sale: her Grammy took her out around 8 a.m., and she returned around 11 a.m. After that she hung out and added extra charm to the sale by drawing in the driveway.
By noon we’d sold most of our inventory. Only four larger items remained, plus about 30 small things that fit into two Goodwill boxes. We put “free” signs on the remaining large items and posted a curb alert on Craigslist. They were gone within a few hours—curb alerts are great because you don’t have to be home for pickup. Meanwhile, we drove the leftover boxes to Goodwill. Yard sale rule: nothing comes back into the house.
At the end of the day we made roughly $350 at the sale itself. Add the Craigslist sales from earlier, and our total was closer to $650. We also sold our eight old dining room chairs to a buyer who plans to reupholster them, and two newer dining chairs sold for our original purchase price. It felt great to send these items to new homes.
The main takeaway: if you want to maximize earnings, list more items on Craigslist with photos and coordinated pickups—but that takes time. For a quick, efficient clear-out, a focused yard sale priced to sell worked perfectly. It reminded us not to overthink hosting a sale and encouraged us to do these more often so stuff doesn’t pile up again.
Have you hosted a yard sale recently? Any tips or memorable moments? We had one tense moment when we accidentally accepted payment for an item that had been promised to someone else. Neither buyer wanted to back down, so we flipped a coin and let chance decide—much easier than a courtroom call.