Hosting a good yard sale is a bit of work. Here's some tips and advice on making it run smoothly.
*Plan ahead. Give yourself at least a month to properly clean out the house, empty drawers, decide what you don't want, make advertisement, and price things.
*Get large cardboard boxes and as you are cleaning house, place all books you dont want in one box, all small toys in another, clothes, appliances, knick knacks, etc. It will keep you organized for the time being.
*Price things so that you can easily do the math when calculating totals.
*Instead of pricing every single item, have a large sign that says "All books, $0.50 each" and so on. Price large items with large, colorful tags.
*Try to place your best looking items towards the front so people can see them. Don't cluster too much. Give people room to manuever and to gather around a table.
*Be prepared with lots of change just in case.
*Try to bundle up books that come as a set or toys so that you dont't get stuck with the leftovers.
*If you are holding this yard sale with another family or friend, you can either split the money evenly or do the actual math in figuring out who gets what. The easiest way to do this is first have one sheet of paper per person and divide into four sections vertically. In the first column, write down each type of item (books, clothes, jewelry, old antique clock, large wall mirror). In the second column write how many of each item they brought. In the third column, write how many items were left after the sale. In the fourth column, calculate how many were sold and how much they earned per category. Of course this only works if you settle on the price of things in the beginning and all clothing, jewelry, books, toy pieces are worth the same amount.
*Have lots of plastic bags handy to bag up sale items.
*For large items, allow for haggling but not too much. Be firm about the price you set. Have good reasons why the price is just right.
*Also for large items and furniture, post a sign with its statistics and product information. It keeps people from continuously asking.
*Play some soft rock music in the background to lighten the mood and atmosphere.
*Above all, try to have fun with it. Your "junk" is going to a better home where it will get a little more usage.
*Please check out the site listed below for a plethora of yard sale facts and advice by the Yard Sale Queen. This is where most of my information is coming from.
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