When we bought the Casual Shack my husband and I had to combine two households. We had two of everything, 2 sets of dishes, 2 irons and on and on. In addition to that, my husband liked to save stuff "just in case". That tendency really comes in handy at times but when you're trying to cram 2000 square feet of stuff into a 1000 square foot house you find you don't need 3 Weed Whackers anymore and somethings gotta give. This led to our first yard sale.
That first year I did the yard sale by myself over a 3 day period. We had that much stuff! We rigged a rope from a tree to the fence to hang clothes on. We used milk crates and trash cans with doors on top for tables. We had everything you could imagine out there. People came and they bought and they bought. It was crazy busy and though my husband helped me set up the tables and put the big stuff out once things got going I was on my own. BIG MISTAKE! People everywhere asking for prices, haggling, wondering if I had this or that and best of all, shoving money in my hand. They were buying things that I had almost thrown out thinking "who in their right mind would want that piece of junk". Good thing I didn't as we made over $1400 that year. We used the money to buy dining room chairs and new window treatments along with some other things we needed for the house.
Of course that wasn't $1400 profit. I'd say only about 10% of that first sale was "found stuff" that we didn't have a monetary investment in. That 10% came from seeing something on the curb and bringing it home or someone moving and asking "hey, you want this?" but it wasn't something we were focused on doing.
Shortly thereafter as I was jogging one evening, I saw a mountain of stuff on the curb in front of a house that had a yard sale the previous weekend. As I jogged home and passed it again I realized I was looking at what we now refer to as an "Instant Yard Sale". We filled up the pickup truck, brought it home and sorted through it. I could see from the pricing why they didn't sell much. I put new prices on everything and we stored it in the garage for the following year. By the time we got to the next sale our ratio of "our stuff" to "found stuff" was probably closer to 50/50.
My husband helped with the second sale. We found it's much easier to haggle when you don't have a dime in it and again we made over $1000 allowing us to buy my husband a fancy riding lawn mower. We were even able to upgrade to real tables, no more makeshift door tables for us.
We lucked into another "instant yard sale" for our next sale pushing our "found stuff" to "our stuff" ratio to about 80/20. I find we are a little more likely to watch for treasures on the street now. It amazes me what people throw away, it amazes me more what people will buy if you price it low enough.
Because of the success of our last two sales, we've decided to continue having it the same weekend every year in February. As we get closer to that time, I'll be posting my tips for a successful yard sale. Right now, I need to get back to the garage to finish cleaning and pricing our latest finds.
That first year I did the yard sale by myself over a 3 day period. We had that much stuff! We rigged a rope from a tree to the fence to hang clothes on. We used milk crates and trash cans with doors on top for tables. We had everything you could imagine out there. People came and they bought and they bought. It was crazy busy and though my husband helped me set up the tables and put the big stuff out once things got going I was on my own. BIG MISTAKE! People everywhere asking for prices, haggling, wondering if I had this or that and best of all, shoving money in my hand. They were buying things that I had almost thrown out thinking "who in their right mind would want that piece of junk". Good thing I didn't as we made over $1400 that year. We used the money to buy dining room chairs and new window treatments along with some other things we needed for the house.
Of course that wasn't $1400 profit. I'd say only about 10% of that first sale was "found stuff" that we didn't have a monetary investment in. That 10% came from seeing something on the curb and bringing it home or someone moving and asking "hey, you want this?" but it wasn't something we were focused on doing.
Shortly thereafter as I was jogging one evening, I saw a mountain of stuff on the curb in front of a house that had a yard sale the previous weekend. As I jogged home and passed it again I realized I was looking at what we now refer to as an "Instant Yard Sale". We filled up the pickup truck, brought it home and sorted through it. I could see from the pricing why they didn't sell much. I put new prices on everything and we stored it in the garage for the following year. By the time we got to the next sale our ratio of "our stuff" to "found stuff" was probably closer to 50/50.
My husband helped with the second sale. We found it's much easier to haggle when you don't have a dime in it and again we made over $1000 allowing us to buy my husband a fancy riding lawn mower. We were even able to upgrade to real tables, no more makeshift door tables for us.
We lucked into another "instant yard sale" for our next sale pushing our "found stuff" to "our stuff" ratio to about 80/20. I find we are a little more likely to watch for treasures on the street now. It amazes me what people throw away, it amazes me more what people will buy if you price it low enough.
Because of the success of our last two sales, we've decided to continue having it the same weekend every year in February. As we get closer to that time, I'll be posting my tips for a successful yard sale. Right now, I need to get back to the garage to finish cleaning and pricing our latest finds.
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