It's Yard Sale Season!!!

It's officially yard sale season, Yay!! We've decided that there are SOME people who definitely need some pointers for putting on a successful yard sale! We thought we could make this fun and have come up with a little mini series called "YARDSALES 101"! We have a 4 week series of (ahem!) "helpful" tips! So let's begin!

Yard Sales 101 - by Tania Angelo & Nancy Carroll (1st of a series of 4)

My mom and I are yard sale junkies, for about 10 years now when the weather turns nice; we are out almost every Saturday hunting for good junk... ahem... treasures! We start at about 8:00 am and get done about 1:00 or 2:00 pm. This has, in our humble opinion, made each of us somewhat of an expert on yard sales! As self proclaimed experts, we have a few tips for what separates a good yard sale from a bad one!
So you’ve decided that you have some crap that you’d like to get rid of and you think a yard sale is the way to go… well, first and foremost, please make sure that you have enough crap to actually make it worth my time to stop and look… one table with a pile of clothing on it does NOT constitute a yard sale, nor does a pile of kid’s toys, or a couple of pieces of worn out furniture! If you only have a few things to get rid of then take them to a thrift store or advertise them on Craig’s List. We don’t like wasting our time and gas driving to find your “sale” only to be disappointed. On that same note, if you advertize a “HUGE” yard sale, it had better be HUGE! Huge can be defined as a church full of goodies, several families with lots of stuff to contribute, tables filled with stuff as far as the eye can see, etc.! (Aahhh, yard sale heaven!)

Be prepared! As we live and breathe, there WILL be early birds. People who get up and drag themselves out early on Friday and/or Saturday morning are avid yard salers. Trying to charge them double just because you can’t prepare everything the night before and/or get your lazy butt out of bed before they start showing up is NOT cool or appreciated! We are rarely out that early, but rest assured if we show up at 7:30am to a sale that starts at 8:00am and someone tries to charge us double… we will be leaving so fast you’ll see sparks flying out our asses and we are NOT returning when you “officially” open! Umm…Hello! Someone is offering you money to take away the stuff you no longer want… does it really matter what time it is?!

The whole idea is to sell your stuff…right?? Yard sales start early… it’s just an unwritten rule… 10 o’clock is NOT acceptable! If you get some realllllyyy early birds, tell them to set stuff out on the tables as they’re digging thru those still unpacked boxes! They’ll probably be glad to get the first viewing of unseen treasures. Or they’ll leave you alone until you’re ready!

There are some who disagree with this theory however. They say that allowing early birds to shop is not fair for those who are respectful enough to wait until you open. We say bulls**t! The “respectful” people aren’t there to see that someone is earlier than they are! LOTS of people are earlier than we are to yard sales and we don’t get our panties in a wad over it!