Because I had already accumulated most of the items that I wanted to sell in one place all I really had to do was sort and price.

Preparing for the Sale: I went to Wal-Mart and bought price stickers, signs and posts. After putting the clothing I wanted to sell on hangers, I hung a rope between two trees to hang them on and began sorting and pricing everything. This included going online to E-Bay to price some of the collectible items. I then bought cookies and juice for my daughter to sell during the yard sale. After setting up tables, I put out all of the inexpensive items like candles, pots and pans and other knick-knacks and covered everything with a tarp. Then it was off to finish making the signs.

Saturday...the big day-Sale from 8:00-2:00

6:15AM: After putting out the “yard sale” signs (one in each direction on the main road, one at the entrance to my subdivision, and one at the entrance to my street), I returned home and started dragging out all of my other gems like my bassinet, rugs, books, bedding sets. I arranged everything in like groupings. I had all of the baby stuff in one area, all of the house-wares, bedding, etc, in another. All of the clothes were hung for easy access and the purses and accessories were nearby. I put all of the books in a big box, organized by hardcover and soft cover. To make things easy I priced all of the hardbacks at $1, all of the paperbacks at 50 cents and all of the clothes at $1.00. Most of the knick-knacks were from 10-50 cents. I even had a “free” box of happy meal toys.

7:30AM: First Early Bird arrives. Since these are expected, we were ready. Because this was a male early bird, I directed him to the “men’s section” where he bought an electric saw for $5.00.

7:30-8:00AM: Only had a few early birds…sold a lot of the knick-knacks and cheap items. I set my daughter up with her snack stand, and we were ready for the onslaught.

8:00-2:00: Had a pretty steady crowd which came in waves. Although most people just paid the price and left, there were some who asked if I would come down on the price, and I did. One thing that I noticed was that no one was looking at the more expensive items like the bassinet ($20) or the complete bedding sets for $10.00…they all wanted the junk! Some lady even took my whole box of happy meal toys…which was fine with me!

2:00: Took down the signs and counted the money. I made $70.30. Although it may not seem like a lot, it is when you realize that most of the items were $1.00 or under!

3:20PM: I left everything in my driveway while I went in to cool off and figured that no one would come since all the signs were down. Wrong! I looked out to find 3 ladies scouring through my garage! After I advised them that what they were looking at was not for sale, they bought $3 worth of books and left.

Aftermath: I took the more expensive baby items to a consignment store and took everything else to Goodwill. The result...a cleaner house, I got to meet some neighbors that I had never met, and I am $73.30 cents richer!

Lesson learned: Don’t knock the early birds…he spent more than anyone else!!