Saturday morning doesn’t have to equal hangover! Well it can. But you can also host yourself a yard sale one of these Saturday mornings.

I personally never had a yard sale until a few years ago. I became hooked on the idea. Today I wanted to share with you why you should host a yard sale and how to do it.

Why should you host a yard sale?

To get rid of your crap. I used to always either throw things out or donate them to charity. Now I do neither. I have strangers come to my house, pick up my junk, and pay me for it.

The beauty of the emergence of all of these pawn star and treasure hunting shows is that everyone is looking for the next big million dollar catch.

Old shirt? Hmm that could be worth millions one day! Whoo.

Plus, hosting a yard sale is an amazing opportunity to meet folks in your community and hang out in the sun on a Saturday morning. It sure beats sleeping in or waking up at noon (like I’ve done way too many times).

How do you host one?

In order to keep my thoughts in control, I put this together in a sequence of steps:

  1. Plan a Saturday. What day will it be? Pick one and stick to it.
  2. Gather your stuff. Collect things from around the house, the shed, and the garage. Ask everyone in your family. I messed up the first time and my mom wasn’t too happy.
  3. Ask your friends for stuff. See if your friends have any crap to get rid of. The more the merrier. Why not try turning it into a street sale?
  4. Grab tables and refreshments. Find some tables to put everything on. Also try to grab a few cases of water to sell. Who doesn’t want cold water on a warm day?
  5. Buy signs from the dollar store a few days in advance. I always hit up the dollar store and spend $4 on customize signs. I used a permanent marker to point in the direction of my house.
  6. Put the signs up. The night before you put up signs all over the area in the high volume locations. You want as many eyeballs as possible to see your signs.
  7. Wake up and put everything out. Wake up early! If you’re up late Friday like I was, my condolences! Lots of caffeine will do the trick. Put everything out.
  8. Hang out! Wait for friends and strangers to pop by. See how it goes.

A few more points on yard sales.

If it rains, it’s all good. Don’t stress. Just put it off until the next week.

If nobody shows up, donate the items to charity or throw them out.

If people try to barter, do it. This is what makes it fun. I negotiated a box of old shirts for $2. I sold a half-used bottle of knock-off cologne for a buck.

What will you get rid of? Who will you meet?

Please let us know how your first yard sale goes.

Martin Dasko

Martin Dasko