Finding Clutter a New Home

The last memory I have involving a yard sale went down over a decade ago and involved sabotage.  My Nonnie (grandmother) is a de-cluttering champ and garage sales were a big part of her cleansing routine.  Unfortunately for her, I was less than excited about some of the items she decided to sell.  My very mature solution, of course, was to strategically add a zero or two to the prices of items I considered a memorable part of my childhood.  It seems I’m a tad bit too sentimental at times.  When it comes down to it, however, you can only keep so much…after that you have to learn to let go.  Yard sales aren’t necessarily about making a million dollars, sometimes they’re just about finding a new home for items you once loved.  My family is having a yard sale this Saturday so I’m prepping myself to take an objective look through our house.  I’m referencing some past posts to help me out…for example, I’m using the guidelines I talked about in Clean Your Closet, Reclaim Your Sanity to help me decide what needs to be evicted from my closet.  I’m also referring to the Assembling Your Dream Home post to help me re-evaluate what direction I want to take the design of my house so I can let go of the things that won’t coordinate.  As for yard sale specific tips we haven’t yet touched on- here they go.  

Act fast

This is one of the last weekends of the year where the weather will be comfortable enough to hold a garage sale, so if you’re interested in having one soon you’ve gotta start planning now.  

Advertise

Make as many signs as possible and be sure to include the date, address, and times (especially if you don’t want those crazy early birds banging down your door at 4:00am).  You might also want to consider putting arrows pointing in the direction of your house on the sign- the less work your potential customers have to do to find you, the more likely they’ll come.  Be sure to place your signs on public property instead of on strangers front lawns…not only is it the courteous thing to do, it’s just a bad call to annoy someone with a sign that has your home address on it. :)

Polish the merchandise

Spend a little time cleaning the items you’ve decided to sell…a little elbow grease may make all the difference in whether or not someone wants to buy it.

Have a plan for the items that don’t sell

Consider donating what you can to a church, Goodwill, a local rescue mission, or another deserving organization.  Whatever you do, don’t just bring it all back into your house!  How many years did it take you to get it out on the curb in the first place?!  Have a strategy in place before you begin and stick with it.  Your clutter-free home will thank you.