Convince me I should have a yard sale... or not

[mom0299]

I've had a yard sale almost every year since my kids were babies. When they were little I had a lot of clothes and toys that people bought. I did very well on those yard sales. Now, my kids are 12 and 14 and I don't have the toys that I once had and people don't tend to go for older kids clothes as much as baby/toddler clothes. Last year I made a little over $100 at my 4 hour sale.
This year I have a lot of the same type of stuff as last year: clothes, shoes, household items, DVDs, small kitchen appliances, etc... I just can't convince myself that it is going to be worth it. Having a yard sale is a lot of work - although I try to simplify it as much as possible. I don't have any plans for the money. I'll just keep it in a safe place and use it for the kids when they have activities or need money for something. I really want to de-clutter, but I could just donate the items.
Should I just bite the bullet and have the yard sale or should I donate all the stuff?

 

[rentayenta]

Donate. There is always someone worse off.

 

[Our 2 Princesses]

I used to have a garage sale every year too while our dds were small. Now that they are 11 and 15, I just donate everything and take a tax write-off. Having a garage sale is so tiring anymore too. Maybe it's just old age!!

 

[robinb]

I voted "other" since I sell and donate. I take my DD's perfect clothes (no stains, rips, still current, etc) and I sell those at a consignment sale called Just Between Friends. I get 65% of the sales price which is a lot more than what people charge at garage sales. I made about $70 at the last sale and I spent about 5-6 hours washing, ironing, hanging, pricing and tagging. You get to use the same consignor number from sale to sale, so once the clothes are priced I just put up any that didn't sell in the next sale with no additional effort. The consignment sale also takes shoes, books, DVDs, tapes, electronics, toys, baby things, etc. I made a lot more money at previous sales when I sold some big ticket items like my glider. Our JBF will take older kids clothes all the way up to teen clothes and Junior sizing. In fact, you can price the name brand bigger clothes higher (like Plato's Closet pricing) since there are fewer of them than the size little girl 6's.

Those clothing items that are not perfect (but are still nice), I donate to the local Free Clothing Center where people can shop for free. Any other stuff like appliances & adult books goes to the local Goodwill or Saint Vinny's. Of course, anything NOT still nice is thrown out. When I donate my items I use the local Goodwill's pricing as my valuation so a kid's t-shirt sells for $1.99 so that's what I value it for my taxes. I think I get more back in taxes than I would at in our local garage sale prices with a lot less effort.

 

[I loveStitchnippyjon]

I say donate and take the tax write-off. I just had a garage sale on Saturday (community-wide) but it poured rain all day and I made $75! It took me a week to organize and label everything, then I sat there in the garage from 8 am to 3 pm.....I don't want to think of how much I made per hour of my time!

 

[AndreaDM]

I just donate anymore, however if a friend or relative is having a garage sale I might ask if I can add just a couple higher priced items to their sale. I usually don't bother with clothing, but appliances, etc. would probably sell and get you a little something.

 

[jjsmom]

It depends on which type of items you're selling. In my area, yard sales are very popular. But not for clothing. Baby items and household items/furniture are very hot. My elderly neighbor is downsizing and she sold a lot of household goods and she made $1100 Saturday. Most of the clothing remained unsold. I agree with other poster, good, up to date clothing should go to a consignment shop, the rest to Goodwill for tax right off. I'm debating too, for Disney money. I'm just not ready to sell my household contents. LOL.

 

[FlyingDumbo]

After my last yard sale I said never again. There is no way it is worth all the time and aggravation it took to get it together. I had to get everything together, clean it all up, set it up, hang up signs and advertise. Although I made good money, it was not worth the hassle. It was not worth the creepoids that came and tried to offer me a nickel for a brand new in package power tools. It wasnt worth the crazy shoplifters that STOLE from my 50 cent table. It wasn't worth the hagglers that wanted to pay under a quarter for everything. Oh and the weirdos that show up the night before and knock on your door, I DONT THINK SO. SO NOT WORTH IT.

If you do decide to do it, only advertise the ST your yard sale is on, not your address or the weirdos will come knocking the day before, the night before and at some ridiculous wee hour of the am on the day of.

 

[scrapquitler]

Based on the fact that you only made $100 last year, I wouldn't bother. It's a lot of work for not that much profit. You can probably do better if you take the valuable items to a consignment store or sell them on Craigs List. The rest of the junk, haul it down to GoodWill or Salvation Army, etc and just be sure to get an itemized receipt. If you itemize deductions on your taxes, you might find that the value of the deductions is higher than the profit you would have made at your yard sale.

 

[chris31997]

For your higher end items you might want to try craigslist. Otherwise I would donate it.

 

[GinnyEmma]

Watching your numbers. We are planning in a yard sale Friday ( before we go see the new pirates movie) and I still don't know if o should have it or not. Good luck!

 

[tlh0726]

We normally just take everything to the local goodwill and do the tax write off.
(DH calculated the approx. hours involved to get it together, price, set up, sit there, take down, pack up and then take to goodwill and came to the conclusion that our time was worth alot more)

However DD wants to have a yard sale so I am going to bring out the stuff that I just couldn't part with before and let her have some fun.

 

[GinnyEmma]

You can let her make cookies to sell.

 

[disneysnowflake]

I donate. I cannot stand having yard sales anymore. It's not worth it to me.

If I hear of a family member or friend having a yard sale, I'll see if they want the stuff before I donate. Maybe they can make a few dollars from my junk. Once they take the stuff, it's theirs. I don't want it back.

 

[arthur06]

DW and I did a 1 day yard sale at our house a couple of weeks ago and we made about $450. Then our friends had a yard sale last weekend and we took our left over to there house and did nothing and made another $120.

We will now take whatever is left over and just donate it. We had some big items that are hard to donate so we just put them on the sale. Now its just the small stuff to donate.

 

[Evi]

Maybe you can teach the oldest one how to post electronics he no longer uses on ebay and put higher end clothing items that are in good condition into consignment.

 

[shortbun]

I do it every other year. I make more and it's less work for me. I donate things like clothes because they rarely sell at a yard sale, unless it's really cute and unused baby stuff or cool hats.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

I'm in the same boat. I have a pile of stuff in the garage to get rid of but not sure if I want to attempt a yard sale. We list on ebay and Craigslist but some of these items are more "yard sale" type of things.

All of the kids consignment sales are over for the season here and of course I have found more kids stuff to sell - swing, potty chair, booster seat, etc...

We just moved here last summer so I have no clue if this is a good yard sale area or not. Our last 2 sales before we moved were pitiful - made less than $100 each.

I think I am leaning toward the donate option even though we have probably already maxed out our allowed donation on our taxes for the year.

 

[NaLisa]

After my last yard sale I said never again. There is no way it is worth all the time and aggravation it took to get it together. I had to get everything together, clean it all up, set it up, hang up signs and advertise. Although I made good money, it was not worth the hassle. It was not worth the creepoids that came and tried to offer me a nickel for a brand new in package power tools. It wasnt worth the crazy shoplifters that STOLE from my 50 cent table. It wasn't worth the hagglers that wanted to pay under a quarter for everything. Oh and the weirdos that show up the night before and knock on your door, I DONT THINK SO. SO NOT WORTH IT.

If you do decide to do it, only advertise the ST your yard sale is on, not your address or the weirdos will come knocking the day before, the night before and at some ridiculous wee hour of the am on the day of.

This has been my experience too. One yard sale I even had a couple of people do reverse lookups online and call me a few days before the sale.

Too much work and hassle for not enough money, and I find I do better if I keep a giveaway tote box and take it to Goodwill once a month.

 

[redandblue]

I am having a garage sale this weekend with my cousins. I am taking Thursday and Friday off of work to do it, (I am hoping to get rid of most so I don't have to use my Saturday). It sounds crazy to use 2 vacaton days to have a garage sale but I have never had one and am kinda excited. DS is 3.5 and DD is 16months so I have a lot of baby clothes and am getting rid of my baby stuff like bouncer, swing, ect.

But if I didn't have the baby stuff I wouldn't waste my time unless I enjoyed it.