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

[Purseval]

You can only deduct donations to Goodwill and other charities if you itemize. 2 out of every 3 taxpayers use the standard deduction so odds are that donating your stuff will get you nothing in return. So let's say you have 100 items for a yard sale and they sell for 10 cents each, a pitifully small amount of money. That's still $10 in your pocket vs nothing. Where I come from something is almost always better than nothing.

 

[mwatson011]

DH hates yard sales and I love them, so we came to a mutual agreement...

We do one yard sale a year when our neighborhood has a community yard sale, don't put too much effort into prepping for it, start setting up at 7am (we are up that early anyway) on Sat morning, and anything that is not gone by noon gets boxed up and hauled over to goodwill. Nothing comes back in the house. That's the deal. No exceptions unless it is agreed on beforehand.

Our last yard sale yielded $240, which we both were happy with. Little kids' clothing sells like hot potatoes around here, and that is where we made most of the $. I didn't even have to do any prep work, just piled the clothes on blankets by size, and by 9am, had only a few pieces left.

We have neighbors who haul the same stuff out every year, and what doesn't sell, they take back in, put away for next year. NUTS!

 

[mom0299]

OP here...

Thank you for all the replies. I'd like to be able to take a lot to a consignment store, but I am in a rural area and don't have that option. We do have a Plato's Closet in the next town. I haven't been, but I've been wanting to. The kids have a few name brand clothes that I will take there.

I just can't get past the idea that it would be nice to have some extra money. DS is on the golf and basketball teams and DD will probably be playing volleyball next year. They always need food money for away games. Last year I kept yard sale money, ebates money, and inbox dollars money in an envelope and used that for all those little extras. If I didn't have the yard sale cash it would seriously cut down on that fund.

So, I will suck it up and have a yard sale. My plans for keeping it as simple as possible:
1) Group like items together and make one price sign for them all - for example: all DVDs are $2, all books are $1, all clothing items are $?, etc...
2) One day sale only. My sale will be on a Saturday from 8am-noon.

If anyone has more suggestions for making it simple, I'm listening.

 

[Catira]

OP here...

Thank you for all the replies. I'd like to be able to take a lot to a consignment store, but I am in a rural area and don't have that option. We do have a Plato's Closet in the next town. I haven't been, but I've been wanting to. The kids have a few name brand clothes that I will take there.

I just can't get past the idea that it would be nice to have some extra money. DS is on the golf and basketball teams and DD will probably be playing volleyball next year. They always need food money for away games. Last year I kept yard sale money, ebates money, and inbox dollars money in an envelope and used that for all those little extras. If I didn't have the yard sale cash it would seriously cut down on that fund.

So, I will suck it up and have a yard sale. My plans for keeping it as simple as possible:
1) Group like items together and make one price sign for them all - for example: all DVDs are $2, all books are $1, all clothing items are $?, etc...
2) One day sale only. My sale will be on a Saturday from 8am-noon.

If anyone has more suggestions for making it simple, I'm listening.

I set up our garage sale very similiar to what you mentioned. I divide the tables by what items it has. Kids clothing, womens clothing, mens clothing, etc. Then another table I put my new with tag items, and price those each. Any misc. items, I bulk together and set a price. I have also read here on the DIS where people sell a mixed bag for X.XX amount. Last xmas we made $1000+ in 2 weekends. I hate all the work involved to do a garage sale, but like having the extra $ for our disney trips. Anything that doesn't sale we donate.

 

[Anjelica]

DH HATES, HATES, HATES, HATES (catch my drift) Yard Sales.

I think the biggest problem we have had is the people who come to the yard sales. It's not all of the people who come but it is enough to where I have promised him we won't do them anymore. I think the icing on the cake was when the lady, who had a boot/cast on her leg, wobbled a little bit on our drive way and stated "You guys have good insurance, right".

I'm not saying you have to outright donate everything but rather tackle it in a variety of ways. I have sold most of the bigger items on craigslist. Some of the good condition toys, etc. I have sold on the local community online sales site (free). I have also sold smaller items on ebay (mainly girl clothes - I've learned boy clothes don't sell that great). Finally I donate most of my adult and boy clothes to the military bases "goodwill" called Airmen's Closet - if no one pickes up the items donated to Airmen's Closet within 4-6 weeks they then donate it to Goodwill (and yes we get a tax deduction for the items we donate).

 

[Anjelica]

Forgot to add: There was fake $20.00 bills floating around our Neighborhood Yard Sale two years in a row. We now advise folks (I publish the newletter for the neighborhood) to purchase a "Counterfeit Money Pen" to detect whether a bill is fake or not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterfeit_banknote_detection_pen