When Sherry and I hosted our first yard sale over four years ago, we felt rushed getting everything outside, frazzled over pricing, and strangely obsessed with tracking every dollar as the day progressed. We were so excited to clear out items we didn’t love anymore that the sale became a bigger production than we expected.
Fast forward a few years (we also did a moving sale back in 2010) and in 2012 we decided to run another clear-out yard sale. This time we wanted to be much more relaxed and focused. Our strategy was simple:
- Make decluttering the primary goal — any money earned would be a bonus.
- Sell a handful of higher-value pieces on Craigslist in advance to get better prices and remove stress on sale day.
- Price the rest to move quickly — if someone wanted an item, we preferred it go to a new home rather than come back with us.
Between moving into our current home and accumulating props for blog and book projects, our house had slowly become storage. Rooms intended for living — the playroom, the basement, and even the sunroom — were filling up. We wanted those spaces functional again, so it was time to pass a lot of items to new owners who would use and appreciate them.
We kept the sale low-key for safety and manageability. We didn’t advertise our address widely online and avoided hauling everything to a neutral location since that would defeat our goal of a simple, low-cost purge. Instead we used local signs and a Craigslist ad that didn’t reveal we were the hosts. That kept traffic steady while keeping the event controllable.
Preparation still mattered. A few weeks before the sale we went through closets, cabinets, and whole rooms with a purge mindset. If we hadn’t used something recently and couldn’t justify a clear future use, it went in the yard sale pile. That pile lived in the sunroom until early Saturday morning, when we moved it all into the driveway and set up tables and blankets for display.
Our inventory included items from my sister as well as our own. We didn’t price everything in advance — pricing on the spot fit our casual approach and helped things sell faster. Most small items on tables or blankets were priced at a dollar or less; larger furniture items carried higher, but still reasonable, prices. If your priority is to quickly declutter, low prices will move more inventory and free up space sooner.
We didn’t get many action shots since we were busy selling during the busiest stretches, but after about 60% of our items had already gone, we grabbed a few pictures during the lulls.
The crowd was steady through mid-morning. When foot traffic slowed around 10 a.m., we decided to speed things up by lowering prices even further. The goal of emptying our house eclipsed any desire to sit around and negotiate. Kids’ clothing became five pieces for fifty cents, pillows were two for a dollar, and several lingering pieces earned “free” stickers — like an old ladder the previous owners had left in our basement.
Our daughter Clara largely missed the setup because her Grammy took her out for a morning outing. She came back around 11 a.m. and spent the rest of the time drawing in the driveway and charming customers — a welcome boost to the sale’s atmosphere.
By noon our inventory was dramatically reduced. We were left with four larger items and about 30 smaller things that fit into two Goodwill boxes. We put free signs on the remaining large pieces and posted a curb alert on Craigslist. Within hours they were gone — a curb alert is a great way to quickly clear out bulky items without having to be home for pickups.
We dropped the leftover boxes at Goodwill later that day. Yard sale rule: nothing comes back into the house.
At the end of the day, the driveway sale itself brought in about $350. Add the items we sold separately on Craigslist and through neighborhood word of mouth, and we were closer to $650. We also sold eight old dining chairs (someone plans to recover them and send us photos) and two newer dining chairs at our original purchase price.
What we learned: if you want to maximize profits, photograph and list more items on Craigslist ahead of time. But that takes time for listing and coordinating pick-ups. Since our priority was clearing space quickly and with minimal fuss, a one-day yard sale combined with a few targeted online sales was an efficient compromise. We left the sale feeling accomplished — less clutter, more usable rooms, and a reminder that yard sales don’t have to be stressful.
Have you hosted a yard sale lately? Any tips or memorable moments? We had one tense moment when Sherry accepted money for an item I’d already held aside for someone else — neither customer would yield, so we settled it the old-fashioned way with a coin toss. Sometimes simple solutions work best.