How To Sell Your Stuff : Part Three ~ Yard Sales

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 Yard sales and I have a love hate relationship. I love going to them. I hate having them. 

For me they seem of all the options I have written about the most time consuming.

While there will be lots of people who will tell you they do really well with a yard sale, 

I live in an area where the weather is perfect for yard sales 10 months out of the year 

(the other 2 it just too hot). And it is also at the moment a economical hard hitting area. 

So, those two things coupled together.....lots of sales & little money make 

yard sales here a chore. It has to be CHEAP to sell. 

This is why I typically will try other avenues first for my items that I think are 

worth a bit more. I hold my items that are lower priced for yard sales. 

When I have enough items, then and only then 

will I hold on. All that negativity aside, I make on average $300 for the weekend. 

Again, you will get better or worse results depending on your area. 

This is enough  $$$ for me to make it worth it to sit outside for 2 or 3 days. I have a sale 

about once every year or two at the most. Here lately, every 2 years. During that time

I use the first two methods I posted about here and here to cull the piles down. 

Later we will talk about those piles and how to get off the re-sell hamster wheel. 

But for now, here are my top tips! 

Top 10 Tips For Having a Successful Yard Sale 

1. Advertise.

I put up an ad on our very active Craigslist the Tuesday before we have the sale. 

Then again I will put up a fresh ad on the morning of the sale. Make sure you add 

any photos of big ticket item, or sought after items. 

Also give your address and a link to your address in Mapquest. 

This tip will draw customers more so as now they don't even have to look 

up how to get to your home, you have done all the work for them. 

On CL, make sure you denote some of the items you will have for sale so that when 

people do keyword searches, your ad comes up as well.

Make sure signs are up at obivous places if this is your method of advertising. 

I would go out a day or two before hand to post them up. We use our signs as a directional and get most of our traffic from CL. 

2. Open early and stay late.

My yard sales run from 8 am to 4 pm. But typically I am ready to go by 7:15 as 

I am not bothered by early birds. This just means I  have items someone 

wants and they want them bad enough to wait for me to open that garage door! 

I stay late because most yard sales in our area close up around 1 pm. 

I get a lot of last minute sales. And I am happy to have them. 

I cut deals because I want this stuff GONE.

3. Price EVERYTHING.

Huge pet peeve as a yard sale shopper, is having to ask the price of items. 

Mark your items clearly and in a way that is easy to figure out. If your clothing is different prices, please do not put them on a table and hang a sign that says, 

"Children's clothes $1, Ladies clothes $3.." etc. Do yourself a favor, go your

favorite discount store and for $2 grab yourself some of these pre-printed price stickers. 

 

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Stick them on the clothing. It takes just a few minutes. What I do is I stick the 

price on the tag inside the item and then have my oldest daughter come behind me 

and staple it to the tag. This ensures the price sticker stays in place. 

That also means someone other than me can take the money. There is no confusion. 

4. Display it.

Make sure your items are displayed in a way that customers can reach them 

without issue and they are displayed, not just thrown in a box. 

I try to group like items together, that way if someone is looking for stemware, 

all of my options are there for them to choose from. In yard sales customers like to

buy in volume as it always means discount, so feed that spirit of 'if 1 is good, 

then 12 is great' by keepingyour items together and in a way they can see all their options.

5. Price it sell. 

I have been to yard sales and seen throw pillows for $10. There is no doubt in my 

mind that lady was dragging those throw pillows back in with her at the end of the day. 

While sometimes it hurts if you have paid good money for an item to only sell it 

so cheap there is also pain in having to store items you don't use or want anymore either. 

Just like it makes no sense to buy an item you don't want or need just because it is cheap.

There is also no reason to hold on to an item you don't want or need just because you paid a lot of money for it. Try the first two methods of selling those items first. 

Then if all else fails decide if you can let it go or not. You ever price an item for a 

yard sale too high with the notion you will NOT sell it for any lower than that, 

chances are you won't sell it.

You have to be flexible. You have to keep in mind this is a yard sale, 

not Christie's Auction House. 

And you have to realize you probably already got your monies worth from 

the item, time to let it go. If it has memories attached & you are questioning selling it, 

then don't. Keep it or better yet give it to a family member who will also cherish 

the memory attach with it.

6. Give something away.

This little trick is a way to reduce clutter and attract customers. 

At the end of my drive, I sit out a cardboard box with odd and ends that are just not worth selling (think McDonald's toys, stocking stuffers, small trinkets) with the words 

"FREE, take one or some!" 

I find that if I fill this with kids item, parents are so appreciative. 

Children get something to occupy them while they shop and it didn't cost them anything. 

Before someone asks....YES, I have had grown adults pick up the whole box before

and walk away with it. To which I just put palm to forehead and try not to be too angry. 

I usually do not keep all of my free items in the box. I have my middle child in the lulls in crowds refill it with our stash we keep back. 

7. Be kind.

I have been to many sales where people who are selling are gruff and unkind.

This kind of behavior is off putting to say the least. My general rule of thumb is I try to

thank each person as they walk away whether they bought something or not. I will just

call out, "Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!" It keeps my spirit in check. 

And I AM very grateful they stopped by whether they bought or not.

I also try to greet everyone who comes up as well.
A smile & hello, a smile & a joke about the heat always works too around these parts. 

Smile smile smile smile.

It makes the customers feel comfortable, which means they shop longer and it keeps my spirit up as well. 

8. Have change.

This is a no brainer but you would be shocked at how many sales our family 

has gone to where the seller is not prepared. I typically will get almost $150 or 

more in change for a sale. Being that I shop sales more than I have them, 

I am well aware my ATM doesn't give me singles or quarters.

Don't think as a seller but as a buyer!

9. Have helpers.

If your selling large items, have some muscles around to help customers carry it out. 

It helps cinch the sale sometimes. Also my daughters will help people who have bought an armload out to their cars. Also, my hubby and I will both be money takers. 

It helps ease the wait and people appreciate that. 

Generally I have found that if you be helpful then you will have customers who stick around longer because of it.  Longer they stay, usually the more they buy!

10. Make deals.

My concept is this, the more you buy the cheaper it is! And customers love this.

I give discounts even when they don't ask. If their items came to $10.75 I will say, 

'How about $10 even?'

Customers feel your honesty and you save your quarters.

I know these tips might be pretty common but I have found these are just 

the ones that work for me. I hope this whole series has helped you with the items you 

are purging from your home. And I want to encourage you to stick around because I am doing another series that is relative to this one.I am starting a new series soon ...

'Purging : How to get your life back from your stuff!'

Our Electric Savings Update

We have made progress!

Too bad much of it was because we weren't home. ;)

However, I will take it where I can get it!

We reduced last months bill by $25 and the following month will be much

less because we were away for a week on that billing cycle.

Some of the things we are employing is :

Covering the windows to keep out the heat

Turning the AC up to 80 (hard to do in South Florida)

Turning the AC off completely for most the day

Unplugging any unnecessary items

Line drying all of our laundry

Hand washing our dishes

Washing all of our laundry in cold

Changing out our light bulbs for LED ones
Cutting baths out for showers

Anyone else working hard to reduce their electric usage?

Reducing Our Electric Habit

 As the days grow hotter here we see our electrical bill start rising.

So, we are on a mission this month in our home to use less electricity!

You know this mission, right?

Daily fights over the AC temp and Mom constantly yelling, TURN THAT LIGHT OFF!

Sounds fun doesn't it? Ahhh, good times.

Anyways, we have found success in our efforts though and I wanted to share them with you.

For informational purposes just a few facts first :

We live in South Florida & use AC almost year around.

We battle seasonal allergies that prevents us from opening our windows in the spring.

The home we rent is 1200 sq feet give or take, built in 2002. 

We do have a larger AC unit than is recommended, which helps.

First thing I tackled was the AC. It runs almost non-stop in our home. 

This time of the year see's us rise from a $150 a month bill to $230 in a flash.

The outside temps rise and the ac works harder to keep up. 

So even I keep the temp inside on 80, it still works harder to maintain 80 than it did a few weeks ago.

Then I realized the only sure way to make sure it doesn't run all the time was to turn it off.

Yes, I am a genius. ;)

If I turn the AC off the kids cried, how do we stay cool?

That is where I realized that just as our Northern friends fight to keep the cold out in the

winter, we must fight to keep the heat out in the summer.  

We have vertical blinds on all the windows. We keep those closed.

It still felt hot in here. So I added lightweight curtains over top of the blinds. 

Better but when the temps started climbing to the upper 80's, the heat slowly crept back in. 

So I took pretty tablecloth that were in my stash, sewed a pocket and hung them in FRONT

of the blinds in the windows that got the most light. 

This helped a great deal. We are now able to turn off the AC completely every morning

around 6 am and we make it to almost 5 - 7pm before it comes back on. 

This trick alone when we can make it the whole 12 hours saves us HALF the KW's we were

using before. Don't believe me? Check it out...

 You can see the days I circled. Those days were 40 and under KW days. If you look

under my account summary you will see that my highest daily usage was 76. I highlighted

the lowest point by clicking on it for the picture, my lowest day I used 32 KWH's. Ignore the

following day where I hit 61 KWH's. Let's just say even though I line dry most of the time, that

day was not a good day. Lots of children with nothing clean to wear. So I used, like an addict. ;)

Like with all the other examples and advice I give, I should point out that this is just one phase of 

cutting our usage. Right now I looked to the biggest power sucker & worked on that. We have 

a few more windows to cover before we move on to another phase. A programmable thermometer

would help but this is a rental and I am not sure of their cost. It is something I will run past a 

friend of ours who installs AC's for a living. 

The next phase? Not sure.

But here is a list of things I have written down that we want to work on in this area :

* Changing lightbulbs to LED's -

We don't do the CFL's due to the mercury in them should one break. 

We do have two LED bulbs right now and we are very happy with them. 

Turning out the lights help as well, not just saving electricity but they do generate heat in the house as well.

*Phasing out the dryer completely -

We use it for small things or like above, in a time crunch. 

This involves me being more disciplined (ahem) in the laundry area. 

*Using ceiling fan's effectively - 

Right now the kids have it in their head that fans should be left on all the time. 

I have tried to explain to them that fans only work if the person is in the room.  

This website has been such help in reducing our costs.

*Dishwasher vs. Hand washing -

This one is going to require lots of research. 

Our dishwasher does not work effectively so I think I already know the answer. 

However I am not the dishwasher, a teenage girl is. And she is going to 

want hard data to support my theory of her hand washing dishes. 

*Baths vs. Showers -

We have well water. That means that every time we turn the tap on, it requires the pump to use

electricity to deliver it to us. Conserving water will help reduce ours costs. 

However I am the loverof nice large baths of hot water. 

That is my escape. I will have to curb those and I am not looking forward to that , at all. 

Do you have any suggestions or ideas how to save money on your electric bill? 

We would love to hear them!

Living Below Your Means

I know everyone has heard, 'Live within your means'. We all know it means not to
spend more than you make. But is that the key to debt free freedom?
When you start talking to people with real freedom financially they will almost
always say it was not how much they made, but how much they did NOT spend.
We can always find ways to earn more money. It is not until we learn how to not spend
money unnecessarily that we will experience true freedom.
First hand experience (mine and others) will
tell us, when we earn more we also spend more. We elevate our lifestyle.
Maybe we do it in small ways ("I can spend more on groceries") or maybe we do it in large ways
("We earn twice now, I can get a new car!"), but chances are almost all of us do it
when we see an increase in money. The question becomes....how do we change that?
Discipline. 
And the desire to be truly free.
Neither of those are easy but the good news is if have more of the latter then
the first thing will be easier to come by. For us we lacked discipline but we are filled
with a burning desire to be debt free and to have more freedom in our life. 
So, here is how we are putting in place living below our means :

1. Cut our entertainment expenses. 
We have no cable/dish, pay as you go internet, no netflix or subscriptions to things we once had. Though
it would be easy to for someone to feel deprived doing this, we welcome it. Our ultimate desire is
to live off-grid. So the sooner we unhooked from these things, the easier it will be for us to make that
transition to the off grid life down the road.

2. Lower our housing cost. 
I know this is not possible for everyone, especially if you have a mortgage. But we are renters and in less than a year we will be relocating. We are purposely looking for cheaper rent in our new state so we can maximize our savings. Our goal is to buy a home mortgage free so we can really be FREE!

3. Spend less on transportation.
In the last year we have sold our 2nd vehicle when my hubby decided to take his bike to work. We have saved thousands of dollars in gas, repairs and insurance. We also moved our deductible up for our insurance on our van. We just made sure whatever the deductible is that we had savings to match it. We also cut our driving to conserve gas money and repairs from wear and tear. We plan to continue this type of transportation in the future. Maybe even employing our bikes more.

4. Cut food costs.
This was a hard thing for us because we do not want to compromise on healthy, whole foods as organically as possible. But thankfully we got a Trader Joe's recently so it was easier. We spend on average $400 to $500 a month to feed our family of 5. This is 3 meals a day at home almost every day of the week. When we are home owners again then we plan to reduce our costs by growing and producing as much as our own food as possible.

5. Reduce our clothing costs.
This was easy for us. We buy 95% all of our clothing used. We have really good thrift stores and consignment shops so it made it a breeze. We made this change awhile back when we heard an alarming stat, it takes 1/3rd of a pound of pesticides for enough cotton for one t-shirt. Since our family can afford organic clothing we choose to buy used instead.

These are just simple thing we do to under consume our means. There are many other things we can do to reduce even further. Our goal isn't to under consume in order to amass other things. Our goal is a more simple life that makes us free from conventional systems. It will also allow us to give more than we do now with this debt over our head. The more we have, the more we can give.
What could you do if you had more freedom?

Buying Used - Why it makes cents.

A lot of people ask us the best way to save money. Hands down our biggest way to save money is trying very hard not to buy anything new. Now, of course we have buy food and such new. But most people only buy used when it comes to clothes or a car. We buy used in almost every category. Used appliances. Used furniture. Used clothing. Used tires. Used toys. Used electronics. Used auto parts. Used ,second hand, pre-loved...whatever you want to call it, it makes sense. Or cents if you think about it.

Now, let me start off by saying if you are one of those people who thinks its always better to buy new... thank you. Because of that attitude there is always a plethora of used items for me. Bless you. No sarcasm there. Because without consumers, there is nothing for those who wish to buy used.

If your one of those people who maybe on the fence, this post is for you. When you buy an item new, regardless of what it is, it loses it value the moment you purchase it. Don't believe me? Buy a new home gym, take it home, use it once or not at all and then try to sell it a month later on Craigslist. You can expect to take a 30% loss.  If your lucky. More in the range of up to 50%. In life this is called depreciation. Very little in life grows from its purchase price with the exception of real estate. And in today's market I wouldn't be so sure about that.

When I buy your used Crock-pot at your sale for $5, I am avoiding that depreciation. You have already took the hit for it. I get the item in very usable condition. And guess what? When it dies on me, even if heaven forbid its 2 years down the road, I lost less than you did. I paid $5 and it lasted me 2 years. $2.50 a year.You had it for 3 years and paid $30 for it. $10 a year. See my point?

I will no doubt get responses about how unsafe it is to buy used. In all my years of buying the items above used I have never had an issue. I am sure your friends Aunt's cousin may have. But the point is it is very slim. Buying new does not guarantee no problems. When I have a spare year I will post my saga of why I will never own anything Bissell ever again. Not even used.

Letting other people pay depreciation is how I keep more money to myself. As always, use your own comfort level. But typically I find when someone wants to save money and get out of debt, their comfort level changes. So, don't be afraid to branch out of your comfort level. Do your research and don't buy new or used blindly. Another day I will talk about what is worth buying new in our home. Also another post for another day is how buying used is a perfect way to recycle!