I had my first yard sale two weekends ago and it was so fun!
Every time I have cleaned out toys or clothes during this last year I always put them in a garbage bag and just set it to the side in our garage thinking that someday I will sell them. I have sold a few things through consignment stores but I still had bags and bags of stuff. One of the things on Ella's summer bucket list was a lemonade stand. We talked about doing it so many times but just never got around to it. So basically, Ella's dream of selling lemonade is what inspired me to do the yard sale.
A few weeks ago I mentioned to my friend Julie that I was thinking about having a yard sale and if she had anything she wanted to sell to bring it on over. Between Julie and I, we filled up the yard with so much stuff that even at the end of a successful yard sale day, the yard still looked full of stuff. The number one thing I learned from all this is to start preparing WAY earlier next time. I didn't start pulling stuff out and pricing until 2 days before and it was crazy. Who am I kidding though, next time and the next, I will still wait till the last minute again.
We did it on the weekend my mom and sister were here visiting so we could have help. We honestly couldn't have done it without them! Bob was working so it was just us girls. It was hilarious and we had a lot of laughs! Since my mom is still healing from her ACL surgery she was great just sitting all day so we put her in charge of the money. Anna helped the little girls sell cookies and lemonade. She would also make an occasional new friend that always had a very funny and entertaining story behind it.
We sold a tv and Bob had the great idea to have it set up playing a movie to show that it worked. Until it sold, it was so fun having a lawn movie too!
We started setting up before 7 and even though our signs said 8-11am, we had buyers ready by 7:30. Julie and I were in full sweat trying to hurry and bring everything to the yard by 8. Having a garage in the ally makes a yard sell harder to set up when it's all in the front yard. The weather ended up being perfect. We had 60% chance of rain the night before so we were a little nervous.
One of our first customers was a very nice man who handed the girls 2 dollars and told them that the next 8 kids got a free cookie and lemonade. I thought that was so sweet!
As it started getting closer to 11:00 we realized that we should have made the signs say noon so I went and changed a few. Then once noon rolled around we realized we still had so much to sell and we were having so much fun that we didn't want it to end. So I drove to all of the signs we put out and changed the time to 8-3. Julie had the genius idea to make some new signs that said yard sale from noon-3 and to put those on other end of neighborhood. That way we would get some new traffic thinking it had just started. We had so many great things still for sale.
It was a long day for the little girls but they did awesome! McKenna and Lily only had a couple of meltdowns and Anna tried to work out any other issues between Ella and Katelyn. They would change clothes and come out to entertain us every now and then. They even set up their own version of a yard sale inside the house. This was creative but not so much fun to clean up. They tied rope all around the house and then hung every hanger and headband in Ella's room on the rope. I wish I would have taken a pic before we started taking stuff down. These pictures are halfway through cleanup.
So we ended up selling for 8 hours and we loved it! I'm still so surprised at what sold and what didn't. I guess you just never know. My local Goodwill sure did get a great load after the yard sale. I hope it all goes to great use. I am a huge yard sale fan now! I want to make it a yearly tradition.
We did it on the weekend my mom and sister were here visiting so we could have help. We honestly couldn't have done it without them! Bob was working so it was just us girls. It was hilarious and we had a lot of laughs! Since my mom is still healing from her ACL surgery she was great just sitting all day so we put her in charge of the money. Anna helped the little girls sell cookies and lemonade. She would also make an occasional new friend that always had a very funny and entertaining story behind it.
We sold a tv and Bob had the great idea to have it set up playing a movie to show that it worked. Until it sold, it was so fun having a lawn movie too!
We started setting up before 7 and even though our signs said 8-11am, we had buyers ready by 7:30. Julie and I were in full sweat trying to hurry and bring everything to the yard by 8. Having a garage in the ally makes a yard sell harder to set up when it's all in the front yard. The weather ended up being perfect. We had 60% chance of rain the night before so we were a little nervous.
One of our first customers was a very nice man who handed the girls 2 dollars and told them that the next 8 kids got a free cookie and lemonade. I thought that was so sweet!
As it started getting closer to 11:00 we realized that we should have made the signs say noon so I went and changed a few. Then once noon rolled around we realized we still had so much to sell and we were having so much fun that we didn't want it to end. So I drove to all of the signs we put out and changed the time to 8-3. Julie had the genius idea to make some new signs that said yard sale from noon-3 and to put those on other end of neighborhood. That way we would get some new traffic thinking it had just started. We had so many great things still for sale.
It was a long day for the little girls but they did awesome! McKenna and Lily only had a couple of meltdowns and Anna tried to work out any other issues between Ella and Katelyn. They would change clothes and come out to entertain us every now and then. They even set up their own version of a yard sale inside the house. This was creative but not so much fun to clean up. They tied rope all around the house and then hung every hanger and headband in Ella's room on the rope. I wish I would have taken a pic before we started taking stuff down. These pictures are halfway through cleanup.
So we ended up selling for 8 hours and we loved it! I'm still so surprised at what sold and what didn't. I guess you just never know. My local Goodwill sure did get a great load after the yard sale. I hope it all goes to great use. I am a huge yard sale fan now! I want to make it a yearly tradition.
2 comments:
oh how fun! my bff has a neighborhood garage sale every June & October. I missed the October one, but in June we had a Disney theme with cute little signs. "look at this stuff isn't it neat, wouldn't it make your collection complete?" If there is something I love, it's a cute lemonade stand! I am such a sucker! I would have had to buy a $10 cup of lemonade for sure! I am not showing this post to Masyn though, or she will be begging to have a garage sale {with a lemonade stand until June!} lol :)
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