Community Wide Yard Sale

Saturday, May 1 and
Sunday, May 2, 2010
8am-2pm
Sorry, no rain date scheduled.

Sell your wares on one day or both days! Just display your items right in your driveway or on your lawn. Directional signs will be posted by the Sawyer’s Creek Homeowners Association (SCHA). An Ad for the sale will be placed by SCHA in the Camden Courier Post and the Gloucester County Times newspapers. All the hard work is done for you! There is no charge or registration needed for members of the SCHA.

Use these tips to help you have a successful sale.

Gather your inventory

Your yard sale inventory is living right under your nose. The first step is to find it. In the weeks before your sale, scour closets and cupboards, bookcases and basement for yard sale finds. How to decide? Some home managers ask these questions: "Have I cooked with it, worn it, displayed it, used it or read it within the last year?" Others apply a percentage rule: a firm 10 to 20 percent of all books, videos, clothing, or bric-a-brac must go.

Once an item's marked for sale, be stern! Store your yard sale inventory in black plastic garbage bags or boxes with lids. No fair reading, looking or cooking; there is no appeal, no mercy and no second chance. Give that wedding-gift sandwich squasher an emotional divorce. It's no longer junk or stuff, it's inventory!

Prep and price

Assess your inventory. Does it look garage-sale drab? A little elbow grease can yield big bucks. Run dusty dishes and filmy glassware through the dishwasher. A quick spritz of automotive vinyl protectant makes small appliances and plastic items shine like new. Clean, fresh-smelling clothing hung on hangers commands a higher price than stained and rumpled items tossed into boxes.

To price, or not to price? Experience comes down in favor of pricing every item. Haggling is part of the yard sale scene, but for those with shyer natures, a price sticker saves a lot of energy. Buyers are more apt to buy when they know the price is in their ballpark. The middle of a crowded garage is no place to come up with a price for every spoon and trivet.

Use masking tape or small adhesive stickers to label your wares. Be creative! Bundling is an old retailer's trick, and one well suited to the yard-sale seller. One tag end of shelf paper won't bring a nickel, but bundle all 12 or 14 roll ends from your last kitchen clean-out, and the whole box will go for $1.50. Got five small bookcases to sell? Price them at $10 each, but offer the whole lot for $40 and watch them waddle out the door.

Abide by your area's yard sale price guidelines. Yard sales have their own economy. The goal is to get rid of stuff. Your shoppers know the going prices as well as you do. There's no sense labeling two boxes of kitchen utensils at 50 cents if a quarter is the going rate.

Set up shop

Where will you hold your sale? Yard, garage or driveway, make sure your site can be seen from the road, and plan to haul a few big items out front, for good measure. It's best to work from a stripped site, so remove everything that's not for sale from the driveway or garage. If you can't, drape the not-for-sale items with sheets or tarps. That way, you won't have to explain that the garden tools are not for sale for a full seven hundred and thirty-two times.

Set out your wares. Tables, even a slab of plywood board resting on sawhorse, make it easy to browse. Hang clothing from ropes or chains attached to the ceiling. Display books, spines up, in shallow boxes for easy shopping. When possible, use signs to identify merchandise: full-size sheets, infants' clothing. Lay a heavy-duty extension cord to operate radios and television, and test electrical appliances. Prepare your yard as if it were Halloween night. Remove anything that can be tripped over, including the dog, who should live elsewhere for the duration of the sale. Check the garage floor and driveway for slippery spots or hidden hazards. Tape down extension cords or cables. Assess your inventory with an eye to safety. Examine children's toys for breakage and hazards. If in doubt, throw it out. Old lamps with frayed cords or small appliances that give off a burned smell belong in the trash, not on your tables. Protect other families like you protect your own.

Are you ready to make change? A muffin tin makes a good change holder. Be prepared with at least $20 in small bills and change.

Ready, set, sell

It's sale day. Now's the time to play salesman. Don't sit there like a lump in a lawn chair! Get up and talk to people. Be excited and enthusiastic. Comment on cute children, bumper stickers and T-shirt slogans. Be bubbly and vivacious and share lots of information about that wonderful set of bed linens that you love and adore but no longer match your color scheme. Not only will you create enthusiasm and make sales, you'll meet neighbors you never knew you had, so it's smart to put your best foot forward.

Plan for at least two staffers for every yard sale, and more is better. One person acts as "background", shuffling cash, bringing coffee, keeping an active eye on everything. A cashier sits at the front with muffin tin or cash box. Leave the selling to the most enthusiastic salesperson.

Offer free coffee, and give your children a taste of private enterprise, entrusting them with a donut concession. If people are eating, they're staying--and if they're staying, they're buying. That's the point!

After the sale is over

Dispose of the leftovers. Box them up and deliver the items to a charity of your choice. Whatever you do, don't let the survivors back in the house! Donating it to a charity can help someone who is in need. Items may be dropped off to the Goodwill located on Rte 47 Delsea Drive in Glassboro. Call 307-9175 for more details. They are open Mon-Sat 9am-7:30pm & 12-6pm on Sun. You can also try www.purpleheartpickup.org to donate items as well.

Want more information on organizing your home or how to have a successful yard sale visit: www.organizedhome.com or www.yardsalequeen.com.

Then go count your proceeds--You've earned it!

Reprinted with permission of the editor of Organizedhome.com