Do any of you ever have a yard sale? I was thinking of giving it a try to de-clutter the house.

 

I had several. They are a pain sometimes but it is a good way to clean out the basement and garage. In our area you do need to keep an eye on people. Some people have a tendency to "lift" small items.

 

We have had very few garage sales. We had a few where our daughter and a friend, teenagers at the time, wanted to have a garage sale. I told her that if they did most of the work, that they could have all of the money that was made on the garage sale. They did all of the work, but the money didn't amount to much anyway.

Our daughter had a garage sale several years ago, selling lots of stuff, old furniture, baby clothes, etc, some of it I think was from her in-laws and other relatives. As I recall, she did really well, getting something like $1,000.

For us, now, though, it is too much work for how much we would get, and I would rather just donate our stuff and take a tax deduction.

 

Nope. I don't keep stuff around. I donate it. No desire to spend a weekend dealing with a yard sale.

 

If you are having one to make money, it won't happen. Old things are worth pennies on the dollar, if that, as I found out when I liquidated most of the stuff in my parents' house. You are better off donating things for a deduction or just throwing them out. The liquidators threw out a LOT. I saw them doing some of it and it was a shock. They told me people can get upset when they see how little household stuff is worth.

 

Had a very successful one when we moved out of our first house. It was in a neighborhood of starter homes and we had a bunch of furniture and household items that sold very well. Our second attempt was a few years ago. We live 500' from the street on a country road. Much smaller turnout of buyers and was not worth the time and effort. To add injury to insult, we took the leftovers to Goodwill and they rejected 1/2 of it. I ended up taking a couple of downhill ski packages and a color/stereo/console TV in perfect condition to the recycling center.

 

Not a chance I'll be doing one. What I do not want or cannot use I either donate or take to the recycle center.

 

We've done a couple and neither was worth the effort. We also had a few shady characters show up that seem more interested in the stuff in the garage that's not for sale; so I covered what I could with blankets in the second one and I made sure everything was locked up as good as possible for some time after the two sales. Never really had any theft but it plays on your mind. If you put everything outside you run the risk of a rain mess.

 

Bill, I would recommend against it. Like Deb and Dave said, yard sale people are a different breed, looking to spend pennies on the dollar. Preparing for the sale is a lot of work, and you will find if you say it starts at 8:00 AM, people will be showing up at 6:30 to get their pick. We have a neighborhood yard sale each May (we don't participate for the above reasons), and some of the people who I see cruising through the neighborhood are sketchy, to say the least.

Donate to Goodwill or the Salvation Army, and take the tax write-off. You'll be way ahead!

My $0.02.

 

I have some big things that are difficult to donate. The people who pick up donations want clothes and small household things.