Here's how to make a couple hundred dollars this summer - quick and easy!!!
By coffeebreak
@coffeebreak (17798)
United States
March 24, 2008 7:43pm CST
Just wanted to throw this out to everyone - to get it going in your brains and thoughts and tell you, do a little at a time of this horrible chore and you'll make alot of money in the end...
YARD SALE time is coming up! Since spring cleaning is already here, the holidays are over for a few months, start going through your house- start small and tackle all the dresser drawers. move to the closets, then to the toy box and then through the kitchen and on out into the garage! I'm telling you there is LOTS of stuff you don't need, use or want and you probably dont' even ralize it! But get the stuff out, price it as you clean it out, put it in boxes and start filling the garage with the boxes! Come the first nice day in June and get your signs out and have your yard sale! You'll be surpriced at how much money you will make! I used to have 3 a summer with my daugheter and I cleared minimum $100 every sale. My daughter usually did around $200 or more each sale as she had more stuff and a growing child! Get a roll of masking tape, and as you take it out of the drawer or closet, stick a piece of tape on the item, mark the price iwth a magic marker and drop in the Yard Sale box or large trash bag. If you start now and do it gradually like this you wll find so much stuff and the "hard" part of the yard sale is no more!
Couple hundred dollars extra this summer and all you did was clean up after yourself and your family. Don't get any easier than that!
2 people like this
10 responses
@my52cents (569)
• United States
25 Mar 08
You make it sound so easy! I am overwhelmed with stuff that needs to go. I need to claim a section of the garage and do as you say, just go through things one at a time and price as I go. Last weekend was nice and the first good garage sale weekend we've had this season and, I'll admit, I'd much rather SHOP at garage sales than have one myself. Guess I should keep my eyes on the prize, the chunk of change that would be the result!
2 people like this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
25 Mar 08
Might seem like that, but really it is that easy. I say from my lifetime of having yard sales!
But Just don't think of it as a cleaning chore, keeping thinking "I want this item and it cost this much, and I dont' have that in my budget but i really want it so I have to get the money for it..."
Or "a free christmas this year and all I have to do is throw some stuff in a bag and thenlater lay it out in the front yard or driveway? Good grief, how easy this is going to be!"
Trick yourself by thinking only of the fantastic result youa re going to have and the "chore" feeling dissapears and you'll have your reward!
1 person likes this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
26 Mar 08
Choose waht you need the most! Could be anything. Just make it something that you really need - and taxes are one of those things! But if it is something that you really need, it makes it so much easier to get the chore done AND get rid of more stuff so that you make more money! Just think - if you get enough stuff out there to pay taxes and have some extra left over....
1 person likes this
@my52cents (569)
• United States
25 Mar 08
Or, in my case, it'll pay our taxes! (Yuck year for us from a tax standpoint, but that's fodder for another post.)
1 person likes this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
26 Apr 08
I've seen those too and if you have the stuff , you can make that much. The most we have made was $550 between the 2 of us - my daughter making more simply as she had more stuff and it was alot kid related from her dauther growing out or just growing up for clothes to toys and everything inbetween. I occassionally ahd some furniture and it went for some good prices. A great way to get to an amuzement park - good idea.
1 person likes this
@arkaf61 (10881)
• Canada
26 Mar 08
A friend of mine always makes a yard during the summer. I thought about it once, but since our part of the house is the second and third floor and my in laws have the first and the basement, I would need to ask their permission - probably wouldn't get it LOL - and have to be on their part - although technically the front yard belongs to both of us.
So in then end I never did it.
I have plenty of things that could be used for a garage sale, but with my in laws there, it wouldn't really work.
Great idea though, I know it works.
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
26 Mar 08
That's to bad about your inlaws. I don't know where you are, but here in the states, they often have town or neighborhood "block sales". The entire street of neighbors all get together and everyone puts their stuff out on the same day - maybe you could get something like that set up. Or they have "parking lot sales" where a business or church is closed on Saturdays offers the lot to the neightborhood or who ever, and the parking lot is filled with "stations" of yard salers. Of, maybe get it all together and ask a friend to "borrow" their yard. Is a great way to make money as well as clean out your house and declutter. Hope you can figure something out!
2 people like this
@chrislotz (8137)
• Canada
11 Jun 08
You do have a good idea of making some extra money. I go to a lot of yard sales to buy stuff and it is the only way to go. It is an easy way to make a few hundred dollars, but only if you have things people want. I know a friend of mine thought of doing this and so she put a lot of things in her yard sale that were useless things and they didn't sell and her yard sale was a flop. But I am sure most yard sales are good and a person could make some money having one. But in saying all that, you need to have things people want.
2 people like this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
11 Jun 08
of course you have to have something people want, you have to look at it that way - would anyone pay a buck for this? or fifty cents? IF not, trash it. As with anything in making money buy selling...you have to have something someone wants. YOu can't price something at what YOU want to get for it, or what YOU think it is worth....you have to price it at WHAT someone else would be willing to pay for it.
1 person likes this
@Cherokee_Rose (118)
• United States
25 Mar 08
Thank You for reminding me!lol....i have to really get busy,seriously....we have a Big City Wide Yard Sale coming up.I have never heard of a city wide before,until moving here to SW Missouri....they are great!I just leave my husband to run it for a few hours while i go around looking :),then i take charge and let him go..."One mans trash,is another mans treasure"is what they say!
Thank You
2 people like this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
25 Mar 08
You're right about the one man's trash.... I have been a "saler" all my life. A great way to get rid of your old stuff, and make money and on the other end, buy great things for really cheap!
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
25 Mar 08
I also did this to find things to sell on Ebay - did fairly good on children's books, but had to stop when Ebay raised thire fees and charges. "Good" to me was a dollar per item auctioned. Sometimes that is all I got for my time and effot, other times, I didn't evne get that, and other times I got lot more, but put it all together and I was doing about $100 a month. But when the fees increased, it just wasn't worth it for any less. And I also didn't deduct the cost of gas to drive the route every saturday!
1 person likes this
@slyvixen42 (926)
• United States
11 Jun 08
Yard sales are great. We've been trying to clear out the clutter in our house for a few years (we have a lot of stuff). Every year I've helped my mom with the yard sale. She makes a good $500 each time and we sell things very cheap. Last year we set everything as 25 cents and still made a lot. It certainly beats throwing all that stuff away.
2 people like this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
11 Jun 08
If you can get 25cents for it, why throw it away! Get what you can! $500 for a days work - can't beat that with a stick!
@patgalca (18355)
• Orangeville, Ontario
25 Mar 08
My daughter and I planned to have what we were calling a Triple B sale last summer - Books, Beverages and Baked Goods. We had the date picked, the flyers printed and ready to go when we learned the date we picked was the opening day of soccer season for my girls and we had to cancel.
This year we need the money more than anything so we will be making a strong effort to have a sale this year. Actually we're thinking of the B Quad sale - Books, Beverages, Baked Goods and Bargains. 
We'll just wait and see when the weather gets nice. We're still expecting more snow! 
We'll just wait and see when the weather gets nice. We're still expecting more snow! 2 people like this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
25 Mar 08
Just start collecting now and when the snow is gone, you'll be ready to go! And sure, add to your "inventory! Why not? Peopel like to buy baked goods while they shop for bargains!
@shaggin (72021)
• United States
29 Jun 12
I have so many things to sell mostly my kids clothes. Some of them are two nice to sell for a quarter but most I am just glad to get rid of the huge amounts of clothes we have and so today I am having a huge sale where all the things out there are only 25 cents and the books are only 10 cents. I set it out at about 9 am and have had 3 people come by. I have made $8 so that is 32 things that I have sold so far. Not bad. It doesnt put my of a dent in the huge amounts of things that I have for sale but I am having the sale the whole weekend so hopefully it will do pretty well.
1 person likes this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
29 Jun 12
Good for you and like you said...it didn't make you rich, but got rid of things you don't want and put a few dollars in your pocket for a special lunch next week or to save for that something special you want! Plus...you don't have to haul 32 things back into the house!!!
1 person likes this
@shaggin (72021)
• United States
4 Jul 12
wow nice to see you are still active since its been 5 years since this was posted. I like to comment on old discussions. 3 days at the yard sale with everything being 25 cents except books being 10 cents I made $40.55. Its not much but there were so many bags of things sold. What didnt sell I donated about 90% of it. I am really happy to have so much out of my house. I will be having another yard sale in august and it will be for the regular priced things such as 50 cents & $1 etc. In august that is when they do the town yard sale so I will have one at my home as well.
@edgyk8inmomma (2157)
• United States
24 Apr 08
That's exactly what we do every year. Every time I do laundry I sort things out the kids have outgrown or that I've seen in the laundry CLEAN for the fifth time(obviously they don't want it if they keep sending it back to me). And about once a month we go through the toys and books and things. We have a pretty big house, and with four young kids they grow out of things pretty fast, plus with all their family and friends constantly giving them hand me downs and little extras, if I didn't do this we would have no room to move!lol
But we don't do as well at our sales, or average is only $20 and our biggest was $80. But we have them every month from May to October, so it brings us $120-$200 a summer, this is pretty much how we pay for our kids school supplies. This year we're adding refreshments to the ticket, baked goods and drinks...maybe that'll boost sales?
2 people like this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
26 Apr 08
I think alot of the earnings is decided by your location. IF you are 'off the beaten path", you might not do as well. But hey, just keep trying...$20 is $20 and you got rid of a bunch of stuff you didn't need anyway, and covers school supplies! Maybe the refreshments will help! Good Luck
