{GRFB} The Big 3-0! (and some random Yard Sale advice)

How awesome would it be if I was actually talking about my age and not baby’s gestation? Sadly, I can’t even see 30 in my rearview mirror anymore. In just a few short months I’ll actually be halfway to 40. Holy. Crap. Anyway, I digress…

30 weeks pregnant– this is crazy! It seems like just yesterday I was 10 weeks and creeping along. Then, almost overnight, I’m in “the 30s” and getting those oh-my-god-this-baby-is-coming-soon-and-I’m-not-even-close-to-being-ready feelings. Thankfully we have all the major newborn necessities taken care of (thanks to big brother B!), but I still have a running list of “baby to-dos” that has been growing by the day. I have not felt pressured at all to start marking them off… until now. It’s officially go time.

First item on the list– Make room for baby. Sounds easy enough, right? Unless you don’t have the space.

If I haven’t written about this before, we are literally renting a shoebox of a house. It’s a 3 bedroom, 1 bath home, with the 3rd “bedroom” being a converted one-car garage. I use the word “bedroom” very lightly, because while it has drywall and carpet, it’s not very suitable for living in. For the last 2 years it’s been an office/storage unit/dumping ground that we barely go into. When people come over, we close the door and skip it on “the tour”. But with a new addition on the way, we’re forced to take matters into our own hands and upgrade its status, because we need to make room for baby!

Without getting into a ton of details, here’s a breakdown of how we’re doing it– Fix up 3rd “bedroom” to make it functional and comfortable; this space will become a new bedroom for Brady. Get rid of all office furniture/decor and find a new storage solution. Keep B’s really nice furniture in his current room (convert his toddler bed back into a crib) and this becomes the baby’s nursery. Buy Brady new furniture that will get us through the next 2 years (read: IKEA). Have a yard sale and sell everything that isn’t absolutely needed. And I mean everything.

{Here’s when I transition into Yard Sale tips… very smooth…}

At first, I was really excited about having my very first yard sale. Sorting, cleaning, organizing, using fun different colored stickers… right up my alley. Then I started prepping for it and it became a nightmare. How can I part with all this stuff? How do I price everything? Is anyone really going to buy my stuff? What if I end up giving it away for next to nothing? What do I do with everything that doesn’t sell?

To ground myself, I actually did a search online for “how to have a yard sale” and found a ton of links. Some tips made a ton of sense (“decide immediately if you’re having the yard sale to get rid of clutter or to make money “) and some were not practical at all (“provide music, food and drink to attract customers”). I mean, c’mon. Seriously? Am I having a yard sale or hosting a mixer?!

Being a yard sale pro now, and with Summertime just around the corner, I thought I would share some pearls of wisdom from my personal experience last weekend:

1. As I shared above– before you do anything, decide if you’re having the yard sale strictly to get rid of all your clutter or if you’re looking to make money. This will put you in the right frame of mind when you’re pricing your items.

2. Expect to get about about $.50 less on smaller items and $5.00 less on larger items than what you have priced. Yard sale shoppers love to get a deal and will haggle like crazy. So if you want $3.00 for your candlestick set, price it at $3.50 and be willing to negotiate down to your bottom line.

3. Decide on what that “bottom line” is ahead of time (this will depend on your decision in #1). If you really just want to get rid of your stuff, then take any reasonable offer because once a customer walks away, another one may not take their place. If you have nicer items and your goal is to make some good money back on your investments, stick to your guns. But have a back up plan of what to do to sell the items in case you don’t get a buyer at the sale (ie., Craigslist).

4. Clean your stuff. Believe me, it makes a difference.

5. Organize your items by space/use (kitchen stuff, electronics, decor, baby stuff, etc.) and place them up on tables, if possible. I only had one folding table and that stuff sold like hot cakes. I had to put a lot of other smaller items on a blanket on the ground and no one wanted to bend over/squat to look at them, so they walked right past.

6. Place items with good curb appeal close to the uh, curb. That way people doing “yard sale drive bys” get intrigued and park.

7. But also place hot items like kids’ toys near the garage, so people have to walk all the way through your sale to get the goods.

8. Check your city’s community website to see if they are hosting any city-wide sales and plan to host yours on this day, if possible, to take advantage of free advertising and traffic from neighbors’ sales.

9. Post details of your sale on Craigslist a few days in advance with a list of desirable items for sale that will draw a crowd. I did this and actually sold a couple of things in ADVANCE of the sale. Driving up demand also helped me get higher prices!!

10. Never underestimate the power of old school marketing– On the first day, we went almost 2 hours with very little traffic (after the first morning rush). We made some quick “Yard Sale This Way (arrow)” signs and posted them on nearby busy streets. Within minutes, we were flooded!

We didn’t sell everything we needed to, but we got the room cleared out and we’re finished with the repairs… so I’d call that success. We’re already two steps closer. Next week, we’re getting B’s new furniture and then it’s time for the big move. We’ll finally have a room for baby, with (hopefully) 7 weeks to spare!

What are you doing to get ready for baby? Do you have any additional Yard Sale advice to share? We’re all ears!