If you ever look around your house and think “How did I accumulate so much stuff?!” it might be time to clean out your garage and have a yard sale. You have to sell your old junk before you can buy new junk, after all! In order to bring in the big bucks, check out these five tips to help make your yard sale a success.

Don’t Get Sentimental. Yes, that’s your grandmother’s cookware she put Thanksgiving leftovers in for 40 years. But absolutely nobody cares. Buyers will see a used piece of Tupperware and won’t be willing to pay extra for your memories.  Make sure to price according to what the item is and not how you feel about it.

Use Common Sense. A yard sale is not for items that should be headed to the trash. You don’t want to be that person who tries to sell “slightly” used boxers or a deck of 38 playing cards. If you can’t picture the item anywhere but the dumpster, go put it there.

Try and Sell Everything. People buy weird stuff. You never know if someone else has the same fascination with cookie jars in the shape of windmills that you used to. If you are planning of getting rid of it, then it can’t hurt to try and sell it. (This rule, of course, does not trump the one above. “Weird stuff” still doesn’t mean “slightly” used boxers.)

Lay it All Out. It may be easier for you to have a box filled with items that are all $5. However, your customers may find the thought of bending over and digging through a box exhausting. Use a table so that all of your former prized possessions — and their prices — can be properly on display.

Don’t Forget to Tell People About Your Sale. Your vision of making a ton of money isn’t going to happen if nobody buys anything. Make sure to tell your friends and family and put flyers in neighborhood mailboxes. Also, don’t forget to put signs up on street poles; they’ll probably stay up for a solid month after your yard sale is over.

If the thought of running your own yard sale is overwhelming, you can always see how some experts do it at The World’s Largest Yard Sale on Saturday, September 22, at the Erie County Fairgrounds in Hamburg.

Contributed by Megan Ziemianski

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