Neighborhood Yard Sale

We decided Friday afternoon to go ahead and pull out the boxes we had stored away that were marked for a yard sale one day after dinner Friday night.  I had 3 boxes in the garage in addition to a few other boxes that I found that hadn’t really been looked at since we moved to our house almost 3 years ago.  (I figured if it wasn’t something that I missed or used in that time it needed to go.)  I did go through my stockpile of toiletry items.  I filled up a laundry basket with razors, shampoo, conditioner, styling products, lotion, body wash, lip products, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and dental floss.  Those items went really fast!  I also pulled out some of my Glade candle tins and refills, and Glade Sense & Spray.  I had one lady look at all of my razors and ask if one of us was a vendor.  I told her no, that I am just a couponer.  :)

I looked back at my blog posts about shopping and determined about how much I spent on the items.  My general rule of thumb is not to pay more than $1 for those items (after sales, coupons, and store rewards).  Steve saw what I had pulled out and looked on-line for the average retail price of the items (then he was really impressed with how much I save) and suggested we sell the razors for $3 each or 2/$5.  I had a few disposable men’s razors that I marked $2 each.  I bundled the shampoo and conditioner together by manufacturer and type and sold those for $3 each.  I marked the toothbrushes, toothpaste, and dental floss for $1 each.  I also marked the Blistex and Nivea lip products that I had for $1 each.  I marked the lotions for $2 each.   I sold the Glade candle tins and refills for $1 each, and the Sense & Spray for $2 each.

I knew that part of selling everything is merchandising so Steve built an impromptu shelf with some scraps from installing shelves last summer and we pulled out the TV trays, a card table, and our patio table.  We also utilized the empty boxes by flipping them over and using them as small shelves.  I really think having the stuff off of the ground made it look a little bit more appealing.

We really didn’t have any big ticket items to sell.  We had a few wedding gifts that were still in the original box and had never been used that I pulled out.  (After almost 9 years it is time to let them go as well.)  At the end of the morning I pulled out a few things that I said I would keep if they didn’t sell and filled up the laundry basket.  The rest of the stuff was inventoried and went into the back of the car.  Steve took it up to goodwill.  It was nice to get rid of some of the boxes in the garage.

So, how did we do?  We ended up making about $230.  We talked about it and decided that we are going to give the money to our church.  Our church, like so many non-profit organizations is having trouble with funding.  We feel that we have already been blessed to have been given or to afford the stuff that we were able to sell so why not give it back to God.