Last weekend, I did it! I took the plunge into the deep end and didn't look back. I planned to have my first yard sale the following weekend.
My husband and I have become pack rats....at least where it comes to keeping kids' stuff. What if we have another baby? We don't want to start from square one all over again. Little did we realize how many baby showers we'd be thrown for each child, the birthday and Christmas presents they'd get and the hand-me-downs we'd receive over the years. So, I braved the attic and 100+ degree temps. (not to mention heat index, which made it feel like a million degrees) and cleaned out the attic. Toys, clothing and gear for newborns to toddlers. We had so much stuff....literally 10 YEARS worth! I spent the ENTIRE week sorting clothes and pricing toys.
So, yesterday was the big day. We made and put out our yard sale signs. We advertised on 3 different local websites. I even encouraged my Facebook friends to come by. While we got some traffic and $120 more than we woke up with, we really didn't sell much, given the amount of stuff we had. We ended up giving the clothes and toys to Goodwill....not before sorting, counting and itemizing first, as what we had went above and beyond the $500 deduction Uncle Sam allows on taxes. We still have the bigger items. My husband put it all on Craigslist and actually sold an item today. So, all in all so far, we earned $1000 in sales and tax deductions. Next time, however, I'm just going the Goodwill route....
