My husband and I have been homeowners since the year 2012, and almost every year, I have had at least one yard sale in order to purge and clean out our spaces.
The problem I have run into with this is that we typically purge our kid’s rooms and other areas multiple times a year. While we donate most of our clothing to Corpus Christi Hope House, other things like home decor, toys, or really anything from the rest of our house would end up in our garage waiting for the next yard sale.
So while the inside of our home felt better, I was instantly overwhelmed when I stepped into the garage to see piles of things everywhere, collecting dust and just in the way. Normally, when I can no longer stand trying to comb through an unorganized and cluttered garage is when I decide it is time to have a yard sale.
Here where I live in Portland we actually have to purchase a permit in order to have a yard sale, it is not a huge expense but it is one extra step you have to take. In return, the city does provide you with the signs to put out and they will include your yard sale on their list of sales that people check to do their weekend thrifting. But honestly getting the permit is the EASY part!
Once you have your permit or you have decided to have a yard sale, then you have to start pricing and organizing the things that you want to sell. Then the day of, no matter how much you say “No Early Birds” it never fails that you will have people parked out front of your house just waiting for you to start bringing things out.
Typically I tackle the yard sales solo, and EVERY SINGLE time I will have men and women entering into my garage, as I drag out tables and items, trying to literally shop out of my husband’s tools and our personal items. It is always a little intimidating and stressful right out of the gate. Then I will typically have a small purse or satchel that I have some change in and keep the money that I make, and I am always a little nervous to be carrying around my purse of cash. It is pretty obvious while you are having a yard sale that cash is present and when you are alone it can feel a little scary at times.
It also never fails that here in Texas the day of your yard sale is going to be the HOTTEST day, meaning you are literally melting the whole day.
Recently I have gone on a decluttering mission in our house, you can read a little more about it here in my post::Downsizing Without Actually Losing Space.
The other day I spent a good portion of my day cleaning out and re-organizing our laundry room. Because we have spent the last few years using this room as one big junk room when I was done I have a LOT of things that would have usually ended up in the garage waiting for a yard sale.
But after all the hard work I did the last thing I wanted to do was just MOVE the clutter. So I put a giant box out on the curb and posted in our neighborhood group on facebook that it was FREE to the first person to get there. And it was ALL gone in minutes!
Again the next day, I tackled some of our kitchen cabinets that have been driving me crazy, and the items that we decided to part with I stuck them on the curb, made a post, and in minutes they were gone.
So while I am not making an extra $100-200 by having our yearly yard sale this year, I am getting the clutter OUT OF OUR HOUSE!!!!!
After these two days of decluttering, I realized that I no longer had the patience or the desire to hold on to things in the hopes of making a few bucks. Of course, if we have a really large item in good condition or something that was very expensive we will head to Facebook or some marketplace to sell them. But for the most part, when we decide to clean out an area we will start giving things away!
Because I am DONE WITH THE YARD SALE!!!
Holding on to things for months rather than purging them immediately no longer brings me joy or helps me in my quest to downsize the number of things we are filling our home with! I found that cleaning the space and immediately getting those things OUT OF THE HOUSE, was much more beneficial for my mental health and how I felt in the space!
