5 Tips For Displaying Yard Sale Items

For both visitors and sellers, a yard sale is a magical place where everybody’s day gets a little bit better! Unfortunately, not all yard sales are treated equally. If you’re planning on setting up a yard sale of your own and you’re nervous that people won’t come to browse your inventory, just remember: it’s all in the display.

Nobody wants their yard sale to flop, and we certainly want you to have the best experience possible, so here are a few tried and tested tips to make sure your yard sale is as inviting and friendly as possible!

1. Window shopping

Taking a stroll through the mall, you’re probably going to stop and explore a store if something catches your eye in the display—the same is true about your yard sale. If all of your things are hidden in boxes or tucked away in your garage, nobody is going to go out of their way to investigate what looks like a hoarder intervention meeting.

Instead, to draw visitors into your sale, make sure to clearly display items so that, at least some of them, are clearly visible to people passing by. One great way to do this is to set up furniture further out, since furniture at a yard sale is a notoriously good deal for both parties, and is big and flashy enough to grab somebody’s attention from meters away.

2. Eyes on the valuables

Another reason that makes furniture a great display item is that nobody’s going to run up and steal a couch…probably. Do set up flashy and welcoming items where they’re visible, but keep the more valuable and easier to lose items closer to you. We’d like to think that everyone visiting a wonderful community event like the yard sale would be strictly following the code of ethics, but you can’t be too safe!

If you’re selling small and valuable items like expensive watches and jewelry, try to keep those where you can see them. If they’re far away from your register, you might not be able to keep an eye on them if you get busy with sales. On the other hand, if someone is able to steal a couch from you without you noticing, we’re honestly more impressed than anything else.

3. Organize, organize, organize

Do you remember going straight to the toy section at the supermarket? The candy aisle? Believe it or not, this organizational technique isn’t just more convenient, it might help you sell more items!

It might be that someone visiting your yard sale stumbles upon one specific item that caught their eye, but chances are, if somebody is interested in one cooking utensil, they’re going to be interested in a few others. The same goes for clothes, for appliances, for books, for CDs…you get the picture. Group-like items alike. During pandemic times, this also helps keep different types of items separated from each other. There’s no reason the video games need to be next to the fishing rods—keep them at least 6 feet apart!

4. Prices clearly marked

Speaking of grouping items together, this is also a great way to easily mark prices! One of the most stressful things that can happen at your yard sale is being overwhelmed by people constantly asking for price clarifications, especially if you’re busy finishing up other sales. The obvious solution: mark prices clearly!

For individually priced items, marking the price with a sticker and a sharpie works wonders. Do be careful, though, about putting stickers on things like books and vinyl covers. Finding your favorite album for a few bucks is fantastic, having the $5 sticker tear off some of the design…not so much. Grouping items together (like books and vinyl) can also make pricing really quick and easy. You can put up a sign pricing all books at a couple of bucks, all shirts at the same price, all hugs for $1, etc.

5. Keep it tidy

Setting up a clean operation is one thing, but as visitors come to browse, things are inevitably going to get shuffled around. Soon enough, your opening tidiness isn’t going to mean much to guests later in the day if you haven’t put everything back in order every once in a while. Remember, you’re trying to attract new visitors all day long, not just at the beginning!

Tidying up also gives you a chance to sanitize regularly, something that’s important but easy to forget. Especially during COVID times, having a bunch of people sift through the same items all day long can quickly turn one of the greatest events known to humanity, the yard sale, to an unfortunate few weeks in quarantine.

At the end of the day, your yard sale should be an enjoyable event for you to get rid of some things you don’t need anymore, for guests to stumble upon some new treasures, and for the whole community to spend a little bit of time together. Jot these tips down to have the best show up you can and, of course, long live the yard sale!