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Summer is officially here, along with all of her activities. Father’s Day has come and gone, but we still have gardening, grilling and plenty of yard sales to look forward to. If you weren’t planning on having one of your own, maybe you should. Every household has some things they don’t need and most likely a lot of things they don’t use. With summer vacations or plans to pad those investment accounts, a little extra cash could help with that. If you’ve had yard sales in the past and found them to be either too much trouble or not very profitable, let me suggest a few things to help with those hurdles and get the $$ back into yard sale.

The biggest hassle about having a yard sale is prepping for it or sitting there all day while it’s going on. Both of these challenges can be overcome with a little organization.

You can make life easier on yourself by doing one of two things: marking slowly in advance or having a marathon marking day. By putting just a couple of boxes in the garage to put pre-priced items in, you can de-clutter and prep all year long. When the time comes for your yard sale, simply place your priced items in the right zones and you’re GTG. If you don’t like the thought of having those boxes or don’t have the space, you can have some friends over, make a pitcher of Margaritas and go for it. This same approach is the best way to get through a yard sale day as well. Make a competition out of seeing who can collect the most, with the winner getting a fixed dollar amount of free yard sale items. That will help cut costs and get rid of stuff at the same time.

With the challenges of getting ready for the sale out of the way, now comes the fun part. The best way to make sure your yard sale will make money is by advertising it. The old fashioned signs posted around the neighborhood just won’t cut it, even with balloons. Take advantage of the digital age that we live in and use the MANY free services the Internet offers. I am all over Craigslist and there’s also your local Reader, the Examiner and your town may even have a place to feature events on their website. Also, take advantage of the social media networks that you already use. Facebook has a wonderful event invitation system, Tweet about it for the week before as you are organizing (possibly even post photos of specific items) and send a mass text to everyone in your phone book.

Treat your yard sale as an event and you’ll find lots of different ways to make money. Do you have any friends who make jewelry, crafts or sell a product? Invite them to display their wares at your sale for a percentage of the proceeds. They get the benefit of being put in front of potential customers they otherwise wouldn’t have, get to use the advertising you have done for free and you don’t make money unless they do. All the risk, what little there is, is on you. Using other money-making activities helps ensure that your sale will generate $$. Consider a 50/50 drawing or raffling a big-ticket item. These events are great money-makers, especially if the raffled item was free, and the only real expense is buying raffle tickets.

Another great way to get more out of your yard sale is to work with an established organization, like a charity. You can do a good thing by donating a portion of the proceeds to a local animal hospital, homeless shelter or children’s organization and get access to their mailing list at the same time. If you help them out, they’ll take on a portion of the advertising themselves. If you know anyone who is musical or artistic and you can offer face-painting, caricatures or balloon animals for tips, that is another way to boost your yard sale. Once you sit down and think about it, you’ll find lots of ways to add income streams to your basic yard sale that won’t cost you much of anything. If you have friends that want to co-host one with you, all the better. Just make sure to agree on percentages and such before getting into it. Contracts save friendships, even at yard sales.

These things and so much more can be done with very little effort and even less cost to ensure that your yard sale makes it worth your while. The good old-fashioned yard sale is not dead; it just needs a little face lift. By offering more at yours than cast-off clothes and grandma’s dishes, you are setting yourself apart in “the market”. The hard core yard sellers can tell you that they hit the streets early, and if you can show them it’s worth their while, they might even be willing to pay a few extra bucks for “Priority Screening Passes”—letting them have access to the goods before the rest of the world.

This and all the ideas in this article have the benefit of lack of risk. Give it some thought beforehand, advertise well and get creative. Then, smile all the way to the bank.

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