Every year our neighborhood holds a community yard sale one weekend. We all hold our own sale, but usually go around and visit one another and chat while browsing. Several of our neighbors have kids that go to school with mine, so I know most of them already anyway.
I had been sorting and cleaning out our buildings and house, so I had plenty of items I no longer needed. I priced them low and gave several people a deep discount, just to try and clear out as much as I could. I always include the kids in this part of it. You can bet that they will want something at one sale or another, so I think they should help earn some of that money by assisting with the yard sale activities.We had clothes to fold and dishes to rinse, toys to sort and much more, not to mention all that pricing!. I have the kids do as much as they can to help, yet we always end up finding more items we could have added later...ugh.
We made around $65 the first day, mostly from old video games and books. not bad for stuff they never use anyway. Of course, the gods had to return that by drenching us in rain before we had everything packed away. It only lasted a few minutes and didn't do too much damage thankfully. Today we slashed prices even more on many items. I had a customer who obviously was the caregiver for two other mentally disabled men. They were looking at video games and trying to decide what they could get with their allotted money. I could tell they didn't have enough,so I sold them at a crazy cheap price. They were games that had barely been played, but it made their day. Karma. We ended up earning enough to cover Pizza Hut for dinner the first night, grab a few things from a bake sale today and still make around $130.
The kids helped with the clean up and as always we set the remaining items on the curb with signs saying "FREE". Some of the neighborhood kids always want the toys but don't have money for them, so this is my way of solving that. One of them will ride by on a bike or scooter, see the boxes and tell the rest. Before you know it there are several kids scouring through them taking whatever they like.
I try to use this as a way to teach my kids several lessons. They learn about planning, value and pricing. They help set up and break down each day, so they are getting a work lesson. By giving discounts and setting out free boxes I try to show them that it isn't all about the money, sometimes just making someones day is enough. I think they did quite a good job this weekend, so I rewarded them with sushi and chocolate...two of their favorite things.
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