Yard Sale Etiquette

What’s the right way to barter at a yard sale? Is it fair for “Early Birds” to get the bargains? And what’s the right way to price items? Here’s the basics of yard sale etiquette.

Just call me the Miss Manners of garage sales.

You see, I believe there’s a certain moral and ethical code governing the sacred act of selling and buying secondhand stuff. Contrary to popular belief, a yard sale is not an anything-goes, no-etiquette-needed free-for-all. As in any social situation, there are certain things you do or avoid doing in order to be polite.

Being avid yard sale shoppers, my husband, Michael and I often run across examples of bad manners, both by shoppers and by sellers. Here are a few of the faux pas we’ve seen that could have been easily avoided by the simple practice of good yard sale etiquette.

Buyers’ Blunders

Being an “Early Bird”
If the paper says the sale starts at 7a.m., don’t show up at 6 or don’t drive by the night before in hopes beating the other shoppers to the bargains. Yard sale shoppers who peer in garage windows with flashlights or knock on doors at 5:30 a.m. give the rest of us shoppers a bad name.

Not Respecting the Seller’s Property
Walking unnecessarily through the yard, stepping in flowerbeds, and blocking neighbors’ driveways are definitely in poor taste. If your children accompany you to a yard sale or garage sale, see to it that they respect the seller’s property as well.

Carrying Only Large Bills
While it is the seller’s responsibility to have adequate change, producing a $20 bill for a 25-cent purchase is extremely inconsiderate. Save small bills and change throughout the week for your Saturday yard sale trip.

Loud or Obnoxious Behavior
Just because the seller is up early doesn’t mean his neighbors are. Driving a noisy vehicle or speaking and laughing loudly will not endear you to the seller. Aggressive haggling or obnoxious negotiating tactics aren’t welcome, either.

Not Respecting Other Buyers
If you want to buy a large item or more items than you can carry, ask the proprietor to mark the item or start a “pile” for you in an out-of-the-way place. It is rude to claim items as yours while you continue shopping if you haven’t made any effort to let the proprietor and other shoppers know you intend to purchase them.

Sellers’ Slips

Not Pricing Items Clearly
I don’t know which is worse: not pricing items in a way that is easily understandable or not pricing items at all. Buyers shouldn’t have to work at figuring out the prices. If your pricing system is too confusing, some shoppers will get frustrated and leave without making purchases.

Accommodating Early Birds
Allowing early shoppers to get the bargains is unfair to the shoppers who respect your wishes. When sellers accommodate early birds, they only provide positive reinforcement to this inconsiderate behavior. Politely but firmly tell early birds that the sale is not open for business yet.

Trying to Sell Used Stuff at “New” Prices
If your stuff means that much to you, take it to a consignment store or sell it through a classified ad or on eBay. Yard sale shoppers are looking for bargains, not prices barely below what you’d find at a discount store.

Being Careless with Yard Sale Preparations
For the buyer who thinks she has found the item of her dreams, there is nothing worse than hearing, “That’s not for sale!” Remove things you do not want to sell from the sale area (lawnmowers, bicycles, wagons, etc.). If that is not possible, cover them with an old sheet or dropcloth, or use masking tape to rope off areas that are not part of the sale.

Not Taking Down Old Signs
After the yard sale is over, your yard sale signs are litter that should be disposed of just like any other garbage. Carelessly leaving old signs up ad infinitum is extremely inconsiderate to both shoppers and neighbors who must look at your weather-beaten signs for months to come.

If you have ever violated any of these social graces (as either a seller or buyer), take heart. Yard sale fanatics are a forgiving bunch. Just make a silent vow that in the future, you will always be on your best bargaining behavior.

About the Author: Nancy Twigg is the editor of Counting the Cost, a free twice-a-month e-zine devoted about simple, frugal and abundant living. She is also a popular conference and retreat speaker as well as the author of two books. To learn more about Nancy’s work, visit CountingtheCost.com

Additional Garage Sale Information:

Garage Sale Checklist
Use our garage sale check list to make your next garage sale successful and profitable.

Microsoft Office Templates for printable garage sale signs, garage sale flyers and postcards.

CBS News: Having a Successful Garage Sale
Information on what to sell, how to organize a garage sale, and pricing garage sale items.

Spring cleaning goes beyond normal everyday cleaning. It’s a major project of home revitalization: to make everything new by removing dust and dirt, to make sure everything is in good repair, and to put things in order, so that you will have everything in your household in working condition for the coming year.

Here are some tasks that are traditionally included in a major spring cleaning:

- Put away winter clothes and take out spring and summer clothing.

- Sweep and vacuum floors, walls, and corners.

- Wash floors and carpets.

- Clean window panes, sills, and frames. Replace thick winter curtains that keep heat in with light summer curtains that allow breezes through. Remove storm windows, hang up screens.

- Brush or vacuum stuffed furniture and remove spots.

- Wash every surface in every room that has accumulated dust or grime.

I like to finish a spring cleaning by bringing in loads of spring flowers and placing them in vases in every room.

USE NONTOXIC & NATURAL CLEANERS

With so much cleaning going on, I always make sure to use cleaning products that are simple, safe, and eco-friendly.

When choosing a cleaning product for a specific job, I use the least-toxic, most-effective product, in the smallest effective amount.

Cleaning products are the only household products regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission under the 1960 Federal Hazardous Substances Labeling Act, which requires products that contain hazardous chemicals to carry warning labels. In general, it is best to avoid using products that say “Danger,” “Poison,” or “Warning,” on the label.

Many safer products carry the “Caution” label, even though they are acceptable to use. Fortunately, the least toxic products voluntarily disclose their complete ingredients on the label, so you can determine for yourself the safety of the product. There are even cleaning products now made with organically-grown ingredients.

Nontoxic cleaning actually requires very few specialized ingredients. I do all of my cleaning with a squirt bottle of fifty-fifty distilled white vinegar and water, liquid soap, and baking soda. For laundry I use a natural soap powder and chlorine-free oxygen bleach. Other substances I have on hand for occasional cleaning needs are salt, lemon juice, borax, and chlorine-free Bon Ami scouring powder.

See Homemade Surface Cleaners for a variety of homemade surface cleaner recipes using natural, non-toxic ingredients.

SIMPLIFY YOUR CLEANING

While scrubbing away at your spring cleaning, there are two things you can resolve to do in the coming year that will make cleaning easier. These will also reduce the amount of cleaning products you use, saving resources and money. But the most important thing to me is that they save time and reduce the amount of cleaning needed.

First, I incorporate preventive maintenance. I put a cookie sheet on the rack under a casserole that is likely to spill over, for example, which pre-empts the need to scour baked on food from the oven. If the casserole spills, the cookie sheet can be effortlessly soaked clean in a few inches of water in the kitchen sink.

I also keep in mind the adage “A stitch in time saves nine,” which means if you take that first stitch to fix the tear before it gets bigger, you’ll save having to make nine stitches later. In cleaning, this translates to wiping up the spill when it happens, cleaning surfaces before they are caked with dust and grease, just cleaning as you go while there’s not much to clean. It’s only when we don’t clean that we may need harsh chemicals to tackle what would have been an easy job earlier.

About the Author: Hailed as “The Queen of Green” by the New York Times, Debra Lynn Dadd has been a consumer advocate for health and the environment since 1982. Visit her website for 100s of links to 1000s of nontoxic, natural and earthwise products, and to sign up for her free email newsletters.

Preparation is Half the Battle
If you have a large family (or lots of clothes!), sorting the laundry can be a daunting task all on its own. Sorting as you go not only ends the need for this part of the project, but also may encourage you to do laundry more often because it’s all sorted and ready to go! Use a multi-compartmented hamper or several laundry baskets and as you throw in your dirty clothes just drop them in the appropriate section (even kids as young as preschoolers can learn to do this — make it fun for them, give them a small reward (an extra 15 minutes of TV? staying up 10 minutes later?) each time they get everything in the right spot!)

Toss items that need dry cleaning into a special basket or bag as soon as you take it off. This way, when you are ready to go to the cleaners you can just grab them, rather than having to hunt for them in all the dirty laundry (ugh!)

Make a habit of always keeping a spare of laundry detergent, dryer sheets and whatever else you use regularly. That way you never have to drop everything and run to the store to complete your laundry (or use that as a reason to not complete the laundry…)

Put Away the Clean Clothes
Keep hangers and a folding hanging rack near the dryer. Save steps by putting hanging items directly on hangers rather than folding and toting them first. As you fold clean laundry, place items in baskets by person to simplify the process of putting it all away. Get everyone in on the act. Even small children can help put away some of their own clothes — socks, underwear, etc. Older kids can put it all away. If you share the burden, it’s not so overwhelming.

We know it’s hard, but go through your drawers and closets and purge things that are never worn. Putting laundry away is much faster and more pleasant if you don’t have to struggle to cram the clothes into an overstuffed space.

Set a side a small drawer or basket for socks that have lost their mate in the wash. Sooner or later the other sock will turn up and the pair can be put away with all the others.

Other Laundry Tips
Consider sprucing up and organizing the laundry area. A clean and well-organized space makes any task more enjoyable. Schedule set laundry days and stick to them. It’s amazing how much more you can get done when you have a schedule.

Short of inventing disposable clothes, laundry is here to stay, but these tips should make it quicker and a little more manageable and you will never have a morning with nothing to wear.

Copyright 2004 Bridget Messino
About the author: Bridget Messino is a Professional Organizer and co-owner of Clutter Free Living, Inc. Her work frequently appears on many Internet sites and on her own organizing site Clutter Free Living as well as in her monthly Home Organizing Newsletter How to Be Clutter Free.

Instructables has great step-by-step instructions to make a Literary Clock from an old book. A child’s book was used in this example, but how about an old textbook clock for a teacher, a Black Beauty clock for the horse lover, etc.?

Instructables also has a video tutorial, showing how to make the neat Recycled Book Lampshade, shown at right, or this interesting DIY project to make a paperback book into an ipod case.

Everyone needs a place to hide their stash, whether that be treasured jewelry, cash or, well, other stuff you want to hide from prying eyes or stealthy fingers. Make a Hollow Book Safe and slip it among the less-read novels on your bookshelves. Who will ever know?

Recycle several books at once when you make the DIY Network Stacked Book Lamp by artist and designer Alex Cobb. Use children’s books for a kid’s room, coffee table books for a table lamp for the den, or any books with pleasing spine designs that would look well stacked together.

Back to Instructables again for a wonderful way to revamp an old board book to make a Personalized Flap Book for Toddlers. This one will take a little time, since you need to get double prints of your photos, but the smiles will be worth it!

At right, a neat re-use for all those Reader’s Digest condensed books, or other similar-sized books that you’ll never be reading again - turn them into funky Stacked Book Table Legs; what could be more fitting for a library or study room?

Over at ThisAndThat, artist Jim Rosenau turns the whole concept of recycled books into a work of art. He doesn’t offer instructions, but will make bookshelves to order, and his gallery of beautifully finished pieces is well worth a look.

Finally, if you’ve just not ready to recycle or reuse your old books, donate any good ones to the thrift store or local library, or check out book swapping sites such as Paperbackswap or Bookmooch.

You can also let your books go free, releasing them into the world to take on a life of their own. It’s the brilliant idea behind Bookcrossing.com, and one that has so far been adopted by 720,165 people in over 130 countries. You just leave the book somewhere - in a coffee shop, or on a park bench, for instance, or anywhere it may find a new reader. If you register the release of your book at Bookcrossing you can then track the book’s journey around the world as it is passed on from person to person.

It’s so easy to accumulate a large collection of mismatched and worn-out linens that crowd shelves in heaps, so jammed together that when you tug for a towel or reach for that yellow sheet, everything comes tumbling down.

With these tips and strategies, whipping your linen closet into shape will be one of the easiest organizing projects you’ll ever tackle. And it’s an excellent way to feel that you have at least one organizing project completed and under control.

Sort, Purge and Organize
First, sort all your towels and sheets into categories to determine which are worth keeping and which should go. Suggested categories are “Keep”, “Toss” and “Donate.” Turn worn-out and thread-bare towels and sheets into rags or garage dust covers.

How Much is Enough?
Have you ever thought about how much is enough when it comes to linens. A guideline that I follow is that you don’t need more than three sets of sheets per bed and as few as three sets of sheets or bath towels, hand towels, and washcloths per person (more if you change towels daily.) This number gives you one set in use, one in the hamper, and one in the closet ready for action. You’ll need only one or two sets for guests (one on the bed and one in the closet).

Don’t Hoard
Resist the temptation to hoard extra sets of sheets and towels for emergencies. Honestly, what emergency could occur that you would need extras, sheets and towels that really just sit in a closet and never see the light of day? Use the one-in/one-out inventory rule to keep your inventory under control. When you acquire a new set, retire an old one.

Give your Linens Room to Breathe
There are few things more refreshing than the fragrance of clean sheets and towels. But if your linen closet is crammed full, you’ll actually cause the opposite to occur. Textiles experts indicate that air flow is important to the safe storage of most textiles. If linens are crowded without room to breathe, the fibers retain moisture, which attracts mold, mildew and possible permanent damage to the fabric. Experts recommend airing out your linens every three months to eliminate trapped moisture. If you find you have musty smells in your linen closet, experts suggest that you can chase away mustiness with an open container of baking soda, activated charcoal, or calcium carbonate.

Copyright (c) 2008 Simplified Spaces
Janet Nusbaum, owner of Simplified Spaces, Organizing Consultant and Coach, Senior Move Manager, Speaker, and author of ‘Mom, Can I Help Around the House?’ helps individuals, families and businesses to organize life and navigate transitions. To learn more and to receive Janet’s FREE special report “SHELF LIFE FOR 75 COMMON HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS”, to help you decide what to keep and what to toss, visit SimplifiedSpaces.net

Martha Stewart

More Tips to Organize Linens
MarthaStewart.com also has great tips on Organizing a Linen Closet, with specifications for shelf heights, storage of antique linens and Pest Prevention.

Caring for Antique Linens
For detailed advice on caring for antique linens and heirloom treasures, see the Smithsonian article on How do I store antique textiles at home?

To gently bleach discolored linen or lace, first wash it in cool water, using soap flakes or liquid soap rather than detergent. Then lay the piece flat, on a white cloth, in direct sunlight. Let the sun’s rays have a chance to work some magic; sometimes, this is all that is needed to whiten old lace or linen.

If sun lightening does not work, try our grandmother’s method of gentle bleaching - fill a large pot with
water, allowing plenty of room for the lace or linen to move freely. Add 1/2 cup of baking soda or washing soda, and 1/2 cup of salt. Bring to a boil, then simmer for an hour. After an hour, remove the fabric, rinse in cool water, lay flat and let dry.

Natural Fragrance for a Linen Closet
Women have tucked herbal sachets in amongst their linens for centuries. Make simple lavender sachets by enclosing lavender buds in a square of muslin; gather up the corners and tie with embroidery floss, yarn or string.