Ohio Valley Goodwill Industries
Serving Greater Cincinnati

3 Reasons to Skip the Yard Sale

After decluttering your garage, basement and closets during spring cleaning season, you’ve gathered multiple bags or boxes filled with things you don’t want anymore. The next question is, ” What should you do with all your stuff?”

One way to get rid of your unwanted clutter is to hold a yard sale. It sounds easy enough: you advertise for the sale, set up your supplies, and wait for customers to stop by and buy your stuff. But the truth is, yard/garage sales can take more work than they’re worth. This year, save time and effort by skipping the yard sale entirely!

White box with clothing inside and 'donations' written on front

Donations box

 

Here are three good reasons to ditch the yard sale and donate to Goodwill instead:

 Reason #1: Sales take a lot of prep work

Holding a yard sale is more time-consuming than it may seem. It can take weeks to prepare your stuff and advertise the sale, and then days to actually work the sale.

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a list of tasks you’ll have to do when hosting a yard or garage sale:

  • Gather up your items
  • Create signs and advertise for your sale
  • Set up tables/tents
  • Organize and display your stuff
  • Price your items
  • Get change from the bank
  • Work the sale (usually for hours at a time, on weekends!)
  • Negotiate with customers
  • Pack up all the leftover items

Save yourself the headache of a yard sale this summer by donating to Ohio Valley Goodwill! It will only take a few minutes to drop off your donations and make a difference in your community.

Reason #2: Parting with your stuff can be emotional

It’s natural to have an emotional attachment to your stuff. While decluttering your home, you already dealt with the challenge of letting things go. When you have a yard sale, you have to go through those emotions all over again “” and watch strangers walk away with your stuff! Taking your decluttered items straight to a Goodwill donation site will save you the emotional drain of parting with your items twice. You’ll also feel great knowing your things are going toward a good cause.

Reason #3: The return on investment is low

When all is said and done, yard sales don’t normally generate a ton of profit. Most yard sale items are priced at less than $1 each, so you’ll have to sell at least 100 items to make $100! When you think about all the hours you put into hosting a weekend sale “” easily 20 hours or more “”  earning $100 is the same as making only $5 an hour. Is that worth giving up your entire weekend?

Employment Coach with Young Woman

Employment coach

Instead of putting all that time and effort into a yard sale, donate your gently-used items to Ohio Valley Goodwill! Your donations support Goodwill’s important mission of putting people to work. The proceeds from the sale of donated goods make it possible for Goodwill to provide job skills training and employment services to individuals with disabilities and our nation’s veterans. Now that’s a very good thing!

Goodwill Logo: We Put People to Work!

We Put People to Work!

Even if you do decide to have a yard sale, chances are you’ll have some leftover items that didn’t sell. Rather than putting those extra goods on the curb, donate them to Goodwill! You’ll avoid having to re-clutter your closets and prevent your items from ending up in local landfills!

We make it easy to donate to Goodwill in Cincinnati. Find your nearest Goodwill donation site and drop off your donations today!