Yardsale Success Part I...

Every year, since my twins were colicky infants, I have gone along with my entire family to Gatlinburg Tennessee for a fall getaway. Initially, my dad would fork out the cash to cover most of my expenses. But several years ago, after 911 and the stock market crashes, that halted. Sadly for me, an at home mom with minimal income I had to come up with some clever solutions to raise the money for a trip I wasn't willing to give up.

My dad's neighborhood has traditionally held an annual yard sale gala every second weekend in September since I was a small child. This is no typical yard sale event. People come from all over the state of Kentucky and the neighborhood folks take full advantage. Some people cook hot dogs and brats, other's provide doughnuts and coffee, my own children have set up tremendous bake sales with much success.

And I use the proceeds of my yard sale earnings to partially fund our annual Gatlinburg trip. Last year I set a record and earned $600. I'm going to share with you just how I do this.

Again, I'm not type A, so I don't care if my house is a disaster for a day or two. So let me show you just what I have to endure for at least a couple of days.

This is a small section of my downstairs. I start with collecting everything I've packed away over the last year and spread it out onto the floor and spray it with Febreze. This gets the *boxed away* odors out without causing me another weeks worth of laundry to do. Then I situate myself in the middle along with my handy dandy yard sale kit.

Here are the keys to my success. I'll explain more in a bit.

• Tag Gun
• Retractable Sharpie
• Print out tags that are super cute (see images below)
• Hangers, lots of 'em
• Vibrant signage
• Extra large paper clips

My tag gun is my best friend this time of year. Anyone wanting to achieve a successful yard sale MUST label all of their items. People will just walk away if they are not labeled or try to negotiate a price that is unlikely unfair. I got my idea for tag gunning my children's clothes several years ago when my Mother of Twins Club made it mandatory for everyone selling in their bi-annual yard sale event to have things tagged with a tag gun. Although I've only shopped at this event I found this extremely helpful and professional. So I have stolen this idea and made a few enhancements. Tag guns are extremely cheap. I think I got mine on eBay for about $5.00.

A RETRACTABLE sharpie is best for labeling the prices and sizes on each tag. The bold lettering looks professional and I suggest retractable because putting a lid back on a marker every single time you mark an item is exhausting.

Ultra cute tags. This is new this year for myself. In the past I've simply just cut a piece of index card into half and just wrote on it the price and size. This year I've gone a bit further and created some adorable tags.

Here are a few examples of my tags for my clothing. In truth I can't tell you if people will be excited about the tags or simply think I'm a psychopath idiot who definitely has no life. So I will update that in Part III (yes, it's gonna take 3 parts for my yard sale tips!) Nevertheless, my tags are definitely appealing to at least myself!

Hangers. I never toss out a hanger. I love all hangers. Every hanger that I get with my kids stuff I save. And I use hundreds for my clothes. Clothes on hangers sell much better than those tossed onto a table or into boxes. Last year, for example, after the first day of the yard sale I organized my items. Since I had available hangers (I always take my hangers back) I went through some of my boxes of stuff and began hanging up stuff. The funny thing is that in the box I priced the items for 50 cents. When I hung them up I priced them for $1.00. And they sold.

Signs. People need direction. When you go shopping in a store there are signs for everything. This rack is Hannah Montana, this rack is on sale, this rack... I separate all of the stuff I can not put onto hangers into individual boxes. Everything in the boxes are tagged but I also place a sign above the box with 2 paper clips letting people know what is in there before they start to dig around. Stay tuned for part II, I will show some of my signs.

Pre-Written Notes...

What would be really misfortunate about this blog is if it were to somehow come off as displaying me as a type A, Brea Vandecamp like personality. This couldn't be further from the truth. I'm more like a type C-. My house is generally a mess, I'm at least 3 days behind on laundry and sometimes we eat cereal for dinner. However, I find that every little bit helps, so I don't mind offering up some tips that help me, the loser mom on the block who doesn't participate in all of the PTO events.

My daughters are generally bus riders, except for once a week when they are picked up by their wonderful step-mother (no, it's not an oxymoron, she is really great to my kids.) After more than a year of this I still have the obligation of sending in a letter for each child stating that they will be a car rider. Thanks to the days of home printers I can plan ahead and print out a month's batch of letters at a time and have them ready to send in Wednesday with just the date lacking.

This also allows me to get an extra 5 minutes of sleep PLUS an additional 5 minutes of shoe finding time.

Organizing Toys...

I vaguelly recall a time when I had no toys scattered about my home. At one point I actually went to the store and bought some tinker things for my babies to play with. And once they were finished I would place them into a basket and neatly tuck it away beside my living room couch. Then Christmas came, and birthdays and a couple more kids. Toys quickly invaded my home like zombies invade shopping malls.

There is no true solution to the toy problem. In the beginning I would include "The only gift we request is your presence" on every birthday invitation, but it was always ignored. In my situation we generally get duplicates of everything. I have 3 daughters so of course they need 3 of the same exact barbie doll. My son, he gets the Incredible Hulk, who gets to marry Barbie. So our house can be overcome with toys, unless I take control first.

A couple of years ago I saw a Super Nanny episode (I'm not a fan) in which the Nanny helped to organize a family's living room's toy problem by investing in about 20 big blue tupperware tubs and tossing the toys in each. Maybe she even seperated them according to color, but I was astounded. This very idea is exactly why our homes turn into a tornado invaded toy store within a matter of minutes. When a kid is looking for something to do, something to play with, they are overwhelmed with sooo many things. And when everything is tossed into bins they have to start digging and tossing and dumping just to find what they want, only to realize that they don't want any of what's in *that* bin. So they carry on to the next.

I would be lying if I said that I had the solution years ago. In fact, only about a year ago did I finally figure out what is the best way to handle the toy factor.

First thing to do is to watch an episode of Clean Sweep. This is always motivational for getting rid of that half chewed up stuffed animal (from the dog, not the teething infant). Get a couple of bags, one for trash and one for Goodwill, and go to town.

I have a large toy room, with 2 closets. I probably have more toys in the closets than in the actual toy room. The closets are secured like Fort Knox, with the idea that if the toy room is clean then they may check out a favorite toy. Things like Lincoln Logs and Lego's are locked away.

I'm not terribly cruel. We have many other toys that they have access to as well. Now is a good time to let me introduce you to my BFF: The Cubbie!

The majority of our toy collection is now located within the safety of these colorful little boxes. We have labels for each, including Kitchen Toys, Boy Toys, Girl Toys, Tools & Building Supplies, Doctor Equipment, Notebooks & Workbooks & Coloring Books, Arts & Crafts, Playhouse Toys, etc. This is also helpful for teaching sitewords. My 4 year old son can read several of these and those he can not he knows the color.

Another benefit of this is clean up time. When the kids go into destructive mode and choose to dump everything out, which is infrequent now that they know the consequences, I simply designate specific cubbies they are responsible for refilling.

Now we can take it a little further for those who are feeling a bit sassy. My other bestfriend is the quart sized zip lock bag.

For those collections that you just can't figure out why you have, such as Mr. Potatoe Head's playdough thingamagigits, put it in a bag before you put it in a cubbie. The note I have to this particular cubbie says "Toys In Bags Warning, if it is not in a bag do not put it in here, go find the bag it belongs in and then return." This works well as long as one particular child is not completely alone in the toy room, at which time they will just blame the mess on someone else.

As for those big blue tupperware tubs, keep one. For everything big, and for those days that you just can't stand looking at the mess anymore. Toss everything into it and give the kids a couple of days to find a place for their toys before you create an eBay auction. Sit on the couch, kick your feet up and laugh.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

I know, I shouldn't say it, but.... Christmas is around the corner. About 4 months away. Start saving your money now. I bought my first gift the other day, and for those who are a bit crafty, start investigating some new clever hand made gift ideas. Pass them on to me if you wish and I'll share with the world.

Birthday Party Solutions

Gone are the days of expensive birthday party celebrations. Maybe because of the economy, or maybe because of the discovery of the ridiculousness behind spending several hundred dollars just to get the chance to sing Happy Birthday to my child.

A bit more than 8 years ago my ex husband and I extravagantly celebrated with our entire friends and family network that our twin daughters were turning one. This was probably more of a celebration for ourselves, but nevertheless we spent a lot of money. Not only that but I spent many hours cutting and crafting and scrapping 50 hand made “Survivor” themed invitations. And for those friends who helped us through it all, from sitting with us in my hospital bed rest room for Survivor Island Thursday’s to those who took our infant twins for an overnighter, I made certificates of appreciation.

Even after that first celebration of birth’s the birthday party madness continued. Slowly, 8 years and a couple of kids later, I’m catching on. We’ve done it all. Chuck E Cheese, Bowling, Rent A Jumper, Bounce House Party Centers, Inflatable Water Slides, Slumber Parties, etc. The most expensive cost in the upper $400 range. How does one justify this? Easy. “They are only (insert age here) once.”

So I challenged myself recently. The twins were turning 8. What was the least amount I could spend on their birthday party? I’ll tell you the answer in a moment. In the mean time here are a few of my money savvy solutions:

*Party Sharing. Yeah I know, twins share parties anyway. But this year I threw in my niece (age 9) as well. The family was going to have to attend both parties anyway, so we just included her and shared some of the expenses.

*Home Made Cakes: My kids were a bit ticked about this one at first. They quietly pouted about wanting a Hannah Montana/High School Musical/ Camp Rock/Ashley Tisdell birthday cake, but I promised them I would make the icing their favorite colors. I’ll share some cake making ideas from my very amateur self in the future.

*Dollar Store Deals: In all we had about 12 children attend our party. In the past, Chuck E Cheese charged me $5.00 a gift bag for each of our guests. This year I hit the dollar store and bought 9 light up tiara/jewelry sets and 3 target practice toys. At a dollar each I saved a ton. While there I picked up the party supplies. Yea, granted they don’t have matching sets of everything, but be imaginative. Mix and matched birthday items are more festive than a single design anyhow.

*Be Crafty!: My 4 year old son was adamant about his twin sisters having a pin-ya-tee-a. So I caved and we began our search for a fun and affordable piñata. To my shock those things are costly. A Hannah Montana/High School Musical/ Camp Rock/Ashley Tisdell piñata costs about $25-$30 at Wal-Mart. Gasp. That was not going to happen simply because that was 100% more than what I had spent on the whole party. So we improvised. I saw a cool Spiderman piñata on clearance for $7.00. I was stoked. Yes, my girls were again devastated and sure to be traumatized if they had friends over only to see a Spiderman piñata, but they didn’t know what I had in store. With a little bit of card stock, some left over tissue paper and some cute pictures of the birthday trio I transformed our piñata into something spectacular.

*Use the family talent: My sister happens to teach 2nd grade. Her husband owns a talent center in which he also has coached my daughters in gymnastics. Therefore these two are amazing with children. Their water game creations were enough to keep the children (and the adults) in laughing mode for 2 solid hours.

The grand total of my party? $60.00

• Dollar Store Party Favors: $13.00
• Dollar Store Party Supplies: $8.00
• Home made birthday cakes: $12.00
• My part of the food and drinks:$20.00
• One revamped “pin-ya-tee-a”: $7.00

And in the end my kids were excited about their party and even gave me a shout out for having made their birthday cakes and the pin-ya-tee-a! Birthday party success.

Cleaning House For A New....

I know I'm not alone. Us women like to clean our houses for that new special something. Whether it is a rug or a lamp, we want our new item to be welcomed to an inviting environment. Okay, who am I kidding. We actually clean the house and reward ourselves with that special item.

I'm cleaning up this poor, pathetic, neglected, lonesome blog. I'm redressing her with beautiful new clothing (aka Skins) and now I am prepared to dedicate myself to inspiring others.