T-minus 5 days

My hubby graduated from Seminary this weekend and is now officially on summer break before starting his PhD work in the fall. He had tons of work to do, both in his business and preparing to start his dissertation, but has volunteered to spend some serious time getting ready for the yard sale.

~ KID'S CLOSET ~

Today we hit the kid's closet ... again. The good news is that we finally finished our first pass of their closet. The bad news is that there is still so much stuff ... but the rest will have to wait until the next pass when we are actually packing.

We pulled out all the stuff we needed to sort through and put the kids down for their afternoon nap. Then we started purging.

My hubby tackled all the games. This box is full of games that we haven't played in a while, and can find easily when we return from Scotland in three years (but I might have to keep Boggle).


I started sorting through all the kid's stuff that was in the closet - puzzles, toys, books, art supplies and more. Of the two full storage containers, I cleared out an entire container. The remaining container is not full and most of it will be cleared out at the end of the summer when we move.

Here is the container of stuff that we are putting in the yard sale.

~ KID'S BEDROOM ~

In the kid's room, we have a metal trunk that is always full of stuff. It was my intention to clear out the trunk and put it in the yard sale. However, once the trunk was empty and sitting pretty in our living room, I decided that we didn't have to get rid of it.

This old army trunk has served us well through the years. I picked it up at a yard sale for $5 back in my college days. I've painted it several times -- right now its a well-worn navy blue. It has been used as a bench, as a coffee table, and for random storage. I took a good look at this sturdy, old trunk and realize I still really like it.

But we did clear out all the stuff that has been stored in it for the last several years.

~ PLAY AREA ~

When we finished the games and the trunk, there was still a sleepy silence from the bedroom and I decided to hit the play area again. This is my third pass of this area and I still only cleared out one bag full of toys. There are so many books and toys that we are not going to store for the next few years, but the kids need to keep busy for the next few months before the move.

Below is the final picture of all that we cleared out today.

We are quickly running out of time, but we have great progress. I have a list with a few more key areas to hit.

In the mean time, I better start thinking about how to set up this yard sale and how to price everything; and remember all those crazy details of yard sales like having change on hand.

Do you have any tips you learned about successful yard sales? Anything you did right (or wrong) or would do differently next time? Or maybe something you really liked (or disliked) about yard sales you have visited? Please share your wisdom and insight.