Benefit Yard Sale

There are so many ways to raise money for causes.  As everyone knows, I have become a huge supporter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.  This Foundation is awesome!  They have a walk every year and the money that is raised in that state stays in that state.  This year my goal for the walk is $1,000.  I am hoping to surpass that, but that is my goal.  The only way I'm going to meet that goal is fundraising.  I always tell people what I'm doing and let them know they can donate online.  I love getting donations like this, but I also know that times are tough and if they are anything like me, they just can't spare that extra bit of change.  So, it's time to get creative.

I had a benefit yard sale a couple weeks ago.  I asked my friends, family and co workers to donate their stuff and all the money that gets raised goes to my walk.  As usual, people really stepped up and helped out so much!  Everyone has stuff they want to get rid of and it's easier to donate stuff than cash.  I made it easy for them!  I received some awesome stuff too!  You already saw the dresser, which I bought.  I also bought a skirt and a couple of purses and a sticker making thingy...shhhhhhhh.  Anyway, I had a lot of clothes (I had so many clothes I couldn't even put them all out on the first day), kids toys, exercise machine, glider rocker, tvs, shooting accessories, baby stuff, fish tank and so, so, so much more! 

The thing about yard sales, they are so much work, but oh so worth it.  The work starts weeks before the actual sale.  Asking people for their stuff, they bring it over and it gets stored in the garage.  Then more people bring their stuff so it all needs to be rearranged.  I must have rearranged my garage about 5 times before the sale just so I could squeeze my car in there.  I literally had inches to spare by the end!!  Then begging friends to borrow tables and a shade canopy since it's about 1000 degrees outside.

On the day of the sale I got up at 4:30 am and started putting stuff out in my driveway.  I had to drag my kids out there because I couldn't put the canopy up by myself...now that was an interesting thing to watch I'm sure.  I had people stopping at 5:30 am before I even had the signs out!  Then you have to put enough signs out that people can find you.  Not to mention taking it all down when the people stop coming...oh, and I had to do this twice!

Then the fun begins.  People haggle and deal trying to drive you down to even closer to nothing than you already are.  I had a big sign out saying what the money benefitted.  Some people just don't care.  Others were so amazing!  I had people pay extra and people just donate money.  I also had people thank me. 

The reason I love these kinds of fundraising events is because I get to meet people.  This is still a  sensitive subject and some are still not sure how to talk about it.  My putting it out there on a big huge sign gave them the opportunity they needed to start talking.  I heard their stories and was able to talk with them about the one they loved and lost.  The sister, brother, uncle, daughter.  I will be forever grateful to hear their stories and be able to know that little piece of such a personal part of their lives.

Thanks to generous donations and people looking for bargains, I sold almost everything.  I still had 6 bags of clothes left over and that was after selling probably 3/4 of the clothes that I had.  I had about 5 pairs of shoes left, a few purses and some odds and ends stuff.  All of the big stuff was gone!  I raised $508!  That is half way to my goal!  Thank you so much to those that donated, those that lent me stuff, those that bought and those that gave me moral support!  All of these things are so equally important!  I will be having more fundraising activities so watch for them!