our adoption yard sale fundraiser

I’m writing you on the other side of our adoption yard sale fundraiser and we’re exhausted hahaha it was such a large event and we went big but we also were so blessed and raised $2,635 towards our adoption.

But let’s back up to when Aaron & I were discussing fundraiser ideas. A yard sale was one of the first ones we mentioned and we instantly knew we would do. A fellow adoptive mama I’m in contact with had one and raised almost $10,000 so I knew it would be profitable and worth our time.

Starting in February, I posted a couple FB groups I’m in and said,

Hey Mamas. 👋🏻 We’re adopting & will be having several yard sales to help with fundraising.

If you’re wanting to get rid of stuff & trust it’s going to a good cause, DM me and we can connect.

Over the next solid month and a half, I regularly met up or went to people’s houses to collect donations, usually shoving it in my van like a Tetris game along with my four kids.

I was originally storing it in Spencer’s bedroom and our guest room, but it quickly filled up and overflowed to our dining room.

Thankfully, my father-in-law let us borrow a covered trailer he has and that became the new storage space for all donations. I filled that sucker up to the top AND STILL had stuff inside my house.

Our home isn’t near high traffic, so we reached out to a friend and asked if we could use their business’ parking lot. They were so generous and said it wouldn’t be a problem, so we set a date and started casually sharing and amping up for the big day.

The week leading up to the yard sale was hectic and stressful. I had several people make last minute donations which meant multiple pickups or drop offs every day AND I was trying as best I could do think through logistics (signs, change, helpers, etc.). Unfortunately, this is Aaron’s busy season at work so he’s been working overtime which meant this became something I headed up.

You all know my heart is always to be authentic and real – the week before the sale was HARD. Emotionally straining and stressful. I made mistakes which were graciously fixed day-of and I criticized myself harshly but, I’m also very proud of the hard work and sacrifices the kids and I made.

Anyway, when the big day arrived, it was HECTIC! Despite the prep-work my sister-in-law and father-in-law helped us with the night before, we were still up past 10pm getting all the stuff to the lot to minimize moving it in the morning. And oh my gosh, even with getting there at 5:30am, we were still swarmed with donations that I don’t know if we ever fully set up…

We were pulling boxes out and unpacking well into the late-morning and most of the clothes never even saw the outside of the trailer (we ended up treating it like it’s own section and people just went inside to shop clothes.

The time at the sale itself was mainly spent interacting with people, telling them pricing and unboxing, rearranging or straightening up.

A few key things we did that I think worked really well were:

1. I posted a flyer in all the Facebook groups (community pages, yard sale groups, a couple mom groups I’m active on, etc.) the Monday before. I also included our FB adoption group & event page so they could easily share the info if they wanted to with their socials.
2. day of, I did a LIVE video in our FB group talking about the sale and walking through the sale, highlighting a few big items and shared it on my personal profile as well. I did this at 8am and 12pm.
3. I took pictures and posted them on the FB group, then shared that post (blasted it really) on all the groups I had posted the flyer in earlier that week. this allowed people to see the post but also easily join our group if they wanted to.
4. we told people they could fill up a WalMart bag of clothes for $7 (which towards the end we lowered to $5)
5. we didn’t price anything. there were a few big items I had a set price on and I just told people when they asked. otherwise, we just told people it was all for a fundraiser and we’d cut them a deal. most people said our pricing was fair and some paid more than what we had asked for, saying it was a donation. we really only negotiated a few times.
6. we brought our merch and shared how we had designed it and actually sold a few.
7. we had 3 key people as “pricers” – me, Aaron and my father-in-law.
8. I had my Venmo, CashApp and PayPal username (it’s all the same, which helped) on a letter board that was right next to the main checkout spot.
9. I had another letter board that told people to join our FB group to follow our journey and I made sure to mention it again when we wrapped up the exchange.
10. I brought food for us to eat / snack on during the sale and we had a case of water. It was so helpful to have that already prepared (hey-o WalMart deli) for easy nurishment. I also had pizzas at home to toss in the oven because I knew cooking a big meal wasn’t gonna happen and I didn’t want to eat out.
11. when we got home, I still had people commenting on the sale asking if we’d be open again the next day. I told them, “unfortunately, we were one day only. But we’ll be reopening May 6th & 7th.” this sale will be in a different location and I think having another option coming up is helping catch those stragglers.

Now onto the kiddos – the girls were terrific and we highly praised them throughout the day and when we got home as we got ready for bed. They knew (from lots of previous conversations) what was happening and why we were doing it so they were fully on board and excited to help and even asked to set up their own little shop – Rylie’s Lemonade (she wanted to sell lemonade and said Paisley could sell cookies) and Emmaline’s Florals (she wanted to sell flowers). It was too precious to deny so my sister-in-law helped make them a little booth.

They also played with all the yard sale toys and willingly let other kids take them if they wanted to buy them.

Spencer was incredible as well and such a trooper. The girls rode in with my sister-in-law about 30minutes before we opened but Spencer was awoken at 4:45am and forced to be outside with us while we set up. He saw the sunrise and got to wear socks for gloves until it warmed up.

Aside from his two naps (I brought the pack’n’play and put it inside the building for him to keep his nap times) he was in his carrier working the sale with me. He never fussed (except when he was ready to eat or saw someone with food) and was full of smiles, kicks and coos.

Although we sold A TON of stuff, we still had lots to pack back up and reload. It took us two hours to fully tear down and load up.

We made sure to count the money we had profited so we could take a family picture –

$2,635 from our yard sale today 🎉

We are amazed. Thankful. Blessed!

People flooded in to shop & support our adoption and we left sunburned & exhausted. 😅

THANK YOU to those who spent part of your day with us & contributed to our family. 🤟🏻🙂

When we got home, we were beat. We pointed our each other’s sunburns (or heavy tans haha) and ate some pizza, reminisced on the day while we bathed and went to bed.

If you’re needing a fundraiser, I HIGHLY encourage a yard sale. It is a lot of work. A lot of work and a lot of time and a lot of prep but it is so worth it and you’re given a high return when it’s done correctly.