Garage sale finds

So I went out for 3 hours this morning to garage sales and spent $23 and this is what I came home with!!For $1 each I got a dry erase calendar/cork board that I have looked at hundreds of times at Target, a photo album for baby Isaac's pictures, a cute pair of Keds slip ons for me and three game cube games for Nathan (and Greg!)
Above I found a patriotic table runner and 4 placemats ($2), a bathing suit for me and before you get all grossed out, it still had the tags from Kohls on it ($2), two fall Winnie the Pooh flags($1), a candle (.25), a tee shirt for me ($1), 2 Ralph Lauren shirts for Isaac ($2) and A RL sweater for Abby or Esther ($2)
I also got the cutest snowman shower curtain and hand towels for $4! That is a grand total of $21.25!!! Her is all my treasures together!
The table runner and placemats being put to use.
Cute little Keds!
The bathroom!! And before I get a " hello it's July!!" I love snowmen and it matches my walls and rugs so I went ahead and pulled out some rustic looking snowmen from my winter decorations and decided to go with it! I love it and think it is just tooo cute so what if I am already ready for the first snow!! :>) For $4 I can change it without any trouble!
The one thing I am wishing I would have bought was a cute primitive chandelier for our dining room, the price was only $10 and she said to make her an offer..Man! I wish I would have! Really something like that..I should have bought it and if I got it home and didn't like it, I could have sold it in a yard sale and broke even or made some money.

I have had so many people say they wished they could yard sale but just don't have any luck with it...well, here are some pointers I have learned along the way from my mother in law who is the QUEEN of yard sales!!

1. Go early or not at all! 7AM is best, but at the very least 8AM. If you wait any longer than that it is picked over.

2. Only take the cash you want to spend. That will keep you from buying stuff you really don't want

3. Look for community sales in your paper or on Craig's List and go there first. More sales and less travel time. Also, if you are only going on a Saturday, check to see if they had a Friday sale. If they did, it is probably picked over.

4. Haggle. I am still not very good at it, but I will try if there is a lot of stuff I want, like kids clothes , and they are $1 each, I will pick out 10 and ask if they will take $7. Or if something is $5, I will say will you take $3

5. Don't waste your time at church or school sales. They are mostly the junk people didn't sell at their own garage sale and donated.

6. After I while you can almost know what people have to offer by looking at their house so if you want:

Antiques: Look for older brick ranchers with basements..usually older people or empty nesters whose parents have died and they have too much stuff. Unfortunately these houses usually have more junk too!

Kids clothes, toys, baby stuff, exercise equipment, bikes, golf clubs: Look for big subdivisions with smaller houses and yards. This is usually people in their mid 20's or 30's with school age kids and more stuff than room in their garage.

Nicer household goods, linens, china, wall art, flower arrangements, high end junior clothes: This is the big brick houses with the bigger yards. People whose kids are in high school or college and they finally have enough money to change their house decor.

Now...go out and find some treasures next weekend!!