I have 1 or 2 yard sales each year. With 4 kids, collections of "stuff" add up from time to time. In Pelham, we have to have a permit to have a sale, drop by city hall to get a permit for the days of your sale.

This can be done a day or two before your sale. The cost of the permit is $10.00 for two consecutive days. You DO want to get the permit because the police do random checks to see if a permit is present, if not....you gotta close it down.

I do my sales on Friday & Saturday and sometimes Sat & Sun. We usually do from 8 in the morning to 4PM each day but if it is dead on Sunday...we just shut it down around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. I have had more luck when we advertise in the paper.

You can list your garage sale on this site and similar sites such as the Birmingham News site in the "forum" section. I hang signs up all over the area with neon posterboard and nice big black arrows. I have made signs on small metal fence pieces and I have just put my street name not the address because I also have let other neighbors share these signs for their own sales.

Please don't put the signs out until early in the morning on the day of the sale and please be sure to collect ALL of your signs directly after the sale concludes. Seems that the new fad in signs is to take a nice size box and draw an arrow on the box and set it on the corners with a HUGE rock inside for weight. You can do the same with a paper grocery sack and put sand or a big rock inside.

Make sure that you have some cash on hand before the sale begins. Go to the bank the day before, make sure you have several one's, five's and a roll of quarters. I keep all of my prices even by .25 cents. I don't make anything .10 or .30, I keep it at .25, .50, 1.00 etc. That way you don't have to get dimes and other coins for change.

HAVE FUN AND GOOD SELLING !!!