NFCCA
Official Website of the Northwood-Four Corners Civic Association in Silver Spring, Maryland
Official Website of the Northwood-Four Corners Civic Association in Silver Spring, Maryland
The Third Annual NFCCA Neighborhood Yard Sale will take place on Saturday, 18 May 2024, from 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM.
Rain date set for Sunday, 19 May 2024, 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM.
If you would like to participate in the yard sale, please use the link below to sign up. For those that sign up prior to May 10 at 7 PM, your house address and the top 3 categories of items you are selling will be added to the map/list or participating houses. If you miss the deadline and would still like to participate, please set up outside on your lawn! If you are only giving away free items during the yard sale, we ask that you sign up and we will annotate that under the categories. All participating houses will receive an emailed copy of the map a few days prior to the yard sale. You are able to make your own printed copies to hand out, keep for yourself, or have on display on your property! The map will also be listed on this website before the event.
Sign Up to SellQuestions: please reach out directly to Karen [kdonnelly119 at gmail dot com] and/or Julie [marjulst at comcast dot net].
Reminder, this is your OWN yard sale taking place on YOUR front lawn or property. You are able to sell or give away items as you so choose. This also goes for money collected from your sale.
Below we have provided our marketing strategies, tips for setting up a yard sale, and other information below!
Julie and Karen will be promoting the yard sale on various platforms (Nextdoor, yardsalesearch.com, Craigslist, Facebook, yardsales.net, garagesalefinder.com) as well as sharing on our NFCCA listserv and other places. Yard sale signs will be placed around the neighborhood. You are more than welcome to set out your own signs, but is it not required.
The yard sale begins at 9 AM, but do not be alarmed if you begin to see the “early birds” that will be on the hunt for a yard sale bright and VERY early! Best advice is to have your yard or driveway set up with your items by using tables, boxes, blankets or just sitting items on the ground shortly before 9 AM. It is strongly encouraged to set your items outside of your home, and not inside. You can organize your items by type, price, or any other way that is easy for you to know where it is! Examples of how to set up your items without tables are: two ladders and a couple of boards, Ziplock bags, display books in a plastic bin, assemble wooden pallets into a makeshift clothes or shoe display, and plastic crates.
Other items that may be good to have on hand on the day of the event: shopping bags, extension cord if you are selling electronics (customers will want to verify it works), trash can, tape, fanny pack to hold your money, mirror if you have clothes you’re selling, notebook to keep track of profits, black sharpie, and hand sanitizer.
Some best practices are to have balloons or streamers out on the front lawn to entice customers to stop by.
It is important to price everything! You can use sticky notes or pricing stickers or blank stickers (can be found at the Dollar Tree). You can also create different areas or sections based on price. There’s nothing worse than going to a yard sale and none of the items have a price tag! Customers begin to get frustrated by having to ask and it turns off the timid buyers. By clearly marking all your items, you will allow the buyer to make a better-informed buying decision. If you are giving items away, you can create an area that has a sign to say “FREE ITEMS.”
The yard sale is four hours long, beginning at 9 AM and ending at 1 PM. We do ask that you remain “open” the entire sale, and can stay “open” even after the sale has ended if you’d like. We encourage you to remind customers that participating houses can be found on nfcca.org.
We strongly encourage you to not allow customers into your home. Your items should be out on your front lawn or driveway. If customers ask to use the restroom, kindly direct them to Four Corners!
If you are selling books, we recommend using Bookscouter mobile app that allows you to scan ISBN barcodes of textbooks to find out the worth in seconds! eBay is another great source to help you with pricing items.
If you want to not charge for items, you are welcome to do so!
If you do not sell all of our items and would like to donate, there are many local charities that would be happy to take them off your hands. There are quite a few charities that offer free pick up. To name a few: The Salvation Army, Goodwill, AMVETS National Service Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, and The Arc. You can view their websites to see specifically what items they take.
Most customers will have cash on hand, while others will ask to use a different method of payment. If you are only accepting cash, you should have a small sign displaying that information. It is okay to only accept cash. Be sure to have change (go to the bank prior to yard sale to get out 1, 5, 10, and 20 dollar bills). For reference, I usually have around 100 dollars in cash to start my sale. If some of your items fall below $1, it is recommended to have quarters, too. Some of you may also accept payments such as zelle, cashapp, google pay, apple pay, venmo, or even check. Whatever you have available or feel comfortable with is up to you! It is wise to post somewhere on your lawn the methods of payments you will accept. For those selling expensive items, you may want to offer options other than cash.
The map of participating homes (and a list) will be made available on www.NFCCA.org a few days prior to the sale. You are welcome to print off a few copies to share with customers. We strongly encourage you to inform customers as they are leaving your sale to visit other participating homes!