The Benefits of Yard Sale for Kids! (and for Everyone as well)

It's that time of the year to gain the benefits of yard sale for kids and for almost everyone! Maybe because people in Qatar are taking advantage of the wonderful weather to sell all "junk" and/ or to find "treasures" in yard sale, these sales are so popular during this time of the year.

yard sale divas  - Kylie and Tita Ayish

And yes, we have started the season of selling our long accumulated junks this weekend. It was a tiring day yet we have learned a lot of things.. directly or indirectly from selling our used-to-be-wanted-but-now-mess-in-our-house possessions!

After interviewing Kylie what she learned from the yard sale, this is more or less what she told us:

1. Somebody else's junk is somebody else's treasure. Of course, we can make money with our junk instead of throwing it away. This maybe a given lesson as this is the purpose of yard sale but having kids realize it this early opens opportunity for entrepreneurship.

2. Selling makes money. Especially if all the items are reasonably priced. There are infinite ways of making money. We just have to be resourceful.

3. Good marketing makes more money! And what fun this could be. Engaging people in our products, Turkish evil eyes and our old clothes and toys require conversing with customers, requires being friendly and this is not an easy feat. This makes the yard sale fun and tiring at the same time. (now if I could relate this to real life and not just yard sale, then Kylie's all set to explore without us, hmmm!)

4. Junk is junk. If it's an old toy carelessly used, then no one would buy it.  So, we better take care of our things to avoid waste.

5. Recycling is good for saving our special Earth. Unwanted stuff creates mess but what's worse is these unwanted things end up in the landfill and cause land contamination. Kylie has been reading a lot lately about environmental protection and saving planet Earth like What's So Special about Planet Earth? and How to Help the Earth-by the Lorax (Step into Reading). (Yes, this is another way of encouraging kids to read!)

6. Prevention is key. Avoid unwanted stuff. Don't buy things you will not need forever! (This is the best lesson so far - why bother shopping when eventually we won't need these things, and believe me, most of the time, we don't really need most of the items in our shopping list.

7. Save money, buy things at the yard sale. And if you can't follow #6, wait for the next yard sale and look of the things you really want. This way, we can recycle and save money at the same time. (Brilliant!)

8. Meeting new friends is good. The more friends we make, the less boring life is.

9. Money is precious. It is tiring to sell things and earn money but we do things sometimes even though we don't like it because people need money.

10. Money is NOT that precious. At the end of the day, and we don't sell our things, it's no big deal. It was another bonding moment with the family. Going home together as  a family under one roof is the most important thing to day. Under one roof with the exact same mess we wanted to get rid off - simply one of the best things in life.


Any other upcoming yard sales soon? Why not bring the kids and let them be in charge!



Keep exploring!