"We keep our tags separate for each person, so we know exactly what each has sold," Mrs. Garrand said.

Pricing is crucial, Dudyak noted.

"We don't put the prices high -- you don't want to be taking it back home if you want to get rid of it."

And people shop yard sales for bargains, she added, especially now, with the cost of gas pushing up the cost of living.

"You want to make something out of (the sale) and give someone else a break -- that's the way we look at it."

The Lake Forest sale brought in about $1,400 two weekends ago.

"We've had better years," Dudyak said, "but we didn't have a lot of big items. "A nickle, a dime, a dollar take a lot to add up."

Some participants keep a bit of their proceeds and donate the rest to Lake Forest's Sunshine Fund, which residents use to buy cards and flowers to cheer up those who are in the hospital, to buy plants for the communal flower garden and for other kinds of expenses. Some pitch all their earnings into the fund, which was the catalyst for the first sale eight or nine years ago.

Mrs. Garrand researches the value of items in catalogs then sets her prices. Sometimes, she marks them down on the last day of her sale.

POINT THE WAY

A sale won't succeed if no one knows about it, and Mrs. Garrand, Dudyak and Brown all said they advertise in the classified section of the Press-Republican.

"I keep my signs from year to year," Mrs. Garrand said.

She used to include her phone number in the newspaper ads, but doesn't do so now unless she has a very specific item for sale, such as a bicycle.

"Or you get bombarded with phone calls," she said.

It doesn't hurt to showcase certain items in an ad, Mrs. Garrand continued.