A yard sale in the lead-up to Christmas sounds like a great way to recycle unwanted items in your home before Santa arrives to deposit more — but only if you play fair.

Focus Counselling Service is having a fund-raising yard sale on December 13, for which it welcomes donations of small appliances such as mixers, blenders and electric kettles, household linens, crockery, clothing and soft toys, but not books or furniture.

Organisers ask that everything be clean, in good condition, and proper working order, so let your conscience be your guide, and don't off-load junk which really should go to the dump. If that happens, it only means that Focus will have to pay someone to take it away, and the purpose of the yard sale is to raise as much money as possible.

To that end, everything will be priced low to sell quickly, and buyers can also have fun bargaining.

The counselling service is renovating a 9,000 sq ft building in St. George's, which will be used as supportive residency for clients who have completed their treatment, and proceeds from the yard sale will be used to finance the painting of the exterior.

The sale will take place in the Serpentine Road car park of the Bermuda High School for Girls, next to the Reading Clinic, but in the event of bad weather will be at Focus instead.

Meanwhile, items should be dropped off at Focus, on the ground floor 0of the Metropolitan Building at 35 Union Street (the bright pink building past the former Leslie Wilson cycle shop), not later than 5 p.m. on Wednesday, December 10.