Our time was some years back (2010-2011), but in addition to selling some stuff to family and friends, we also were fortunate that our neighborhood decided to have a "neighborhood" garage sale.  That kind of sale seems to draw more people to see multiple sites at the same time.  We also did pretty well with selling stuff.

At one point, the house had our bed, two recliners, the TV and stereo and dining room table.  It took us 3 years to sell because we put our house on the market in 2008, just as the housing bust hit.  When it finally sold, we knew there were a few things that we couldn't/wouldn't use, so when we handed the keys to the house to the new buyer a week early, we left them a Select Comfort bed, a Craftsman lawn tractor, and numerous tools that I wouldn't need at all.  As it turned out, the week early relinquishment of the keys really helped the buyers.  As it happened, the closing on the houses (theirs and ours) were on a Friday afternoon and the very next day they had to fly to Hawaii for a work related event.  So, they got to move in during that week of extra time with the house.

Terry