Yard sale's contents taken out and scattered about (6)
I believe the answer is:
sparse
'scattered about' is the definition.
'sparse' can be an answer for 'scattered' (I've seen this in another clue). I am not certain of the 'about' bit.
'yard sale's contents taken out' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'yard' could be 'spar' (I've seen this before) and 'spar' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'se' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'and' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sparse that I've seen before include "Not much" , "Thin on the ground, scarce" , "Thinly dispersed" , "Thinly populated" , "Infrequent" .)