Having a garage sale is no small feat. It does takes some work and some planning, but after hosting our first garage sale a few weeks ago, I would definitely do it again. We made some extra cash AND we have the added bonus of having more room in closets, drawers, garage, and sub-basement.
Brian and I had never hosted a garage sale before, and we weren’t sure where to start, but we knew we had plenty of useless crap great treasures to sell. Usually, when we are purging, these things make their way to our local GoodWill or to a local charity, but we decided a few months ago that we would start a “sale pile” in the basement. As we did our purging we would save it for the garage sale instead of donating it. Before we knew it, we had a pretty large pile going (it was about to topple over), and it was time to set the date and register.
Brian and I looked in our local newspaper to see if there were any town events coming up. We thought that if we picked a weekend that more people would be visiting our neighborhood, maybe more people would stop by our garage sale. The weekend we hosted our garage sale was the weekend of our town’s art festival as well as a huge charity benefit at the church across the street from our house. This kind of planning really paid off, as a lot of people would wander over from across the street or on their way to the art fest.
Once we set the date and our registration was complete the REAL work began. The week before our garage sale, we did some advertising. We advertised on craigslist and by placing signs all over our neighborhood. Both of these forms of advertising were free!(TIP: If you are having a garage sale, please make sure your signs are large, legible, sturdy, and have all information. Also, include pictures and details about what is for sale in your craigslist posting).
Next, I got rid of everything in the garage that wasn’t for sale. I made sure to put our lawn mower, snow blower, wagon and kids’ bikes in our shed. Also, anything that could be hung from the walls or ceiling, I hung up and then draped with sheets. This helped make room, and discourage potential buyers from asking me about things that were not for sale.
Once the garage was clear I put in several long banquet tables (we borrowed about 9) so I would have plenty of room to display items, and then labeled each banquet table with a sign signifying what kind of items would be on the table. The categories of items I had were: Baby Clothes (sizes 0-3, 3-6, 6-9, 9-12, 12-24), Toys, Baby Gear, Kitchen Supplies, Housewares, Teaching Materials, School/Office Supplies, Books and Media, Clothes and Jewelry.
The next thing I did, was create a “one touch policy” on all items to save time. Basically, what this means is: when I brought an item up from the sub-basement, I packaged it, priced it, and put it exactly where I wanted it to be the day of the sale. This saved a bunch of steps. I didn’t have to sort all the items into groups, then go back and package or group the item, and then go back again and price the item, and then re-sort the items for display in the garage.
I know it sounds weird to “package” items, but this is where my Type A personality was brought to light. I tried to pretend I was the customer. If I had a baby outfit that included pants and a shirt, I would fold the item, tie it together with twine, and then put a price tag on it. With sheet sets I would fold the fitted sheet, flat sheet, and shams all together and put in a large ziplock bag. Then, I would label the bag with the sheet set size, what was included, and the price. I also tied together place mats, cloth napkins, toys, earrings, silverware sets, and dish sets. All of these items were labeled in detail. Long story short, if it is a set or is supposed to be together, keep it together. (TIP: The cleaner and prettier items are displayed the more likely people will want to buy what you are selling. I got several compliments from buyers on the cleanliness, and organization of the items I was selling. Also, price your items fairly based on condition, cleanliness, and if you have a complete set).
