How to Organize A Successful Garage Sale

How to Advertise Your Garage Sale

Before you do any advertising, be sure to check with your city or town to ensure that you don't need a permit to have a garage sale.  Some local municipalities do require homeowners to get permission.

Getting the word out about your garage sale is vital to its success. Also, timing is everything.  Advertise too early and people will forget about it.  Advertise too late and your information won't be seen in time.  In today’s world, letting everyone know about your garage sale can happen both:

• Virtually (social media platforms and neighborhood apps)
• Physically (word of mouth, flyers, and signs)

Post your online garage sale notification midweek prior to your sale and again the day before and the morning of.  Flyers should be passed out or put into mailboxes on adjacent streets midweek.  Post signs in high-traffic areas near your home to garner additional interest.

Spring and fall are two common times of the year when garage sales occur, but depending on where you live, you could have it during the "off-season" as well. Choose your garage sale’s date(s) with caution. The warmer the weather, the more likely you are to get curious sale seekers. 

Most people have time on the weekends to swing by so those days work best. You can plan for one day or two; having two days is advantageous just in case Mother Nature decides she wants to rain on your sale.  Avoid long holiday weekends as generally individuals and families have other plans. As a courtesy, let your immediate neighbors know you are having a garage sale so that they can expect increased traffic.

How to Prepare for The Sale

Preparation for a garage sale is crucial.  There is actually a lot that goes into planning and prepping aside from cleaning out and decluttering your garage. Ideally, you want to have an array of items that cross a variety of categories.  Popular garage sale categories include:

• Furniture
• Barely used appliances
• Kitchenware
• Clothing, especially baby and young children’s apparel
• Baby items
• Lamps
• Books
• Games/Puzzles
• Jewelry
• Handbags
• Tools
• Electronics
• Home Decor

The larger and more interesting your inventory is, the more people will stop and shop.  A mere handful of items won't attract as many customers. Plan on organizing like items with like items to make it easier for people to browse. 

Create price tags and labels for everything, especially for items that might not be at first glance familiar (i.e. tools or kitchen gadgets).  Pricing everything makes adding things up for buyers far easier.  Although you know what you paid for most items originally, remember that a garage sale is all about fairly pricing what you're selling, knowing that it's used or gently worn. It's not always an easy task but The Dollar Stretcher advises to charge 10% of what the current market value is for any specific item.

Day of The Sale

The morning of your garage sale, check on any signage that you hung up the day prior and/or hang up additional signage. Signs should be marked in BIG LETTERS on both sides using arrows to point people in the right direction. Also, send out a reminder post on any virtual platforms where you advertised earlier in the week.

Enlist some help from your family members, friends, or neighbors throughout the day so you can take an occasional break.  The more hands-on deck, the easier the process will be.  If you have young kids, have them set up a lemonade stand or sell brownies or cookies.

As you set up and organize your tagged “for sale” items, use long tables and clothing racks arranged in makeshift aisles and rows.   Place books or records in a bin, neatly fold clothing, arrange jewelry, and buff up anything that needs a shine.

Have enough cash and coins on hand to make change and consider using online apps for money exchanges like Venmo, Square, or Apple Pay.  It's just another way to keep track of your transactions during the sale.

Also, expect the occasional negotiator and have an idea ahead of time how flexible you may be willing to go.  You make the rules but be willing to take a legitimate offer, especially if your sale is winding down.

In the last hour, if you have people still stopping by, announce a 50% discount or similar to help push potential sales. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by attempting to reduce what items are left by making even a modest exchange for them. If possible, provide plastic bags for smaller items to be carried away in and have some newspaper and tape on hand to wrap more fragile items.

Post Garage Sale

Hopefully, your garage sale will be a huge success.  However, it is rare to sell out of everything.  Any items that are leftover, simply box up and donate to a local charity.  For larger items like furniture, you can often arrange to have those picked up at a later time. Try to avoid moving any leftover items back into the house.

Be sure to take down any signs that you had hung up and clean up any supplies like bags, scissors, tape, and breakdown tables and clothing racks. Once you've had a chance to rest, take some time to reorganize what's left in your garage and evaluate what types of storage you and your family still need. There are an endless amount of options out there, including Slatwalls racks to help maximize space, especially if your garage is on the smaller side.

Final Thoughts

It's fun to think about cleaning out items collecting dust or taking up precious real estate in your home and making a few bucks selling them. You can’t go wrong with that duo of events.  Garage sales do take some effort but if you have a decent inventory of “for sale” items, it's well worth your time to bring in some extra money. Consider throwing one every other year or as often as it makes sense for you. Making some cash while eliminating clutter is a terrific combination!

Sources

• https://www.thedollarstretcher.com/frugal-living/how-to-price-garage-sale-items/