How To Have A Garage Sale 101

Well THIS is my garage sale pile (well, not all of it, I have more!). I know it looks a fright, but its somewhat organized and I know what's going on with all of it.

At the request of my friend, Annie, (and some other's along the way, although I don't think they read my blog) here are some of my tips on having a garage sale.

1. Collect the "goods". What I do, since I have a garage sale at least once a year, I start a "garage sale pile" throughout the year, and it just grows and grows. If you have kids, I find it easy to find stuff to throw into the garage sale. Kids toys, books, equipment and clothes tend to sell the best. If you don't have any of these items, go through your closets and find coats, sweaters, jeans, etc. that you haven't worn in a while. If I haven't worn it in a year, its gone. Also, look for household items, kitchen items, Christmas decorations, candles,purses, shoes, picture frames, etc. If you're like me, you will want to purge your stuff that doesn't get used that much (so you can justify buying something new!).

2. Pick a date.

3. Pricing. Once you have a rough guess on a date, start pricing items. Since I tend to have a TON of clothes, I start early, so I'm not stuck pricing till 2am the night before my sale (which has happened before).

The more prepared you are before set up, the better.

You can get pre-made stickers that already have prices on them, like these shown. I find the best value for buying these is at the Dollar Tree. Buy more than you think you'll need, you'll be amazed how many items you have. Masking tape also works great too. Price things that you would pay at a sale, but don't short yourself for higher dollar items. If you have furniture or other big ticket items, price them what you want for them, and if they don't sell, post them on Craigslist. I have always had good luck selling items off of there. People are willing to pay more on Craigslist then they are willing to pay at a garage sale.

4. Set Up. Remember what they say. Presentation is half the sale. I believe this very much. Just think, when you are garage sale-ing, you tend to do the classic "drive by" if it looks like there's nothing there, or if it looks junked up. As far as clothes go, unless you want to sit and fold clothes over and over all day, I would suggest hanging as much clothes as possible. I know this can be tricky. You can either rent a clothes rack, look for one on Cragislist (I found a big round one that folds flat for easy storage, for $10), or get creative. Hang a broom stick in between bar stools or hang from the tracks on a garage door. The easier you can make it for people to look, the more likely they are to look and in return buy more.

If you have multiples of something throw in one box with one price. Example is "All Kitchen Towels, 50 cents/Each". This saves you time from pricing each item. To save a lot of time, you could price "All kids clothes $1.00/Each unless marked". I have never done that, because I find somethings are cheaper than that and somethings are more expensive, but these are just examples.

Another part of set up, is getting tables or boxes to display items. I tend to group things together, like all kitchen items together, household decorations together, etc. Another important thing, is while the sale is going on, "fluff" the look of your sale. If it starts to thinned out on a table or area, rearrange. Make it appealing to people driving by, this is what's going to make people stop and look.

5. Set A Time and Advertise. I tend to do my sales at 7am to whenever. I tend to advertise it from "7am-?", that way, I'm not tied down to a certain time if its super slow. I tend to have my sales on Friday and Saturday. The more chances you can have the sale, the better. Next thing is to ADVERTISE! Find out free advertising tools, such as Craigslist. Some local news stations websites have a "classified" section that you can post garage sales for free. Also, put up good signs. Bright signs with big writing are great for people driving by. Put up enough signs to get people to your house.

6. Money. Make sure to get enough change for your cash box. Plenty of $1 bills and quarters. Accepting checks is up to you. I have done it a few times, and never have had a problem. I think you can tell most of the time, if you can trust people or not. IF they don't have enough cash with them, you can tell them you can hold the items for 1 hour, if they want to run to the bank or ATM. This is up to you though.

7. Make a profit. I generally have really good luck with my sales, and its a great way to earn some bucks. Have fun. Its a lot of work, but worth it.

Hope these tips helped those who needed help. I'm by far not an expert on garage sales, but have put my fair share of them on. Good luck and happy Money making!