Summer is the time for garage sales!
But, so is spring and fall … and winter if you live in Florida!
I just had a fabulous garage sale last weekend! Here are some things that I learned through it:
- GET HELP!!!! I cannot stress this enough! I didn’t actually plan on getting help. One of my best-ever friends decided to come and help me throughout the entire garage sale weekend. She brought her kids and was here to relieve me when I needed a bathroom break (secretly known as an A/C break). She made sure everyone was fed and cleaned up the dishes (and the floor and the walls … we did have 10 kids here between the two of us).
- Have a Multi-Family Sale – call up your friends and neighbors and ask if they have anything they would like to sell. A larger garage sale will ensure more variety and more people will stop and look around as opposed to driving by.
- Display and Organize – the easier you make the shopping experience, the more your customers will find to buy! I organized the clothes by girls and boys and then by size. Initially, I had summer and winter clothes out, but lots of people were just passing right by the winter stuff because it was SO STINKING HOT. I ended up putting the winter clothes in boxes on the ground in sort of an aisle fashion, which left more room for the summer things. I hung up the ladies dresses and other adult clothes. Some of the best shirts (most stylish, cleanest) I put up on my fence right toward the street so everyone could see.
- Give Yourself Lots Of Room – borrow tables, racks, and ropes to have more display area. Since we had a multi-family sale, my friends brought over their tables. Other display ideas:
- two ladders with rope between for hanging clothes
- one ladder and one tall fence gate with an extension cord hung between
- clothes drying rack to hang fabric pieces
- use a ladder to display items along the stairs
- Lots of Signage – put signs at every intersection within a few miles, make sure they are nice and bright and easy to read.
- solid black letters are easiest to read – not black pen but black permanent marker, no outlines of letters
- get the largest neon poster board and cut it in half, try to stick with the same color for all your signs
- don’t forget to write in the arrows
- don’t use one stake right in the middle of the sign as the paper will warp around the sign. My husband cut down some old wood we had lying around and made two stakes for each sign we had. I pounded in the stakes to the width of the sign, then used a staple gun to attach it and secured it with packaging tape.
- Marketing - look for CheapCycle groups (a different version of FreeCycle) or Sell Buy Trade groups that are in your area on yahoo groups. Post on the email loop for your local homeschool group or if your church has one. Other free websites to post on include CraigsList, JustGarageSales and GarageSalesTracker.
- Pricing! Make sure you price your items to SELL!! Many of my items were priced at about $1.00 with lots of stuff at $0.25 and $0.50. Upon the advice of my friend, I priced the items a little higher than what I wanted to leave myself room for the bargainers. But, even at the higher end, my prices were very conservative because I wanted to make sales! I really hate going to a garage sale only to find that most of the items are at the same prices I could get at WalMart on clearance.
- Bonus Tip #1 – I should have counted my tips before I wrote the title! Try to create some shade for yourself and wear sunscreen, no matter what!! I am typing this with healing sunburn that actually developed little water blisters all over my arm. I figured that since I was going to be under the table umbrella that I would be okay. DUH! Sun reflects!! Make sure to keep reapplying sunscreen, wear a hat, keep water by your side and take care of yourself. We had a cooler out with ice cold water and sold it for $0.50 each – but also made sure to sip in every time we were thirsty.
You already know that having a garage sale is lots of work! But, if you put in every little effort, you can make sure that you have a profitable garage sale and not just a weekend full of moving stuff in and out of your house!
Most Commented Posts
