Planning a Successful Yard Sale

1

Planning a Successful Garage Sale

Who else is excited that yard sale season is upon us?!  As a bargain hunter who was raised on garage sales, I thought I’d share some tips for planning your very own clutter-clearing, money making weekend.

Four Weeks Ahead:

  1. Pick a date, ideally coordinating with others.  Community sales get lots of traffic, so find out if there is already one planned and mark that date on your calendar.  If you live on a rural street, consider gathering your neighbors, family, or friends together and advertise as a multi-family sale to inspire more traffic.  In Columbus, Friday mornings bring out the dedicated yard sale crowd, and Saturdays with great weather can have lots of traffic as well.  (Sidebar: It’s interesting that each region seems to have their own day; where I grew up in Cleveland, Thursday was garage sale day.)
  2. Check with your local municipality to see if a permit is necessary.  They are typically minimal ($10ish) fee but could save you from having your sale shut down.
  3. Advertise!  Think about all of the free sites out there.  Craigslist and Facebook are two huge resources in Columbus.  Don’t forget to include date, time, and address.  Keep your description brief, but informational.  There is no need to list every single item for sale, but listing general categories can entice potential customers to stop by.
  4. Start gathering.  Depending on how long you want to be kicked out of your garage, you can start your pile there.  I have a corner of the basement that is dedicated to our annual garage sale.  I tend to be a saver, so it is somehow easier to put an item in the basement, knowing that if I reeeealy need it, I can always go down and grab it.  However, 99% of the time, I forget about it, making it the perfect item for a garage sale.
  5. Contact a local charity to schedule pick up of items that were not sold.  My husband and I have a deal that once an item goes out into the garage; it does not come back into the house.  Scheduling a pick up takes the stress out of donating the left over items, and it feels good to know they are going to a good home.
  6. Decide if the kids will be involved in the sale.  If not, (the best if you are really trying to clean house) schedule some time with Grandma or sitter on garage sale day.  If so, (a great lesson in money management and decluttering), plan their role.  I like to have my daughter help with a water/pop/coffee/treat stand, and this year I may give her have a table of her own.  She can choose what toys she’d like to sell, and then we can plan how she’d like to spend her earnings.  We will even work on math skills while making change.

One Week Ahead:

  1. “Bump” your advertising posts.
  2. Gather as many flat surfaces as possible and set them up in the garage.  I borrow as many card tables as I can, and also create some tables using left over wood placed between two chairs or saw horses.  I also use chairs to hold Rubbermaid totes or boxes.  Who wants to get down on their hands and knees to look at items during a garage sale?  Not me.
  3. Sort items into categories and begin to visualize a layout for your garage or driveway.  If there is a logical flow to your sale, customers are likely to take their time looking at your items.  Consider using inexpensive table cloths or old sheets on tables, and also to cover items that you don’t intend to sell.
  4. Price items.  Be objective.  This can be the most difficult part of planning a sale because no one cares if the item has sentimental value; they are shopping for a bargain.  I don’t price anything more than 20% of what I paid for it and always use 25 cent increments for easy math.  I also try to entice customers to buy multiple items by coming up with a deal such as $2/each or $5/3, or for clothes $1/each or $5 to fill a bag.  After all, my goal is to get rid of my “stuff,” not to make a fortune.
  5. Clean your items.  It’s amazing how gross things from the basement can look when you bring them up and put them in the sunshine.
  6. Gather plastic bags to distribute with purchases.  Gather newspapers to wrap fragile items.
  7. Do as much the week before your garage sale as you can.  Admittedly, I’m a poor planner when it comes to time, but the night before my sale is always a late night.  And then it’s an early morning and I’m a grouch.

The Day Before

  1. “Bump” your advertising post.
  2. Go to the bank.  Murphy’s Law says that if you don’t have change, your first customer will want to purchase a $.25 item with a $20 bill!  So, you’ll want to start with enough change to last through your sale.  I would rather have too much cash than not enough, so I usually do around $80: 2 – $10 bills, 4 – $5 bills, 20 – $1 bills, and 2 rolls of quarters ($20).  I don’t price anything less than $.25, so I don’t have to deal with times, nickles, or pennies.
  3. Decide on a place for the money.  Some swear by the fanny pack.  I usually keep a small box just inside the door to the house because I’m often in and out, especially when there are times with no traffic.
  4. Make signs.  As much as I love involving kids in garage sales, I don’t believe sign making is the best job for them.  They should be large, simple, and clear – something like  “Garage Sale” at the front of the neighborhood, and a large arrow (using the same paper and marker as the initial sign) pointing the way to my house.  My favorite tip for easy signs and placement is using paper grocery bags.  Use a thick black sharpie to draw an arrow or write garage sale, place a few cans in the bottom, and then staple the top closed.  This way you don’t have to worry about attaching to anything because they stand up on their own and can easily be placed on the roadside.  I use this as an excuse to clean out the pantry and donate the canned goods when I take down the signs.
  5. Consider bringing out a radio.  Background music makes the garage sale “experience” a little less awkward by eliminating the need for too much small talk.  This may entice people to shop for a while.

The Day of Your Sale

  1. Expect early birds.  Don’t open your garage until you are ready for customers.  Leave a note on the doorbell if you have sleeping kiddos.
  2. Put out your signs.  Think about major intersections, the entrance of your neighborhood, and then directing the way to your house.  Put balloons on your mailbox, especially if your garage is hard to see from the street.
  3. If the weather looks good, pull some items out into the driveway.  I always place the “guy” stuff at the end of the driveway to entice husbands to get out of the car, too.
  4. Expect hagglers.  It’s part of the garage sale “charm.”  Decide ahead of time if you are willing to negotiate, and if so, how much.  Also, think about your response if you are like me and terrible on the fly.  I usually say something like “I think this is a really great deal, so I’m only willing to come down to x.”
  5. Keep an eye on anything you are not confident about the price.  I’ve noticed that if many people stop to look at an item but then move by, I’ve priced it too high.  Wait for a slow time and then change out your price tag.
  6. Consider slashing prices mid-day if things aren’t selling.
  7. Bump your sale post on social media, and consider adding a picture for interest.
  8. If traffic is inconsistent, consider bringing out a “mindless” project.  This is the perfect time to pull weeds out front, or that knitting project that has been half finished since winter.
  9. Contact the organization that will be picking up donations to confirm pick up.

Make no mistake; garage sales are more work than most realize.  However, when done right, they can be a great way to get rid of clutter and make a little money.

What are some of your best garage sale tips?

 

 

Previous articleUnconditional, Selfless and Forever: A Mother’s Love Is Universal
Next articleThe Great Formula Debate
Jen
When Jen is not trading sarcastic jabs with her husband or hanging out with her kids, she can be found bargain shopping, digital scrapbooking, or *gasp* sleeping. She lives by the Golden Rule and tries to teach her kids to do the same. Jen is a school counselor and loves being an advocate for kids. She is mom to two awesome girls: a rule following, empathetic-beyond-her-years 5 year old and a spunky and sweet 1 year old. She has been married for ten years and has lived in Ohio forever. She was born and raised in the Cleveland area and established roots in Columbus 15 years ago. Her basement is full of "stuff" Including deals too good to leave at the store and childhood memories. She is a recovering people pleaser and a current Pepsi addict. She loves people watching but hates cleaning the bathroom. Jen is hopeful that Columbus Mom's Blog can help families in central Ohio connect while also creating that lost feeling of community that she craves.

1 COMMENT

Comments are closed.