If you’re wondering where I’ve been this week, you’re not the only one. My friends, family, kids, and husband may think I’ve dropped off the face of the earth! What I was actually doing was preparing for, and helping run, a super successful garage sale! My husband was off work, so I worked, and worked, and worked some more Saturday through Wednesday. Then, Thursday through Saturday, my husband ran the sale with some help from me. (I was supposed to be cleaning and organizing, but I was sooooo exhausted!)
The garage sale went really well, so I thought I’d share some of the things I learned.
1. Have lots of stuff. LOTS. The more you have, the more people will stop and shop.
2. Have VARIETY. I had all kinds of stuff at my sale. Baby, toddler, toys, art 1supplies, crafts, teaching materials, homeschool supplies, housewares, stuff for men… And listing all those things on my Craigslist ad brought even more people in. That brings me to the next point.
3. ADVERTISE EVERYWHERE. Post your listing on your local Craigslist, your personal Facebook page, your local swap and shop or garage sale Facebook pages, and anywhere else you can find to post. Newspapers aren’t as popular as they used to be, but there are still plenty of places to list your sale.
4. Have great SIGNS. I recommend making your own BIG signs. The dinky garage sale signs at the store just don’t grab as much attention as a large, well made sign. Make it clear, black and white, and large print. Unless you’re posting them a long way from your house, they only need to say “GARAGE SALE” and have an arrow. Otherwise, they’re cluttered and hard to read.
5. PRICE everything. If things aren’t priced, you’ll lose all the customers who are kind of interested, but not enough to ask about the price. You’re essentially losing the lazy shoppers. 😉
6. Try to have some large items. A desk, couch, chairs, etc. will make your sale look bigger and draw more people in.
7. Have a HALF-PRICE day on your last day. Tell everyone who checks out to come back on your last day and shop for 1/2 price. You can not only make quite a bit more money on that last day, you can also get rid of a TON of stuff that you’d otherwise be donating or saving for another sale.
8. Have the right MINDSET. Plan to bring NOTHING back into your home. That way, you’ll be reasonable as people negotiate. For us, the goal was to simply get rid of stuff and because we priced things low, we made quite a bit of money in the process.
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