Garage sale season is here and I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t be more excited.
I’ve had {and been to} a lot of garage sales over the years and let me tell you, easy to read signs can make a BIG difference in the amount of potential customers that show up to your place in hopes of finding something they just can’t do without.
The key to having a garage sale is actually letting people know you are having a garage sale. Advertising on sites like Craiglist is a great start, but signs are an absolute must.
You will get tons of drive-bys and people looking for signage pointing them in the right direction.
The best garage sale sign keep it simple. Don’t get all Martha Stewart. Remember, people will be driving by at 30 plus miles an hour. You want the sign to be simple and EASY to read.
Start out with a neon piece of poster board–they are 2 for $1 at the dollar store–you can totally make that up by selling your entire Def Leopard tape collection at the garage sale. Go with pink, green or yellow.
Now, in your clearest first grade teacher print write “GARAGE SALE” {if it is a biggin’ make sure to write “HUGE GARAGE SALE”, or “MULTI-FAMILY GARAGE SALE.”
People get giddy with excitement at the prospect of lots of stuff for sale}. Write it with a big fat sharpie marker. You want to to be bold and legible. If you can’t read it as you drive by, it’s basically no good.
Underneath GARAGE SALE, you can draw an arrow indicating which direction people should turn and the days and hours of your garage sale {i.e. Friday and Saturday 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.}.
In my opinion, that’s all your really need, but I have seen people randomly write some of the items they have for sale on the sign too–which is fine, so long as it isn’t so busy people can’t read it as they drive by. Put one of these signs at each entrance to your neighborhood.
You want to lead them to you, like the Pied Piper.
Within the neighborhood, using smaller pieces of the same color of poster board, tape up arrows, leading the peeps through the neighborhood. No need to write garage sale again, assume that anyone you want to actually come to your house will be able to muster up enough deductive reasoning to put two and two together.
That’s really it. Simple and bold–you can showcase your calligraphy skills later, in a letter to your grandma.
Happy sales,
~ Mavis
Jeni says
How about an address?
Linda Practical Parsimony says
This is a pet peeve of mine–signs too small, signs that are cluttered with bubble letters, and people who use multiple colors for their signs. When a sign is the size of copy paper, those people always add too much information in a tiny size letter. It is maddening. They get too cutesy and artsy. I cannot read a pale green sign with pale blue lettering.
My best sign was three boards painted taxicab yellow with only a sloppily painted black arrow. I nailed them to telephone poles although I know better. In the evening, I took the signs and nails down. I used these signs for ten years or more, storing them in the basement.
Please don’t leave your signs up for weeks, cluttering the roadway and letting them disintegrate.
I found out it does no good to put a time as people will come when they want to come. I have had people knock on my door at 6 am wanting me to let them look at items. NO! I had an infant and told them to come back at time on sign. This would happen dozens of times of times and while I was trying to get items from the house or uncover things.
People are not happy and threaten not to come back later. Okay. They knew I had great yard sales. Whatever.
Richelle says
I give the cross streets rather than the address (“Look for the signs at 1st and Main”) in the ads. Cuts down on the early (pushy) shoppers.
Katelyn says
When I was in middle school, I convinced my parents to let me make all the garage sale signs. I made a whole bunch of lovely signs, all with big arrows pointing to the right… which was great except all the turns to our house from the main road were lefts. Dad hung all the signs upside down! People still came LOL
Mrs. M. says
Love this!
Annette says
There’s one house in my area that always makes funny signs.
Instead of “huge sale” they write “hug sale”. And instead of “big sale” they write “big sail”. Gets attention and is good for a chuckle.
Lisa says
The best Garage Sale sign I ever saw said “Our crap could be your crap.” Made me laugh out loud.
Joanne Cosh says
I like a road name and number when I’m out looking
Ca says
Also, remember to take down your signs!
Kathy says
I think having the address on the sign helps especially when you live in a large subdivision with many streets.
Marti says
I always use bright paper and with bold letters print the address–nothing more. People in our area will know that it is a garage sale so not necessary to state that.
Gigi says
If I see only the address and street number I don’t even bother. I live in a smallish town and I don’t know what every street is called and I’m not willing to drive through some neighborhood looking for it. Arrows I follow.
If you’re going to out an address, put arrows too. And then make sure to put arrows at every intersection. A $2 sign isn’t going to break the bank.
Gigi says
Forgot to add. One town I lived in, they would all put A-frame ladders at the end of the driveway to indicate where the sale was. Never knew why, but it definitely helped.
Tracy says
What, pray tell, does “organically harvested” mean?