Let’s face it, if you are going to go to all of the time and effort of putting on a garage sale, you really want to come out the other hand having made some cash AND with significantly less stuff you have to haul away. The garage sales that I have unloaded the most junk treasures have been the ones that I put a bit more effort into up front.
If you plan on unloading some of the clutter weighing you down this year, here’s a couple of tips I have picked up over the years to help you get the most out of spreading belongings around the front yard:
- Advertise. This step is obviously important, but HOW you write up your advertisement matters too. Make sure to use proper grammar, provide a list of some of the “hot ticket” items, and let people know why you are getting rid of stuff. For example, “No more room in the garage, so the hubby says some stuff has got to go…my loss, your gain. Garage sale this Saturday from 8-2, blah, blah, blah. Couches, clothes, dishes, tons of …” you get the idea. Just make it sound appealing. Draw your customers in. Use Craigslist, Facebook, and signs. Get the word out.
- Make legible signs. Place them at every entrance to your neighborhood {if your CC&R’s allow}.
- Organize your stuff. People don’t really want to dig through your crap. Sure, they will buy it, take it home, wash it with bleach…but they don’t want to go pawing around in it. Borrow tables from friends and set stuff out on display.
- Hang clothes. That is seriously the key to selling clothes at a garage sale. Evenly neatly folded clothes on a blanket will hardly receive a second look–you hang ’em up and all of a sudden people are flippin’ through those bad boys like they are at a department store.
- Schedule your garage sale for the 1st Saturday after the 1st of the month. That’s when people usually get paid–seriously, end of the month is no good.
- CLEARLY price every item. Tedious, for sure. But if you don’t, then in your busiest times, people will not want to wait in line to ask you. They want to know the general ballpark. They may be willing to wait in line to haggle, if they know where they are starting.
- Try the grab bag method for smaller items. Tell people they can grab a bag and stuff anything that they can fit from this and that box for $2.00…or whatever. People will feel like they are getting a bargain, and you will sell way more stuff than you might have otherwise.
- Take the time to clean things off. If you have had dining room chairs sitting in the attic for the better part of a decade, take the time to wipe them down. You know it’s only dust, and maybe a little bit of mouse poop, but they are imagining the worst. A clean appearance on both your and your stuff’s part gives people peace of mind.
Those are pretty much my tried and true sell it and get it out of here techniques. How do you get the most out of your garage sales?
~Mavis
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Ashley says
Not having things labeled is one of my biggest pet peeves. I went to a big thrift sale once and the ladies said, ‘we love to haggle, shoot us a price!’. And then I did and they wanted to haggle back and forth, it was a fun game for them. Nothing wrong with haggling, I don’t mind when people want to try for a better price when they come to my thrift sales, but I’d rather just pay the sticker price when I go to sales. If I see ‘make an offer’ sale, I just get back in my car. Not for me. Another pet peeve of mine is when people think their kids’ clothes are worth their weight in gold. They are not, and it will not get sold. I put all my kids clothes up for 50 cents a piece at my last thrift sale, and dropped it to 25 cents the last day. I only sold a fraction of it (it was all in good shape). So I highly doubt those $3 tshirts and $5 jeans at other sales are being sold.
I like your tip about having your sale early in the month, I never thought about it that way! Another tip, try to get a few neighbors to have sales, also. Everyone loves to see a bunch of signs on a corner because they know they can hit a few sales in a small amount of time without driving all over.
Cristy says
Surprisingly those $3 shirts and $5 jeans do sell — but I get that on the FB garage sale sites for the clothes in like new condition. Whatever doesn’t sell on FB goes for actual garage sale; $1 for shirts and $2 for jeans and they are usually cleaned out before noon. I couldn’t imagine having a yard sale where I sold all items under $1 — would never be worth my time. I normally make $300-$500 a day at my garage sales and have a sale once a year — twice if I have a ton of stuff. I have found over the years, that different demographics in a town make a difference. Something that doesn’t sell at my house will sell like hotcakes at my sisters house AND for more money! That’s why I usually have 2 sales — one at my house and one at hers :)!
diane @smartmoneysimplelife says
I’ve often thought about having a garage sale but have never done it. A while ago, a friend and I discussed helping each other run them at our respective houses. It might be time to revisit that idea.
Cindy says
My biggest peeve about yard sales is seeing the old, ratty signs still up weeks after the event. If you post signs, please remember to remove them!
Jenn says
About a month ago I had an estate sale at my parents house. They both passed away 2 years ago and their house was still full of stuff. I opened the house up and was able to organize some stuff, but the garage, that was another story. We had boxes of stuff that we just couldn’t do anything with because there was simply no room. I advertised on Facebook and Craigslist. Before Saturday rolled around I had people emailing and asking to see some of the stuff that I had advertised. On the day of the sale, we had people waiting on us before we even got to the house. We were supposed to start at 8, we started at 7:15. Nothing was marked and everyone made me an offer on what they wanted to pay. Most of the time I would except, but there were a few times that someone would low ball me and we would haggle. Most of the stuff in the house didn’t sale. What surprised me was the stuff in the garage. People would grab a box and start plundering. At the end of the day, we ended up making over $1000.00. I would have thought the stuff inside that was nice and organized and laid out nice would go, but it really didn’t that was the stuff that I ended up packing up and taking to charity.
Jen Y says
All great tips!
One thing my garage sale mentor taught me that makes such a big difference is to clean, reorganize & create vignettes constantly throughout a sale. Have enough helpers so that you can go behind customers (or do it during slow times) & straighten things out.
Set up a display near the front just like a store..if you have a table, arrange some of the knick knacks, dishes, vases, ect in a pleasing way & fill in as things sell.
Choose two or three pieces of the nicest clothing to hang out front.
Go behind shoppers & stand all the books the same way so they’re easier to read through & pull out popular titles to display near the entrance.
Basically make the entrance to the sale look like the entrance to a home. It show cases things better & they move faster. If you have lots of baskets choose the nicest one & set it in the center of the table you’re selling filled with something pretty: a stack of nice books, cups & saucers, drinking glasses filled with silverware, ect
I’ve been so surprised at some of the things that will sell well when they’re showcased well.
Teckla says
Good suggestions! It’s worth it to take a little extra time to make sure things are clean and attractively displayed. We always had better luck when things were grouped in like categories, i.e., tools, decorations, books, clothes, dishes, furniture, etc. Beg or borrow as many tables, bookshelves, racks, etc., as you can so you can display stuff to advantage. If they are not for sale, mark them as such. Yes, hang clothing. Also agreed that stuff in boxes can be appealing; people are always hopeful that they will find a real treasure. Again, if possible, work ahead of time to fill boxes so you have some control over what is in them whether shoppers do or not. Mixing things up a bit here works to advantage. Make sure you have a working outlet and extension cord so folks can satisfy themselves that things work, and provide how-to manuals if you have them. Organize as much help as you can during the sale, to keep an eye on shoppers, take money, etc., so that you can answer questions and generally be available. Make sure everything is well marked, but be flexible and willing to negotiate with those who want to haggle. Your objective is to get rid of things so don’t be afraid to bring your price down a little, or group some items for an offered price. Keep extra tags and markers on hand for price changes if more than one person is sponsoring the sale. During lulls, take a few minutes to keep things organized and attractively arranged. Mark things down later in the sale and post signs to that effect. It is work, but we always made between $400 – $1000+. Additionally, if you have space, designate a place to stash things you want to sell where they can be bagged or boxed and kept clean until sale time. It’s a lot of work and our sales were spaced years apart, but it was definitely worth it, doubly worth it just before we moved and when selling stuff after Dad died. Involving several neighbors or sharing with a few friends is definitely worth it also. If sharing a sale with friends/family, be sure to designate different colored tags for each seller. Make sure the person who collects the money is well organized and detailed so each person’s sales are accurately recorded. As cash accumulates, occasionally remove extra from the cash box and secure inside your home if possible. Be friendly, offer coffee or cookies if that’s your style. If you like, have music, just not too loud. And don’t forget to have some”free” boxes, but please not just dirty junk. That should be obvious, but (shudder) the stuff I’ve seen! Position those so shoppers have to walk by the good stuff to reach them. Best of luck!