Sort of.
We had a garage sale this past weekend. I was just feeling too cluttery. When I get in garage sale mode, there's no talking me out of it. If I decide to have a garage sale, I will do it right. We usually have great success with our garage sales, so I thought I'd list out our 'tactics' for anyone else considering it.
I usually try to plan it for the 1st weekend of the month. That is when a lot of people get their checks and have the most money and therefore are more willing to spend. I will advertise in the local newspaper. If you do not, you will not get near the traffic. There are many hard core garage salers out there who plan their route out by the newspaper ads. You must advertise! It costs $19 for a 3 day ad and you get a free garage sale 'kit' which includes signs you can put out the day of. It is well worth it. Make sure you put any different or unusual items you may have for sale in your ad. Any furniture items. And baby things, clothes, toys are also things people look for.
Next, I give myself a week or two to cleanse the house. I start in one room. And I go through every. single. thing. in the entire house. My hands will touch everything we own before its said it done. It is part cleaning out and getting rid of stuff..and part re-organizing. If I start in a closet, I will pull everything out of the closet. I only put back in what it is staying and I organize it as I go. What gets left out, goes in the garage sale. What gets left out are things, toys, clothes, items, etc that either has been outgrown or has not been used in the last 6 months to a year. Then I move to the next room, closet, space. Like I said, when I'm done, every single thing in our house will have been pulled out of the cabinets or closets or shelves and either taken to the garage or put back in in a organized way.
Then, after I get everything that's for sale out in the garage, we set up tables and sort it by its kind. Clothes go together, toys on another table or two, books in a box together, etc. I never price anything. Never. Its really a waste of time and effort. Chances are what you start out asking for something, you will end up reducing the price as the day goes on. Also, a lot of people are scared off by prices. That's lesson 2. If you expect to get as much, or even HALF as much, of what your stuff is 'worth', move on. Garage sales are not for you. If you are lucky, really lucky, you can maybe get a 1/3 of 'retail' price. That crib you bought for $199? Ask $50, and you may get $40. The trick is putting enough stuff out there for sale to make your money back. Don't have a garage sale if you don't have enough stuff. Usually no more than once/year. Otherwise, you won't have enough stuff to make it worthwhile. And you have to go in it with the mindset of you are desperately wanting to get rid of things. If you try to get money back for things you thing are really worth something, try eBay or Craigslist. Garage sales are about the bargain shoppers. You have to rather see it gone that see you get that extra $10 for it or whatever. Trust me. If you price (in your head) cheaper, you will make more money in the long run and your stuff will be (more) gone. Its about the quantity of what you sell.
Anyway, by not pricing things, you can fluctuate the price too. Someone may come along and you can pin them for an easier sale...others maybe not. This way you can change what you ask throughout the day to help you sell. Not to mention, like I said, pricing takes A LOT of time and effort. Its so not worth it.
Make sure to get enough change (usually one's and quarters) ahead of time. Put out your signs (or have your hubby do it) the morning of. Start your garage sale at least by 7. First off, its hot. It gets hotter as it goes on. You will have people show up at 6:30. There are hard core garage salers out there I tell you! So the earlier you start, the better. Be careful...you may even have people show up the night before! We ALWAYS do.
We try to make it comfortable for people shopping. We never have it inside our actual garage - I do not want people traipsing through our stuff thats NOT for sale. So we pull everything out to the driveway morning of. I'm lucky that my dad has access to these pop up tents that we borrow. It makes it nice and shady (and not so hot) for us and the people out there. I had many a people compliment us on how nice it was at our house vs others where they were sweating so much. If you don't have tents, make some lemonade to let the kids give away or whatever. Buy some donuts for people! Its cheap and if you make people happy, they will buy more stuff! I've also seen a lot of people have a 'free box' of little trinkets or happy meal type toys for the kids that come along. Its the little things....
Also, be nice! People are more apt to buy from you if you are courteous. Its customer service people! We have a joke that if we see someone pick something up to look at it, they WILL buy it. Its just a matter of...for how much. Be a car salesman! Don't let people leave without offering things that might interest them! You see a pregnant lady, ask about the baby...offer up the baby clothes you have or some items that may be of interest to her that she may have looked over.
Another fun rule of ours...we never count the money till its over and everything's packed up. By noon, we are done. We box up what we want to keep and/or try to sell again next time. And we put the other stuff out on the curb for the scroungers later. They will come. We wrap it up and call it a day and count our profit. And then we say, we'll never do it again...... till next year. ;)
So what did we do with our profits this year? Well, we bought a piano! Brooke will begin lessons in the Fall so we've been on the hunt for a good starter piano without breaking the bank. I've been perusing Craigslist and finally found a good piano! I am very pleased with our purchase. Its in great shape and plays beautifully. There was a lot of bonus stuff in the piano bench it came with too! Lots of music books, sheet music and even an antique looking metronome! This week, we are having it tuned and it'll be good to go! The girls LOVE it! And I do too! :)
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