It is one of my favorite times of the year.
People are hauling out their "junk" putting it in their yards,
and selling things at unbelievably cheap prices!
I love garage sales.
I love the thrill of the hunt and I love coming home with new treasures.
If you are planning on having a garage sale, here are my top 10 tips I have found to be helpful, from a shoppers perspective and from someone who has had sales herself.
1~Look at the forecast and plan the sale to be on a sunny day. You might also want to search for big neighborhood or community sales that may be close by you, to take advantage of the traffic they are bringing in.
2~Signage is key. If there does happen to be other sales around you, direct traffic from their sales to yours with signs. Make your signs big and easy to read from a distance.
Put the date on the signs. This might sound obvious, but if the dates are not on there, for example if they just say Friday and Saturday, people might think they are old signs and not risk chancing a long drive to find nothing.
3~Advertise like crazy. Put ads on craigslist and add photos! Give a long list of items being sold. If you only are selling baby items, mention that. If you have everything under the sun for sale, mention that. Spell it out for people. You don't need to get nitty gritty, but be specific. Use your Facebook page as a place to announce it. If you don't feel comfortable leaving your address open to the public, as people to private message you. Word of mouth is great too!
4~Have a lot of things for sale.
Have you ever driven by a garage sale that had maybe 10 things out on the curb?
And you did just that right? Drive by?
No one wants to stop unless it looks promising, so make your displays look good and have enough items to make people interested when they are driving by.
Collect things all year if you have too. Keep them in a attic or storage space and when it comes time to have a sale you will be good to go!
5~Display your items in a pleasing manner. Prepare yourself so that you have enough tables to put things on, even if you have to borrow them. It just is so much more attractive and easier for the shoppers to shop if things are elevated and displayed nicely. You can group things by color, season, kitchen, bedroom, etc.
6~Make sure everything is priced. One of my pet peeves is to go to a sale where nothing is marked. Usually people out shopping don't want to have to wait in a line to ask a price on something, so they put it back. Don't mark your prices too high, it is a garage sale not a department store. People will haggle you down in price anyway.
7~Have a clearly marked checkout area and plenty of change. You will also want to have a lot of bags and boxes. Start stashing all your grocery store bags and store them in the attic with your garage sale pieces.
8~Team up with friends for a multiple family sale. This is especially helpful if you don't think you will have enough merchandise. I can't think of a better way to spend the weekend than with girlfriends making money and getting rid of our junk!
{I mean treasures}
9~If you have young kids, let them be a part of the experience by setting up a lemonade and cookie stand. They will love feeling like they are a part of it, and they always love making money.
If it's a really really hot day and you don't feel like cooking, you can always sell bottled water and pop and donuts or something of the sort.
10~Mark items down on the last day of the sale. Remember, this is stuff you want to get rid of, so unless it has a huge value, don't bring it back in your house! I even like to make everything FREE right when the sale ends. You'd be surprised how many people will show up, and it saves you a trip to the Goodwill.
I hope these tips help!
Have a great weekend.
xoxo
