1. Gather stuff to sell!
- Keep a bin/box in each level (or closet) of your house. Add items in the bin the minute you want to get rid of it.
- Go through your storage area(s) – what haven’t you used that you can get rid of?
- Go through your drawers and closets – what haven’t you worn that you can sell?
- Go through bookshelves in your house – pull out any books you or your kids no longer read.
- You can also ask friends to help by giving you stuff they want to get rid of, allowing you to sell those items.
2. Gather supplies!
- Ask neighbors if you can borrow card tables.
- Get change – lots of ones, fives and quarters
- Buy price stickers and signs (Dollar Tree!)
- Buy a fanny pack or some sort of wallet you can keep ATTACHED to you.
- Buy lemonade, water bottles, pop and snacks for shoppers – my kids love to sell these and do really well with it.
3. Advertise!
- Put an ad in garagesalefinder.com
- Put an ad on craigslist
- If it’s a neighborhood sale, let the coordinator know that you are participating so they include your house on the map.
4. Price your items!
- PLEASE sell your items CHEAP! Remember, you want to GET RID OF EVERYTHING! It doesn’t matter if you paid $60 for those boots, list them for $5.
How to price clothes to SELL :
Take a piece of printer paper, and write/type:
- Buy 1 item, pay $2
- Buy 3 items, pay $5
- Buy 10 items, pay $10
Leave several of these “pricing sheets” around your clothes!
This forces people to look through your stuff and BUY MORE so they can SAVE more – which means you will SELL MORE and MAKE MORE MONEY!
How to Price Books:
- One book 25cents, 10 books for $1!
My kids have their own little table and love to sell drinks and snacks to hungry, thirsty, or just plain KIND customers!
How to price Snacks and drinks:
- 50cents each
Optional last day – mark everything down by 50%. I LOVE it when I go to a sale and the owner says “Everything’s half price!” I always find stuff to buy!
Optional last hour – everything is 25 cents!!!
5: Prepare!
I leave cars parked outside my garage a few nights before the sale so I can start setting up.
The night before or morning of the sale, I go place “GARAGE SALE” signs out – pointing people the way to my house.
The Crazy Garage Sale Lady!
Morning of sale – prepare your “FANNY PACK” that you WEAR ALL DAY!
- lots of ones/fives/quarters
- extra price stickers
- a sharpie
- your phone
Set most of your stuff out on your driveway so people who are driving by can SEE IT! The more they can see at first glance, the more they will want to stop and shop.
Start early – I was outside working at 6am for any early birds that wanted to stop by. The sale started at 8.
6. Negotiate and SELL!
If people ask if you will take $5 for an item you are selling for $10…always works with them. Remember – YOU WANT TO SELL EVERYTHING! You DON’T want to pack it up and donate it. And please, DO NOT bring it back inside your house!
Extra tips:
- My neighborhood has a ONE DAY sale. I did this last year, and the day was fairly busy, but it’s hard to justify doing all this work for a ONE DAY SALE. This year I decided to open on Thursday, Friday and SATURDAY!
- I didn’t do a LOT of pricing until the night before and morning of the sale. I DID have the price sheets written out that I mentioned earlier.
- The morning of the sale (starting at 6 AM), I priced items as I set them on tables or placed them along my driveway.
- OfferUp – Are you familiar with this app? I love it. It’s free to use and you can sell your stuff in three easy steps. Take a pic, describe your item, price it. I had several items from my garage sale listed on the app. When someone sent me a message about something they wanted, I told them I was having a garage sale, gave them my address and asked them to come by. Every person that came to pick up their item, bought even MORE items from my sale!
Thursday I had customers start arriving at 8 AM and slowed down by noon. I closed about 12:30 so I could do some things with my boys.
On Friday, customers starting arriving at 8 AM and slowed down by noon again. I closed at 12:30.
On Saturday, customers started arriving by 7 AM. This was my busiest day because the entire neighborhood had a sale. But again, it slowed way down after noon so I just started pricing everything WAY down. If someone picked something up, I’d say – “Take it for a quarter!”
Overall, it was a fairly successful sale. I made over $200 and the boys made almost $75 in snack and drink sales!!! Clark is always the rockstar salesperson. He stays and sells from the beginning til the very end.
With a few things that didn’t sell – I did three things.
1 – Packed a box for goodwill.
2 – Packed a box for a friend that could use some boy clothes.
3 – Packed the rest and gave to a friend who is having a sale NEXT weekend to raise money for a trip she wants to take!
Are there any tips YOU would suggest for a successful sale? Leave me a comment!