HOW TO ORGANIZE A GARAGE SALE

Here we are in the third part of my spring cleaning series!  In the first, I showed you how to organize your cleaning caddy and cleaning routines.  And, in the second, I showed you how to clean and de-clutter per season.  Do you have growing kids?  Every year, my friends and I would have a combined garage sale to purge the clothes and toys our kids outgrew along with other items we weren’t using anymore.  Today, in the video above (click the picture), I show you how to organize a garage sale to maximize sales!  In the next, I will also show you how to post and maximize sales on garage sale type apps like Let Go and Offerup.

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My previous video showed you how to collect your items during your cleaning routines so that you can have them all gathered together in preparation for your garage sale.  If you haven’t gathered your items yet, don’t worry.  Just grab the freebie from my previous post which will guide you through sorting items you don’t need or use.  I also have another freebie for you which includes my best tips for setting up your garage sale, so grab it here now!

PREPARATION

After you have collected items you no longer need or use, why not make some money!  To prepare for your garage sale, you will need to sort your items into categories like clothes, household, outdoor gear etc.

Then, sort those categories by the amount you want to price them.  Because, in general, you typically are having a garage sale to get rid of things and make some extra cash, you will need to price items at about one-quarter to one-tenth of what you originally paid for them (you can price higher ticket items for more on garage sale apps … stay tuned for my next post).  Think of it this way, you have no use for the item now, the lower you price it, the more likely you will be able to sell it.  You will have gotten rid of an item which is taking up valuable space in your home.  On top of that, you will make money off of it!  It is a win-win no matter what price you sell it at.  I remember selling rusty, old mountain bikes for two dollars.  I was so relieved I would not have to take them back in the house AND I got two dollars!

You can purchase neon price stickers at the dollar store as well as small neon signs for pricing a category of items. It is much easier to price items once you decide what the more valuable items are so that they can set the pricing for everything else.  For example, if you price some brand name shoes at ten dollars before you have sorted everything, and you want to price some generic shoes at ten dollars instead, you will not have to go back and forth re-pricing the name brand shoes.  You will want to price the name brand shoes at a similar price, the lower end shoes at a lower price and the flip-flops at the lowest price.  Another example is that you will want to sort your home décor by value so that you can price the nicer wrought iron wall hanging at twenty dollars, the canvas art at ten dollars, and the candle holders at five dollars.

If you have lots of the same category of a lower priced item (i.e. a bunch of picture frames or dishes), you can place them in a box or on a shelf, wherever they are easy to look through, with a sign noting them for sale at two dollars each or three for five dollars instead of pricing them individually.  You can place a sign next to anything that stacks like plates or bowls.

Keep in mind the condition of the item.  Just because you paid twenty-five dollars for that concert t-shirt, if it is faded or the band is no longer popular, price it at two dollars.  If someone offers fifty cents, say, “It’s yours!”  You probably would not have sold it and now you have one less item to take to the donation center.  On top of that, you also have some change in your pocket!

SETUP

To set up your sale, install hooks and rope for selling clothing items if you do not have garment racks or a railing for people to easily sort through your clothing items.  We literally take our clothes (that we are keeping) off the hangers and leave our clothes on our beds.  Then, we borrow the hangers to use them to hang our items to sell.  Most people do not like digging through piles, so the extra effort to hang the clothing will create more sales.  If using hangers is not an option, try to elevate the items so that people can sift through them like on tabletops.  If you don’t have tables, lay the items on cloth, tarp or card board and try to lay out each item so that they visual individually.  That way, shoppers won’t have to dig and can quickly grab what they want.

Tables and shelving (against a wall to prevent them from falling) are ideal for selling all other items.  Observe the layouts of department stores.  Everything is visible and accessible.

ADVERTISING

To advertise your sale, you can purchase large neon poster board for your garage sale signs with arrows guiding people to your sale.  You can actually cut one in half to make 2 signs.  The lettering needs to be extra bold, black, and large.  You will want to reinforce the back with some cardboard or foam board.  Depending on where you live, if you live in a city where a lot of traffic passes not too far from where you live, your sign simply needs to say, ‘GARAGE SALE’ and have an arrow underneath.  You will then have as many signs with arrows as you need leading people from the closest, busiest main road near you to your house.  In more suburban areas, you may need to post a sign with the address at the most frequented location like a grocery store or gas station with more detailed info including the address, dates, and times.  Then, on the day of, you can post your general garage sale signs with arrows guiding people to your location.  In either situation, be sure to check your local city posting laws to see if you are allowed to tape signs up to light posts and intersection signs or if you can use a stake in the dirt or if you are allowed to post signs at all.  If you post in front of any store owners’ shops, be sure to ask their permission.

The best way to advertise your garage sale is to post it online at multiple forums the night before which typically would be Friday night as most garage sales are on Saturday mornings.  On Craigslist, you will take the following steps to post a sale:

Go to your city’s Craigslist link and click ‘Post’, then click ‘for sale by owner’, then click ‘garage & moving sales’

Craigslist and other garage sale sites will automatically include the dates, start time, and location.  You will add pictures, list the items you are selling, and the end time.  You should also include general directions, like “Head West on Euclid from Freeway 101” for those who may not use a GPS and note within the ad “to look for bright, pink signs”.

Depending on where you live, you can have some avid garage sale shoppers who like to come early and purchase most of your items before there are slim-pickings.  Their goal is to grab the good stuff to re-sell or give to their families.  Those shoppers will come as early as the time you post.  Since the rest of the world will likely be ready to leave the house around eight A.M., you should post your sale for six or seven A.M. so that you can get rid of most of your items in the first rush by the avid garage sale shoppers.  Be sure to post a closing time so people do not go out of their way to come and find you have closed up shop.  I find that around noon is the time the traffic trickles down to a crawl.  Then, it will be early enough in the day for you to have time to pack up, drop off your items at the donation center, and put that money in the bank (or go shopping and get some new clothes for your growing children).

Don’t bring it back in the house!  You didn’t want it and you couldn’t sell it.  Put those unwanted items to good use and help others!

If any items really are useless, a lot of Goodwill donation centers will recycle the items properly for you.  If your local Goodwill donation centers won’t take items like electronics or very old baby gear like car seats and toys, you can check your local recycling centers.  Most of the time, their websites list the items they take and don’t take.  You may need to go to a few different places if you have old electronics and old paint for example, but it will all be worth it once you clear out those items you aren’t using that are just collecting dust.

For higher ticket items like brand name purses, baby gear, and appliances, I don’t recommend selling these at a garage sale.  You typically can get more for these items by selling them on a garage sale app.  Instead of one-quarter to one-tenth the original price you paid, you can sell for about one-half to one-quarter the original price you paid.  I will go over this in my next post.  What tips did you find to be the most helpful?  What tips do you have?  Let’s share in the comments below.  Don’t forget to grab my garage sale tips guide here!  Be sure to subscribe to my channel and click the notification bell so you don’t miss another organizing video.

Happy Organizing!