10 Tips and Tricks to a Successful Garage Sale

1. Collect Items Year-Round

I find that all year long I am going through my kids closets and pulling out clothes that no longer fit, toys that they no longer play with, and just stuff in general that they don’t need in their rooms. Not only that but I also find that throughout the year there are plenty of items that get replaced, upgraded or just unused. I like to collect that stuff in what I call the “garage sale corner”. I have a corner in my garage with a few storage bins that I am continually adding items to throughout the year. Furniture and larger items can sometimes fit in this corner however if they do not it’s ok at least I know what items we no long want and need. By collecting items year round you will eliminate the stress of hunting down items to sale last minute.

2. Get Organized

Organization is the key to a successful garage sale. Nobody wants to buy clothing that is laying in a pile on the ground or have to dig through boxes of randomness, Make sure to borrow tables, clothing racks, bins, shelves, etc from family and friends.

Clearly mark your prices either on the items or with color coded stickers (or both). I personally usually put a price of all of the bigger items and then make color coded tables or stickers with a BIG SIGN that states what price belongs to each color. (Example: buy the stickers with 4 different colors and then place one sticker on each item at that price. Orange = $0.25, Pink = $0.50, Blue = $1.00, Green = $2.00)

3. Draw Your Customers In

Make sure to place your most appealing items facing closest to the street. I typically put the larger items like baby equipment, furniture, lawn mower, TOOLS, large electronics…all items that really draw in a variety of customers. You want to be appealing to a large audience. Especially for those drive by garage sellers. 🙂

4. Team Up

The the larger the garage sale, the larger the variety of products the more customers you will appeal to. Plus people are drawn more to a garage sale that states multi-family (because of the range of variety).

5. Get Creative

Don’t just mark your signs “garage sale” give it a fun incising name! Example: Four Family Funky Junky Sale, My Junk Your Treasures Garage Sale, What’s Mine Can Now Be Yours Garage Sale…oh man the list could go on!!!

6. Location, Location, Location

Seriously location is everything. If you live in a hard to find location, ask a friend or family member that lives closer to a main street if you can use their home for a garage sale. You don’t want to get customers all excited to shop your sale and then have them not be able to find you. Plus remember more than 50% of your traffic will come from random drive by’s.

7. Advertise

Make sure to make LARGE clearly marked signs. The signs should have the name of the sale, your address and the date and time of the sale. I also like to include a bright colored arrow to my signs. Usually the arrow is cut out of a fluorescent color and stapled on the top or bottom of the sign to pop! If your location is a little bit off the main road make sure to have signs at every turn to lead customers to your sale. I also recommend advertising for FREE on Craigslist! If you really have a large sale and want a huge crowd you can also pay for an ad in the local newspaper (however I never bother with this and always have a successful sale).

8. Timing is Key

Make sure to check the weather before planning your sale. There aren’t many people who enjoy garage selling on super hot days or in the pouring rain. You also want to avoid holiday weekends, as most people are busy those weekends and don’t have time to garage sale shop. The time of the day you hold your sale is also very important, I have found in years of hosting garage sales that 7-7:30 am is the best time to “Start” your sale. Here is what I do…I advertise my sale to start at 7 am and have nearly all my large items out by then and then I take from 7-8 am to finish setting out the smaller sale items.

Start your sales on Friday (or even Thursday) I have found that my bulk traffic comes on Friday, before the weekend! Sunday’s are typically the slowest day!

Check in with your neighbors and community and find out if there is set weekend for a community sale. Or you can ask your neighbors if they are planing a sale soon and if they would like to arrange it on the same weekend as you. The more sales in a neighbor hood the better your traffic will be!

9. Price Things to Sell

If you truly want to get rid of the items you have set out to sell price them to sale. Customers who see that you are priced to sale are more likely to buy more! In fact I typically tell customers the more they buy the better the deal I will give them. This benefits both them and me…they get a better deal and I get rid of a bulk amount all at once!

If you are doing a 3 day sale I typically tell customers (and advertise) that everything will be an additional 50% off the last day! This will not effect what people pay the first two days it will only draw those people to come back and look at what’s left and possibly grab a few more items. The best part is that you get rid of those items and you have less to pack up to donate or put back into the garage!

10. Don’t forget the lemonade and snacks!

This is more for my kids. They love creating a lemonade stand with soda, water, chips, candy  and sometimes even hot dogs…that they sale. It’s fun for them, educational and brings in a little extra money for the kids to get to spend. Another major bonus to giving your kids their own sale, is they will stay out of they way of your sale!!! It’s a win win situation 🙂

 

BONUS TIP:

Now isn’t really a tip to having a “successful” garage for-say, however it is something I almost ALWAYS do…make a goal amount of money you want to make. I typically have a reason why I want to have a garage sale. Example, buy a bunk bed for my kids, move across country, go on a vacation, buy a new couch and so on. Many times I give myself a goal amount of money I want to make, and when I make that amount of money I close up my sale. Pack it up and put what didn’t sale away for the next sale. This way I don’t wear myself down too bad.