Monday, April 9, 2012

Garage Sale Preparation Tips

Yay it is yard sale season once again! I have never had enough stuff of my own to host a garage sale at my house, because I constantly de-clutter and post on craigslist! I have had a couple of sweet friends who let me come to their home and put some stuff out on their grass in the past! Our pastors wife is going to have a yard sale on Saturday and so she asked if I had anything I wanted to put out at her sale. Craigslist here in Missouri is slower during garage sale season. So I told her that I am in! So today I labeled everything I had in my garage bins where I store items for sale and thought I should share some of my tips =)
1)Store It!
Once an item in our home is unwanted I wash it, snap a photo of it for craigslist and put it in a bin labeled "sell". Then I wait for a craigslister to come by or for a garage sale opportunity! If you do not store your items properly then they could end up un-sellable, with a stinky garage smell, mold or even worse someone in the family might see it and "rescue" it back to clutter your home!

2)Label it!
I label everything! I think it is worth the extra effort instead of just throwing things in a box and writing, "everything in here is a quarter". Things get moved around a lot at garage sales and it might end up floating around the yard with no price tag and people don't feel like asking how much so they just toss it back in the yard!
Also if you are doing a multi-family yard sale you want to initial each sticker as well. This way the money collector can take the sticker and put it on a sheet of paper to keep tally. Then they can give you your share at the end of the day!

3)Organize it!
Fold everything nicely and put like items near each other.

4) Bag it!
If you have items that belong together put them in a baggie. This way you can get rid of your items faster than selling individually!

5)Tie It!
When you have an outfit or pajama's that go together be sure to secure them together somehow so they don't go astray! I just used some white yarn I had with the kids arts and crafts things. I have used curling string in the past though and that was really pretty and I think I sold everything that was secured in it =)

6)Post It
Start posting your ad on craigslist as much as a week in advance and throughout the week before the sale with your address, time, date, List some of your big ticket items as well as general categories of items that will be for sale. If you have everything organized on the tables before the sale starts go ahead and upload a photo with your ad! Also Make bright colored signs and put them up on major intersections with arrows, your addres and the words HUGE or MULTI FAMILY or whatever to draw a crowd. Post these the night before or really early in the morning!

7)Sell it!

Price items to Sell. What I mean by this is, what would you like to pay for the item if you were at a garage sale?
I priced these plastic dishes at 10 cents each because they are dollar store grade and have been used several times for parties I had in Virginia. You need to get over the whole, "I paid this much for the item" thing and just get things out of your house and garage!!!


Happy Garage Selling!!!!!!






4 comments:

Jenn said...

Your exactly right on the pricing things to sell. I hate to go to sales and people are asking $4.00 for a shirt from Walmart, obviously they don't really want to sell it!!!!

Kelly Logan said...

Jenn, I have noticed people have this pricing problem on craigslist too! I will see some one selling a carseat from walmart for like $80 and at walmart it is only $70 brand new...lol

sell my house said...

Garage sell provide us to buy something cheap rate.It's very helpful for limited income people.

Kelly Logan said...

I agree Garage sales are a great way to provide basic necessities and wants at a rock bottom price. I am so mad I didn't start shopping garage sales until 3 years ago!!!