How to Have a Garage Sale

A Garage Sale can be a great way to rid yourself of clutter and make a little money in the process. Follow these steps for a big success!

Things You'll Need:

Lots of Stuff Garage Permit Advertising Signs Price stickers Tables Cashbox and change

1.  Pick a date for your garage sale. You should give yourself a month or more to prepare but setting a date first sets a goal to work toward and keep you from procrastinating. Decide whether you will hold your garage sale on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday or just some of those days. Friday is usually the biggest garage sale day, unless you have a lot of stuff you probably will not want to do a three day sale.

2.  Get a permit for your garage sale. Most cities require a permit and they are usually only a few dollars. Some cities now even allow you to buy your permit online. Check your city's home page on the internet for details or call city hall and ask.

3.  Locate tables, boxes, shelves, etc that can be temporarily used to display garage sale items. You can probably borrow card tables from relatives and friends. If you can't come up with many tables call a rental store and make arrangements to rent a few banquet tables for the duration of your sale.

4.  Gather all the household items you want to sell. You may want to ask family and friends if they wish to give you items to sell as well. Don't worry if some of the items are broken or not in good repair. Many people buy broken things at garage sales to repair and use or resell them.

5.  Make or purchase some signs to put in your yard and the end of your street. Garage sale signs can usually be purchased at office supply or hardware stores.

6.  Call local newspapers and advertise your sale. You may also wish to advertise on sites like craigslist.org or other websites with a local presence in your community.

7.  Find something that will work as a cashbox and get some change at the bank. It's probably not a good idea to accept checks at a garage sale.

8.  A day or two before the garage sale arrange all your items in the garage and price them. You can price things individually or place same-priced items on separate tables to make pricing and selling easier. Be sure not to price items too high, people want bargains at garage sales.

9.  On the day of the sale place your signs, open on time and make sure that someone is 'on duty' to make sales at all times.

10.  After the sale donate the remaining items to charity or throw them out. Don't let that clutter back in!

Tips & Warnings

Many people will try to bargain with you. It's a good idea to accept reasonable offers.

Often people will try to 'early-bird' your sale by coming before you are open. Make up your mind ahead of time how you will deal with this.

Check out another one of my how-to articles here: How to Clean Your Computer Keyboard

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