The garage sale is a great way to clean out your house, make some extra cash and meet your neighbors.
And you don’t have to be a professional organizer to host a garage sale. It’s one of the easiest ways to make money from your clutter and get rid of items you no longer need or want.
But if you want to attract customers, you’re going to have to do more than just hang a sign on the front lawn. So we have come up with the following tips you can use to host a successful garage sale:
1. Choose Your Location Wisely
When deciding where to host your garage sale, think about the type of items you want to sell and how many people live in the neighbourhood. If you’re selling furniture or other large items, choose an area with more open space so people can easily walk through and browse your inventory.
If you’re selling smaller items like clothes or CDs, consider placing them in front of houses with driveways, so customers don’t have to carry everything through yards or down streets.
2. Start Early
This may seem obvious, but starting early is the best way to ensure you have time to prep and advertise your sale.
If possible, set up early in the morning on the day of your sale, so people know what’s available and can start shopping right away. If this isn’t possible, try setting up no later than 8 am so shoppers can get their first look at what’s available before they go off to work or school and come back later when they’re free from work or class.
3. Advertise Days Before the Garage Sale
Plan ahead and start advertising your garage sale well before the actual date. This will give people plenty of time to plan their day around it, and they’ll be more likely to show up if they know when it will be held.
You can use signage and flyers for advertising your event beforehand (even if it’s just days in advance). This will help bring in more customers who might not otherwise come across a garage sale. You can also use your local bulletin boards, if possible, to put up flyers about the garage sale — as well as a few of the essential things they can find there.
4. Be Clear About Prices
Make sure that all items are priced clearly so that shoppers know what they’re getting into before they arrive at your garage sale.
The best way to price items is by setting them up in groups based on similar value — for example, all books priced between $1-$3 each or all DVDs priced under $10 each — then putting signs next to each group clearly stating their prices. This will give customers an idea of what they should pay for different items without asking every time they see something they like.
If you set the prices too high, you may lose out on customers or spend a lot of time with people bargaining with you. So make sure to have fair prices based on their worth to make the garage sale smoothly.
5. MarkDown Prices Early On
Even if you want to test out a few high prices for your items, make sure to keep a stipulated time after which you mark down its prices — in case it isn’t sold.
This will help bring in more customers eager to buy at a lower price. If you wait too long to mark down an item, no one will want it because they’ll think someone else has already purchased it at a lower price.
6. Keep It Clean
Clean up your garage before starting your sale because nobody wants to look inside someone else’s dirty car or messy tool shed while shopping for bargains.
You want your garage sale to look nice so that people will want to shop there. So ensure that everything is organized and clean before anyone arrives at your sale. This will give people confidence in shopping with you and buying from your items. When you’re selling large items, like furniture or appliances, make sure they’re clean before putting them out on display for customers as well. This would make all the difference when trying to sell.
7. Be Organized
Organizing your items in advance can help you get rid of more things and make more money at your garage sale. It will also give you time to price all your items, so everything is priced fairly. You don’t have to have everything organized before the day of your sale, but if you do, it will make things easier for yourself and your customers.
So be sure to have all things ready and organized before the event — so that people can shop quickly and efficiently. You’ll also want to create an attractive display area that makes people want to shop in your garage sale.
8. Have a Theme
Don’t just throw random items out on tables — group them together by category or theme. This would make it easier for shoppers to easily find what they need.
For instance, if you have many clothing items, create some sort of clothing section where all the shirts are together and so on. This will make shopping much easier for customers because all the items in that category will be grouped in one place rather than scattered throughout the garage sale area.
The best way to get rid of unwanted stuff is by hosting a garage sale. It’s a good way to make some money and get rid of your old items. So make sure to keep these above points in mind when planning your next garage sale.
