If you have a lot of stuff in your home, some well-meaning friend or family member, having no idea how much work is actually involved, may have suggested you hold a garage sale. Maybe you’ve even thought about staging one yourself. It’s probably a good idea, but a garage sale is a lot of work. It’s like starting and running a business — one that lasts a few hours or maybe a couple days.
So if you’re thinking of holding a garage sale and want it to be a success, you’ll want to do it right. Here are some garage sale tips to guide you through the entire process. And unlike anything you’ll find at an actual garage sale, or yard sale, these tips are all free.
You May Need a Garage Sale Permit
One thing you might want to do early on is contact your county’s recorder’s office or your town’s city manager. You may need a permit to have a garage sale.
Yes, you might pull off a garage sale without having a permit if your area is pretty lax about this sort of thing. But if you want to do this right, you’ll want to check with your city or country to see what the rules are.
Every city across the country is different in how they handle garage sales — prices for permits may vary, or you may be able to get a permit for free. There are also probably going to be rules about what kind of signage you post throughout the community and when the signs need to be taken down. Maybe you’ll be allowed to put a sign up near your neighborhood but not on a telephone pole. You’ll want to know this beforehand.
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Where and How to Advertise a Garage Sale
There are a lot of websites that specialize in advertising garage sales. Many will let you do it for free since they are ad supported and there are a lot of garage sale enthusiasts.
GarageSaleFinder.com, YardSales.net and Garage Sales By Map are some popular sites. You also should consider tried and true sites like Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and any social media sites you frequent, like Facebook itself. You also may want to put an ad in your local paper, which will probably cost you something, but it may be worth it nonetheless.
Best Day for a Garage Sale
“Preferably on a weekend when more people are available to visit,” says Josh Petrawski, CEO at Sports and Fitness Exchange, in Peoria, Arizona. The store specializes in new, used and consignment gear for sports and exercise equipment, much of which winds up being sold at garage sales — or sold to a store like Petrawski’s.
In fact, Petrawski used to have garage sales pretty regularly — and was so good at selling that that’s how he wound up starting his business. And he still has a garage sale, generally about once a year.
As for what’s the best day on the weekend to have a garage sale, that’s probably going to be on a Saturday. If you sell on Sunday morning, you may lose some potential customers to church. Plenty of people, of course, hold weekend garage sales, which means you could — especially if you have a lot of stuff — start on Saturday morning or even Friday evening and keep selling until Sunday evening.
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Best Time for a Garage Sale
The best time to start is early morning, generally around 7 a.m., according to garage sale culture. There really is a groundswell of people who enjoy coming to garage sales, and they often will be there as soon as you open, to get the best merchandise.
“Prepare for people wanting to come early,” Reyne Hirsch, who is a former Antiques Roadshow appraiser. She also is a publicist and co-owns an art gallery. She is based out of Houston.
“Some will arrive the day before your sale trying to preview. It’s up to you to entertain this or not. If you don’t want the early birds, note it in your advertisement,” Hirsch says.
What to Plan
If you’re really going to do this, you want to do it right, and that means not throwing this garage sale too quickly or on the fly, unless you’re really good at that sort of thing.
Beyond the garage sale tips that have already been mentioned, you’ll want to think about several things, including:
— What you’re selling. But there is more to it than that, of course. “Gather and organize items you want to sell, cleaning and pricing them in advance,” Petrawski says.
— Who will be doing the selling? Just you? Some family members? Friends? Do you want to sell some stuff from your family and friends? And will you get or give a commission?
— How will people pay for your merchandise? Do you just want cash from your customers? If so, mention that in your ads on social media. Can people pay you through Venmo? Are you going to buy a card reader? Does your bank have one that they can loan or give to you for free? Some banks do. You’ll want to know this ahead of time.
— Budgeting. Placing ads in a local newspaper won’t be free. Nor will price tags. Amazon sells a pack of 500 for $11.99, so it isn’t like it’s going to set you way back. But you do want to keep track of what you’re spending to make money. It would be a bummer to spend $50 on your garage sale only to make $25. Another thing to consider is that if you sell items with a credit card fee, you can expect to pay around 2.5% to 3.5% for each credit card transaction.
Those price tags are really important, adds Hirsch. Assuming you have advertised your garage sale well, “you will be inundated with attendees and you won’t be able to stop to answer constant pricing questions,” she says.
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Setting Up Your Garage Sale
Sure, this is part of the planning, but it’s probably the most fun part of the garage sale, other than collecting the money. A few things to consider:
The signs. Petrawski suggests placing clear and visible signs directing people to your location from main roads or busy intersections.
“Use large, bold letters and arrows on signs to attract attention and guide potential customers to your sale,” he says.
Staffing. You should try and enlist family members or friends to help you, Hirsch encourages.
“Managing a yard or garage sale on your own can be daunting,” she says. “People don’t like to wait as they no doubt have a list of garage sales they want to stop at in a day.”
The ambiance. “Set the mood,” Hirsch advises. “It never hurts to set a happy or calm tone with a little background music.”
Along with that, Hirsch suggests, “If you have kids, have them set up a table with coffee and donuts for your guests. It encourages guests to stay longer.”
She also suggests: “Have balloons at the end of your driveway. It helps people find your house that are looking and will encourage people who maybe aren’t aware there is a garage sale that day.”
Petrawski seconds many of Hirsch’s suggestions, like the background music, but he also suggests thinking about shade if you live in a warm area, and maybe a few seats for people. After all, the more comfortable people are, the longer they will stay. The longer they stay, the more they (might) buy.
Bring a tape measure. Or a ruler. That is, if you’re selling something big, like furniture or art. Your customers, Hirsch says, may need to know how big something is before they take it to their own space.
Make sure your “cash register” is full. Sure, it may be a shoebox (Petrawski recommends a cash box or money pouch), but wherever you’re storing the money, “make sure you have a lot of single dollars and change,” Hirsch says. “You won’t be able to stop and go get change after the sale has started.”
That is the hope: that you’ll be too busy to do much more than collect money. The more you consider all of these garage sale tips and plan how you’re going to sell everything, the more likely you will make some real money. What you don’t want is to find yourself sitting in a lawn chair alone, with nary a customer in sight. With the right planning and a little luck, like good weather, you’ll be so busy that eventually you’ll sell everything — including your lawn chair.
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Tips for Making Money at Your Garage Sale originally appeared on usnews.com
