This Saturday, is ‘Garage Sale Day’, and having a garage or yard sale is a great way to get rid of excess in your home and make a little cash doing it. It’s also an incredible way to de-clutter your home before a move or to reclaim living space.
If you’re planning a garage or yard sale coming up, here’s our top 10 tips:
- Organize: get the things together that you want to put in the sale, and organize them into categories (ex: books, electronics, etc.)
- Get supplies: make sure you go out and get all the supplies you’ll need: poster board, permanent markers, post its or labels, masking tape, etc.
- Great signage: make sure your signs are large and bold. Draw attention to your sale, maybe with balloons or bright colours. It’s also important to make sure your signs are legible.
- Spread the word: besides signage, you may want to advertise your garage sale in your local newspaper or online at free posting sites.
- Let your neighbours know: bigger sales will draw in bigger crowds, so if you can get a few neighbours in on it you can have a much bigger garage or yard sale. It’s also courteous to advise of planned increased traffic on your street or block.
- Price things accordingly: remember, at the end of the day this is to de-clutter your home, not make a ton of money, so be reasonable with your pricing. Make sure items are clearly labeled.
- Think retail business: When you’re displaying things, make them look presentable and easily viewed from a distance. Get the ‘big ticket’ items up in front so it draws people in.
- Create a ‘freebie’ box: no matter what, people love free stuff. If you have some things you just genuinely want to get rid of, toss them in a box labeled ‘free’.
- Mark down: start marking down the price once you’re halfway through your time, so that the later shoppers will see they are getting an even better deal.
- Give it away at the end: once your sale is over, collect what’s left and find a local non-profit that could use your stuff. You may as well give back while your cleaning out!
Have more garage sale tips we’ve missed? We’d love for you to share them with us on Twitter!