5 Steps to a Stress Free Garage Sale

Garage sales are a great way to earn a few bucks while cleaning out your closets and getting rid of clutter. Unfortunately, they can also be a lot of hard work. My mother and I put together a family garage sale every year, and after many stressful sales, we decided there had to be a better way. Here are some of our tips for making your sale a little easier.

1. Don’t wait until the last minute to set it up. Sometimes garage sales are a last minute idea, but if you can help it, try to give yourself at least a week to prepare. Spend an hour or two each night boxing up items that you want to sell and keep them all in once place. If you plan to have your sale in a garage or closed-in space, go ahead and set up your tables and items as you work.
2. Price your items. Using inexpensive stickers or tape to price your items before your sale can make the experience less stressful for both you and your shoppers. There is nothing more annoying than having to constantly answer the big “how much do you want for this?” question over and over again. Not knowing the prices ahead of time can have you thinking on the spot and you may end up selling an item for much less than it’s worth. You may also lose business to customers who decide it is not worth it to sit around and wait for you to answer all of their questions.
3. Have plenty of change on hand. The day before your sale, take a large bill or two to your bank and ask them to give you change. Be sure to get at least five dollars worth of quarters and twenty dollars worth of ones, so you can be prepared for shoppers who only have twenty dollar bills.
4. Join up with a partner. Throwing a garage sale by yourself can be exhausting. Not only do you have to do all of the work, but you can’t step away to go to the restroom or grab a bite to eat. Ask a friend, relative or neighbor to help you out and sell some of their own items. Not only will they help lighten the workload, but you will have someone to chat with when there is a break in the flow of customers. It is also much safer.
5. Have a plan for items that don’t sell. When your garage sale is over, you will most likely be exhausted, and the last thing you want to do is spend the rest of your weekend figuring out what to do with the items that didn’t sell. We donate most of our leftover items to local charities. You may also consider putting them in storage for a future sale or even placing an ad online or in the newspaper offering all remaining items to the highest bidder.