Planning to have a garage sale soon? I’ve had a number of successful garage sales over the years and these are my top 10 garage sale tips!
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Since I’m a minimalist at heart, I’ve always loved to declutter, go through old stuff, and purge what we no longer need.
Back in our law school days, I frequently had garage sales to earn a little bit of extra cash — because every little bit helped stretch our really tight budget during those financially lean years!
Since I’ve had SO many garage sales over the years, I’ve learned a lot about how to have a successful garage sale.
If you’ve been thinking about have a garage sale soon, here are my top 10 garage sale tips!
1. Collect clutter year-round.
Always have an ongoing Garage Sale stash you’re adding to.
Try to regularly declutter and purge what you don’t need. When you come across something you no longer need or use, stick it in a box! Once that box fills up, start another box! And another.
Without much effort at all, by the time your garage sale comes along, you’ll have multiple boxes of stuff you can sell!
I used to do this throughout the year and then have an annual garage sale each year. It made things super easy, because I already had everything in one place to sell. I didn’t have to spend days going through items and figuring out what to sell.
2. Have a plan.
A successful garage sale does not happen without organization.
At least a week before your garage sale, I recommend going through your home top to bottom and clearing out any last-minute clutter that’s not already in the garage sale boxes. At least 2-3 days before the sale, set aside an afternoon to price everything out and organize your items. And then the day before the sale, devote a few hours to final organization — advertising on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, getting some cash together for change, making signs, etc.
Do not wait until the last minute to pull off a garage sale. Either it will flop or you’ll run yourself ragged — or both. If you’re in a new location or you’re new to hosting a garage sale, I’d suggest that you start getting organized at least 3-4 weeks in advance.
Getting organized for a successful garage sale:
:: How are you going to display items? Do you need to borrow or make a clothes-rack?
:: Do you have enough table space? If not, check and see if you can borrow tables from friends or put together some makeshift tables out of plywood and boxes.
:: What signs will you be using and how many do you need? Where will you be displaying the signs to best direct traffic to your home? Drive the routes people will be using to find your home and decide on locations for your signs ahead of time.
:: Who is going to put the signs out the morning of the sale? Designate someone for this ahead of time and let them know specifically where to place the signs.
:: How much cash should you have on hand and how will you keep it in a safe location?
:: Do you need to purchase a license for running a garage sale in your area?
:: Do you have enough help?
3. Team up.
One of my top garage sale tips is that you should never do them alone! Find friends or family to team up with.
Not only does this arrangement mean you have a larger quantity and variety of items to sell, but it also means you have more help. Divvying up the responsibilities between 3 or 4 people makes a garage sale much more manageable.
Plus, it just makes it more fun when you’re doing it with friends and family!
4. Location, location, location!
If you want to have a garage sale that flops, pick a location that is off-the-beaten-path and hard to get to. That’s a surefire way to lose a lot of business.
Don’t live near a busy intersection? Look for alternative locations like the home of a friend or relative.
We always had really successful garage sales at our home in Kansas, because we lived right between two very heavily-trafficked streets. We put up some good signage and the crowds came!
5. Timing is everything (well, just about!).
I don’t advise planning a sale in the freezing cold Winter or the blazing hot Summer. Choose a time of the year when the weather will be very pleasant and try to check the weather forecast ahead of time to make sure rain is not expected when you’re planning your sale.
In addition, find out what days of the week are best for yard sales to run in your area. Fridays and Saturdays are usually really popular, but you’d be surprised to find that in some areas Thursdays are big days for garage sales!
6. Clearly mark your prices.
It’s easy to want to just stick a big sign on a table saying that everything on that table is a quarter, but in the long-run it is much more efficient to go ahead and put price stickers on everything. Instead of having to make up prices on the spot, people will know exactly how much something is. In addition, some people are too shy to ask the price of an item, so you’ll lose a sale if an item isn’t marked.
I’ve found it’s worth paying the few dollars it costs to buy pre-priced stickers for most items. It makes things SO simple and fast!
I also recommend having a variety in pricing — with plenty of really inexpensive items. Often, when you have a lot of inexpensive items, people are more likely to pick up more items — and it will often help sell some of your larger-ticketed items in the long run!
{Tip: If you are running a garage sale with multiple families, just put initials on all the price tags so that you can keep a tally sheet of who sold what. And you can even have two people working the money table — one to keep track of the tally sheet and one to handle all of the money transactions.}
7. Price things to sell.
Of all my garage sale tips, this is one of the most important — and something that I have seen people miss the mark on time and time again with garage sales!
When people come to a garage sale, they are expecting to pay garage sale prices. Keep this in mind when you price your items.
While pricing can vary a bit depending on the area you live in, it’s really important to price things to sell. A good rule of thumb is to price things at what you feel would be a good bargain if you were buying that item at someone else’s garage sale.
And it’s better to price something on the low end and have someone actually buy my item, than to have 25 people pick up the item and put it back down on the table because it is too expensive.
8. Advertise well.
The marketing of your sale is usually the number one factor in how well your sale does. You can have great items, great prices, and a great location — but if people don’t know how to get to your house or can’t find it on their own, you won’t have a successful garage sale!
So put some time and effort into making a number of quality, clearly-readable signs, and put them in conspicuous places that easily lead to your home. The brighter, bolder, and bigger the sign, the better!
And don’t forget to advertise on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist! Both are free to advertise, so why not?! And remember — the more details you can put in your ad, the better. Mention specific items, brands, and sizes.
Often times people are searching for really specific items on Craigslist or Marketplace, so even if they’re not looking at garage sales, they might see one of your listed items pull up in their search! The more descriptive you can be in the listing and title, the better.
And be sure to use proper grammar and spelling, too. Sometimes it’s the little things that make a big difference!
9. Mark items down on the last day.
Things are usually pretty picked over by the last day of the sale. That’s the perfect opportunity to get creative and hand out rock-bottom bargains!
Consider making everything half-price on the last day. We even used to let people “Fill a Bag for a Buck” on the last day of our garage sales, and it was really effective! Sometimes we’d get rid of 25 bags of full stuff in just a few hours by doing this!
Or, if you have quite a bit of stuff left and feel ready to close up shop, you can give things away for free during the last hour of your garage sale.
10. Don’t forget the cookies and lemonade!
This is one of my favorite garage sale tips! What better way to teach your children entrepreneurial skills and let them earn a little money in the process than to have them set up their own little cookie and lemonade stands at the sale?
Or, if it’s cold outside, try selling hot chocolate, coffee, and fresh cinnamon rolls. I remember we even set up a pancake griddle and sold hot pancakes one year! Everyone loved it.
Baked goods — like homemade cookies and bars — actually sell really well at garage sales. Sometimes you can make over $100 just from selling baked goods!
We also used to let Kathrynne run her own little toy table when she was younger. Everything was a penny and she had a great time interacting with customers and taking money. Best of all, it was a great learning experience for her! It was a chance for her to practice communicating with adults and learn the value of money!
What are you best garage sale tips? I’d love to hear in the comments!
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