Organizing a Successful Garage Sale

Image credit: Eastlake Times (flickr.com)

You are relocating soon and you’re working on finalizing your list of things to bring. Along the process, you realize you no longer need some items and you want to get rid of them. Want to make some extra cash at the same time? Then having a garage sale can be an excellent idea!  

Basically, a garage sale means selling some of your belongings for a cheaper price that you got them. As the name implies, this is typically done in the garage but do not feel limited by that definition. You can have it in your yard and call it a yard sale or something.

What’s most important here is that all the items you want to sell are properly displayed. For example, you need to make price tags for every item. Doing this will help minimize the instances wherein different buyers will bug and ask you for the price of the same item. Also, this is a good way to ensure that you have a fixed price in mind for every item. You can price everything with the help of a marker and several pieces of paper.  

Of course, itemizing can make your items look more organized. Everything will look better if you put them in the right places. For instance, hang all the clothes together and put all books and magazines in a table. You can even go further by using size dividers for the clothes so that buyers will not have to look through every single clothing item. Just put a sign that specifies the sizes and that will be extremely helpful for buyers.

Whenever possible, offer in bundles to make it more attractive for buyers. You may have lots of magazines, comic books, and other reading materials at home. Instead of selling them per issue, you may want to sell them in bundles so that you can dispose them quicker. 

Do not forget to get help from family members. You’ll likely have your hands full as neighbors and passers-by visit your place. It will be most effective if you can have some of your children or relatives deal with some of the clients. You can avoid feeling too overwhelmed if you do this.

With adequate planning and preparation, you’ll definitely have a successful experience in organizing your garage sale. Although some would argue that selling online is still better if you want to earn more money, an old-fashioned garage sale is still better because you’ll have no competitions at all - except, of course, if your next door neighbor is also hosting a sale. You’ll have extra earnings you can later use as you relocate to your new home!

What to Bring and What to Leave Behind

Image credit: Sean Oliver (flickr.com)

As the title of this article suggests, I am hoping to provide some helpful insights for those who will soon be relocating. Without a doubt, everyone who needs to pack things and move to a new home has encountered this question. This can be particularly difficult to answer especially if you have accumulated a lot of stuff throughout the years.

Here are a few more questions to help you decide whether items are worth-bringing or not:

Are you emotionally attached to it?

Perhaps most important of all, you need to assess whether an item is important to you for emotional reasons. Is it a souvenir from an important life event? Has it been given by someone? Is it a favorite object from your childhood or something that has value to your entire family? If so, then those are valid reasons to keep the item. 

Is it still useful to you?

Aside from emotional attachment, another determining factor is whether an item is still useful for you or not. Think! When was the last time you really used the object in question? If, for instance, it’s a pair of shoe you are no longer wearing then it’s probably best to throw that away.

Must-Brings

Of course, there are some things that should definitely be brought with you as you relocate. Personal and financial documents are never optional. Passports, birth certificates, IDs, loan documents, mortgage papers, and others. Jewelries and antiques are also important because they are valuable. If you have any collection such as figurines, books, or anything else, then those should also be included.

As for the rest…

Some items are optional and so you might want to get rid of them either by selling or donating them instead. If you’re feeling generous and if you can find a local organization that needs, say, used clothing, then it will be a terrific idea to get in touch and bring the goods to them.

Alternatively, you may consider selling your stuff. If you have the convenience of extra time, you can offer the items online through eBay or even Facebook. If this is not possible, another option is to organize a garage sale so that interested buyers can drop by and buy what you have.

Speaking of which, I’ll be writing an upcoming blog about how to organize an effective garage sale. I will be covering the basics of how to make such an event successful so be sure to stay tuned for that.