Tips to Have a Great Summer Garage Sale

Putting together a garage sale is hard work. I recently had a sale that made over $300. Because of this sale, I can share some tips and techniques that will help your summer garage sale be successful too! Here are my tips that helped me have a very successful summer garage sale. I hope these will help you too!

1) Collect items of high value. Throw out anything that is dirty, broken, stained or has holes. If someone sees bad items at your garage sale, they might not stick around long enough to see the good stuff.

2) Price Well! Don't price too low or too high. If you price too low, people might think the item isn't valueable. If you price too high, they will likely get discouraged and walk away. Also, if you price items rounded to the nearest quarter or $1, you won't have to make as much change. Hint: Items priced 75 cents each may be more attractive than items priced $1.

3) Choose the Date! The best day to have a garage sale is AFTER the first or fifteenth (when many people get paid) and after a Friday. People are more likely to spend after pay day! Note: If you live near an army base, you may want to have a garage sale right after the first of the month because this is when the army is paid.

4) Share your garage sale! Invite a friend to share your garage sale with you! If you have a family garage sale, more items will sell if you can advertise a Multi-Family Garage Sale. Another tip is to have the sale at the same time as your community or neighborhood. If your neighborhood doesn't have a garage sale every year, organize one!

5) Advertise! Be sure to advertise in your local newspaper the week before. You can advertise in two papers if there is a larger town near you. The other place to advertise is on bulletin boards inside stores. You want your sale to be visible. I also advertised on Craigslist. I not only advertised the sale, but I advertised the big items too! Some of these items sold before the sale starter! Try these ideas for advertising! They will work for you!

6) Offer items for free! If you have large items to get rid of, offer them for free on craigslist or freecycle. Have the people pick the items up during the times of your garge sale. They may end up buying something!

7) Arrange Items in your garage sale by category. If you "put like with like", more items will sell.

8) Put a Sign up that Says "All Prices Firm". This way you won't have to haggle with anybody. Then the last day of your garage sale, mark all items half off. If you don't want to mark all items half off, mark your items with different colored stickers at the beginning of the sale accordingly. The last day of the sale (or few hours of the sale), you can say green stickers are half off, and all other stickers are the same price.

9) If other families in your community are having a garage sale at the same time, create a map of the garage sales for the weekend. Leave maps at your garage sale and ask others in your community to do the same. This way you can share customers!

10) Place signs up for the garage sale. Make sure you have plenty of signs out, especially on the busy intersections. This will bring customers to your garage sale.

11) Sell pop, water or lemonade in a cooler. If it is a hot or muggy day, people may stop for pop and find out you have more to offer. Plus, you will make money if you charge 50 cents - $ 1 for beverages. Most people prefer the brand name beverages (Pepsi, Mt. Dew etc.) so buying generic pop may not save money.

12) Use these tips & have a delightful day! I would love to hear your successes! If these tips worked for you, please place a comment here, or perhaps you have a comment to share about creating a great garage sale!