Our Debt Free Family

Commit. Plan. Take action.

  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • FREE FB GROUP
  • FREE DEBT REDUCTION TOOLS
  • GET OUT OF DEBT
  • Privacy Policy
You are here: Home / Boosting Income / How to Host a Successful Garage Sale

How to Host a Successful Garage Sale

June 2, 2015 | 23 Comments

It’s that time of year again!

The weather’s getting warmer, the kids will be out of school soon (if they’re not already), and garage sales are popping up in every neighborhood.

Last week, I encouraged you to start brainstorming ways to boost your income so that you can pay off your debt and reach your financial goals quicker.

I mentioned that one of the ways my husband and I have boosted our income to pay off more than $87,000 of debt in 20 months is by hosting some successful garage sales.

In fact, when we started our plan to become debt free in August 2013, we held a garage sale that brought in almost $1,600 for two days of work!

This prompted the following comment from one of my readers:

“Great tips! I’d be interested in how you had successful garage sales. We’ve had a couple of garage sales and they’ve all been busts.”

– Melinda

So in this installment of Monica’s Two Cents, I’ll give you 21 of my best tips for hosting a successful garage sale.

If you have a question for me, we would love to hear it. You can fill out the form on the Contact page.

Now, let’s dive in.

Monica's Two Cents

Here are 20 of my best tips for hosting a successful garage sale:

  1. Check with your city or county regarding rules for hosting a garage sale. My county website has set standards regarding the frequency and length of garage sales in order to avoid needing a special permit. There are also guidelines regarding where signs can be posted and what type of information is required to be on them.

  2. Search every room, closet, and storage bin in your house to find items to sell. Check your garage and outside your house, too. If you wouldn’t mind parting with something, then add it to your inventory for your sale.

  3. Keep in mind that not everything will sell so you’re not automatically getting rid of every item you include in the sale. You can decide later what to do with the items that don’t sell, but the more you have to offer in your sale, the more likely someone will be to stop by to check out what you have.

  4. Ask your neighbor, a friend, or a family member if they want to do the sale with you. This will increase your inventory for your sale and create more variety for your customers. Plus, it will make it more fun!

  5. Have at least two adults “on duty” at all times. There may be times when one of you will have to help carry a purchase to a customer’s car, and you don’t want to leave your sale unattended for obvious reasons.

  6. Join your neighborhood’s garage sale if that’s an option. Neighborhood garage sales will usually be well advertised and attract more shoppers from outside your neighborhood.

  7. The best days for garage sales are Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Hard core bargain shoppers are out and about early and hunt for deals BEFORE the weekend.

  8. Start your sale no later than 9am and expect a few early bird shoppers to arrive before you have everything ready.

  9. Borrow tables from friends and family if you don’t have enough so that you can display your items neatly.

  10. Save yourself a lot of time and forget about pricing each piece of clothing. Instead, make a sign stating the price for each type of clothing, i.e. “Sweaters $X, Pants $X, Shirts $X.”

  11. Make signs that clearly state the gender and size of clothes. For example, “Girls 0-12M” and “Men’s M-L.”

  12. Group like items together. For example, have separate tables or sections for baby stuff, gadgets, and kitchenware.

  13. The better quality of items you have to offer, the more money you’ll make from your sale.

  14. Place some key items in the front that will catch the eyes of those driving by, but put your bigger ticket items in the back to entice people to walk through your sale.

  15. Have a well-labeled “free” pile of stuff in the front corner of your sale by the street. This will help to draw people in who are just driving by.

  16. Price items to sell, but still expect that people will negotiate with you most of the time. Be willing to accept a lower offer if it is reasonable. Just think, would you rather sell this item now for a dollar or two less than your asking price or wait and hope that someone else will come along who is willing to pay your full price for it? Depending on the item, it might be better to give in to the lower offer.

  17. Advertise on Craigslist a day or two in advance so that shoppers can include your sale when planning their routes of sales to hit up. Be sure to include your address and a list of what you’ll have available. Often times people will be searching for a specific item that you’ll have at your sale, and you can make a few sales before your garage sale officially starts!

  18. Post clearly labeled signs on main roads with arrows, your address, and the days and hours of your sale.

  19. Offer snacks and/or drinks for sale if you can. We’ve never done this ourselves, but at one neighborhood garage sale we attended, there was one house selling pulled pork sandwiches, another selling homemade cinnamon rolls, and another selling cupcakes and cookies. These treats made extra money for the sellers and made our outing that day much more enjoyable!

  20. If you do nothing else on this list, do this one thing! Be friendly! Greet people when they walk up. Have a smile on your face, and act happy to see your potential customers. 🙂

My last tip is this — don’t get caught up in the planning so that it takes you weeks to get ready or you put it off because the whole process sounds too time-consuming. Our last few garage sales were pulled off with minimal planning, and we still made several hundred dollars!

Next week we’ll discuss what to do with the items that don’t sell at your garage sale.

What About You?

Participate in the conversation. Have you hosted any successful garage sales? If so, what are your best tips? Share in the comments below.

Our Debt Free Family
Our Debt Free Family

Team Our Debt Free Family is the administrative WordPress user account for Ourdebtfreefamily.com. Our Debt Free Family is a premium classic personal finance blog. Our mission is to inform, educate and help you get out of debt.

Filed Under: Boosting Income, Monica's Two Cents

About Our Debt Free Family

Team Our Debt Free Family is the administrative WordPress user account for Ourdebtfreefamily.com. Our Debt Free Family is a premium classic personal finance blog. Our mission is to inform, educate and help you get out of debt.

Comments

  1. Ursula Petula Barzey says

    June 7, 2015 at 5:56 am

    I loved going to garage and estate sales when I lived in Chicago. Alas they don’t really do them here in London! Anyway, great tips with regards to setting one up to get rid of items and earn some extra income.

    Reply
    • Monica Louie says

      June 8, 2015 at 2:15 pm

      I didn’t know that about London. What do people do instead when they want to sell their stuff? Glad you liked the post. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Brian says

    June 5, 2015 at 5:33 pm

    Awesomw tips. Thanks for the ideas…

    Reply
    • Monica Louie says

      June 8, 2015 at 2:14 pm

      Thanks, Brian!

      Reply
  3. Susannah says

    June 4, 2015 at 10:15 am

    What awesome tips! I always feel like garage sales are more work than they’re worth but you’re proving otherwise. 🙂

    Reply
    • Monica Louie says

      June 4, 2015 at 2:16 pm

      Thanks, Susannah! I think they’re a great way to earn some quick cash. 🙂

      Reply
  4. Laura Harris says

    June 3, 2015 at 9:49 am

    These are great tips, Monica! I’m definitely sharing this article with my friends.

    Reply
    • Monica Louie says

      June 3, 2015 at 6:18 pm

      Thanks so much, Laura! Glad you liked the article! 🙂

      Reply
  5. Lady Loudpants says

    June 2, 2015 at 8:39 pm

    I’ve had one successful yard sale and one horrible yard sale. Neither of them were fun. For our last move, I sold a bunch of stuff on the Facebook groups–that was pretty easy and I made a lot of money.

    Reply
    • Monica Louie says

      June 3, 2015 at 6:18 pm

      Facebook groups are a great way to sell things too!

      Reply
  6. Geoffrey F. Norman says

    June 2, 2015 at 6:56 pm

    I had no idea that it took so much planning to go into a garage sale. I thought it was just a manner of throwing things on a table and praying to the Fates. Color me informed.

    Reply
    • Monica Louie says

      June 3, 2015 at 6:17 pm

      We actually did that last year during our neighborhood garage sale and still made a couple of hundred dollars for an hour and a half of work. 🙂

      Reply
  7. pechluck says

    June 2, 2015 at 2:14 pm

    The tip of also selling snacks is really good, would have never thought of that as extra money!

    Reply
    • Monica Louie says

      June 3, 2015 at 6:17 pm

      We’ll try it at some point. If you can plan ahead enough to do it and have someone manning the drink/snack table, I think it would be a great money maker.

      Reply
  8. Danielle Berger says

    June 2, 2015 at 9:47 am

    I love this! Getting me all excited for garage sale season. I hosted my first garage sale just last year and now I have some idea as to why it didn’t go very smoothly, haha. I will definitely be referring to this list as I prepare for another garage sale this year. Thanks for sharing, cheers!

    Reply
    • Monica Louie says

      June 3, 2015 at 6:16 pm

      Great, Danielle! Let me know how it goes!

      Reply
  9. Meredith {MarthaChartreuse} says

    June 2, 2015 at 9:25 am

    Great tips!

    Reply
    • Monica Louie says

      June 3, 2015 at 6:15 pm

      Thanks, Meredith!

      Reply
  10. Kelsey Wilburn says

    June 2, 2015 at 9:06 am

    the snacks and drinks tips are great!

    Reply
    • Monica Louie says

      June 3, 2015 at 6:15 pm

      Thanks, Kelsey!

      Reply
  11. Erin Lynch says

    June 2, 2015 at 8:40 am

    What great tips!!! I’m in dire need of a garage sale this summer!

    Reply
    • Monica Louie says

      June 3, 2015 at 6:15 pm

      Glad you liked the article, Erin! Let me know how it goes!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. 50+ Practical Ways to Pay Off Debt Faster [Free Tools Included!] says:
    May 7, 2018 at 12:38 am

    […] kinds of effort into a garage sale and come out with very little profits. However, when I applied these 20 tips, I made so much more money. You can too. Make sure you ask any friends and family if they’d […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

 


Five Steps To Debt Freedom

Here are five simple guidlines that will help you pay off debt.  

1) Get an emergency fund so you don’t take on debt when something comes up.

2) List your debts. This way you know where you stand.

3) Use the debt snowball. Pay your debts from smallest to largest, or most expensive to least expensive.

4) Avoid new debt. No new credit cards or loans. Period.

5) Go all cash. After everything is paid off, switch to all cash.

Helpful Resources

The Free Checklist for a Strong Financial Plan

U of Tennesse Debt Repayment Plan Basics

Vertex 42's Debt Payoff Calculator

Savingadvice's Helpful Debt Forums

Jackie Becks Debt Blog

Our Most Popular Articles

How Alice and Scott Paid off $200,000 in Student Loans

Learn How Christine Paid off $500,000

Use the Debt Snowball to Create a Payoff Plan

Do Nothing and Save Money with the Paribus App

Thanks To Our Advertisers

Get the tools to start living debt free! Learn more…

Need a title loan in Jacksonville, Florida? Go to 1-800 Loan Mart. Fast and easy applications.

Copyright © 2022 Runway Pro Theme by Viva la Violette