Want to get rid of the clutter of unused items in your home? What if we told you that you can make some extra cash by doing so. Yes, we are hinting towards a garage sale, which is an excellent way to bid farewell to all those things in your living space that are no longer needed.
Don’t know how to properly organize a garage sale? Fret not, we have got you covered. In this article, we have rounded up the 10 best tips to prepare for a garage sale.
Look Around Your Closet and Cabinet
Whether you have a closet in your bedroom or any other part of your home, you need to check and organize it every now and then to make sure you are not stuffing it with unnecessary items that you can simply put up on sale during your garage sale event.
Some of the most common unwanted closet items may include Decorations from your birthdays, weddings or any other special occasions, gifts that have never been used, clothing, and accessories that don’t fit anymore. Along with checking your closets and cabinets for clutter, also look around your basement and attic for any unused things.
Start Sorting Items
Even if you are putting up a garage sale, you need to be well organized if you don’t want to mess things up. Mixing up items or piling them up in one place would make things very difficult for you. This is why sorting items and arranging them category-wise is one of the best tips to prepare for a garage sale. Getting rid of the clutter will also help you in your moving process.
You may have a lot of items to sort and arrange in a proper way. For example, put all the sports goods in one place, keep tools and equipment together and separate all your clothing items and accessories. Make a list of all the items you have. It’ll help you keep track of things.
Gather Necessary Supplies for Garage Sale
It is not like you won’t need anything except for the products you are about to sell to organize your garage sale, there are many important stationery supplies you need to make a list of. If you want to keep things simple, you would only need masking tape and a permanent marker to put simple price tags on items you are selling.
To go pro, you can buy pricing stickers and/or different types of labels that could be used to list and differentiate your products. Along with stationery supplies, you would definitely need a desk and a chair where you could handle accounts and deal with people.
Set the Right Price
If you want to host a successful garage sale, you need to be very fair when it comes to setting the price of all the different items you are selling. Try to put yourself in the situation of the potential buyers of your products. This will help you in setting your garage sale prices justly.
Your stuff may be important for you, but it may surely be a random product for your buyer that they want to buy at the best possible rates, so don’t try to overprice things unnecessarily.
Make the Price Tags Prominent
One of the main things that buyers come looking for is the price of the products you have put on display in your garage sale. This is making them prominent and easily readable is among the most useful tips to get ready for a garage sale. You can use bold markers, stickers, and multicolored price tags.
If you have big and noticeable price tags, you may probably attract more potential buyers. You can also use different color tags for items falling in different price categories. If you have some extra time, try to divide items into groups according to their price range.
Offer Products in Bundle
The way you group items according to their price range, you can also bundle things up according to their categories. This will greatly add to the convenience of buyers. For example, you can sell clothing items in one section and furnishings in the other. Create a separate category for your electronic items and related accessories.
You can also offer similar things belonging to a particular category in bundles at discounted rates. This way you would be able to sell more items in one go. At the end of the day, you would want to get rid of all these items, so there’s no harm in selling them at concessional prices.
Keep Some Cash and Change On You
It is also one of the most important tips to prepare for a garage sale. You know you would be dealing with a lot of cash during your garage sale event, which means you need to keep some cash and change on you. You may come across customers that are in a hurry and they may not wait for you to fetch change and this way you could lose a sale.
To host a garage sale successfully, keep some cash at hand, so you may be able to cater to your customer then and there. As a household sale event organizer, it won’t be ideal for you to make your customer walk away empty-handed.
Polish Your Negotiation Skills
You might want to sell your item at the best possible price. If yes, then working on your negotiation skills is one of the best tips to get ready for a garage sale. You would find a lot of visitors offering the price they want to pay. It is better not to turn down their offer immediately.
Listen to what they have to say and then quote your final or negotiable offer. If you think someone is offering a way too low price for your product, don’t sell it anyway. You could probably find a better deal or buyer for the item you are trying to sell.
Come Up With a Nice Arrangement
Like brands advertise their products, you should be highlighting your garage sale to make it successful. Try to make things appealing. Arrange everything nicely and properly. If you really want your stuff to be sold during your garage sale, you need to make things appear attractive.
There may be a lot of things in your home collecting dust. Remember to clean and wipe them up carefully to make sure they are absolutely sparkling and look like new. For example, no one would buy a deflated basketball or a bicycle with no air in its tires until you properly arrange and present it.
Team Up With Other Family Members
It would surely be much harder for you to organize, arrange and handle all the garage sale matters on your own. Arrange a helping hand if you can. You can easily team up with any of your household members like your spouse or children. Well, kids love helping their parents, especially in activities like a garage sale.
If you have teenagers in your home, it is often tough to get them involved in any kind of activity and event that they may find boring and a garage is no exception. So, it is better to reward them with something as compensation for the help they are offering.
Happy Selling!
