How to prepare for an upcoming garage sale?

Are you worried about an upcoming garage sale? Don’t think you can pull it off successfully? Here is everything you need to know to prepare for an upcoming garage sale.

Hosting a garage sale is the perfect opportunity to get rid of unwanted items around the house.

Here is how you can prepare for it:

Organization is the secret to a successful garage sale

When it comes to preparing for garage sales, you can never go wrong by organizing your items into categories that reflect whether you want to keep them, sell them, or throw them away. Tell your spouse and kids to do the same! Instead of rummaging through other people’s stuff, ask them to sort it into categories themselves. Doing so will help you effectively save time before you perform the final round of organizing items. As of now, you should not be worried about how you should price your items based on their value, just pretend you are performing a deep cleanse of the stuff you have hoarded over the years!

Get in touch with friends and family members

No garage sale stands a chance of being successful without word getting out about when it is happening! Use email, phone call, and text message to get in touch with friends and family members to tell them about your garage sale. Doing so has a two-fold purpose. Firstly, you are inviting them to come over to your house and buy items at your garage sale. Secondly, you’re asking them to become sellers themselves. That’s right! Request them to roundup items lying around their house that they would like to get rid of. It is recommended to keep your garage sale invite-only to prevent things from spiraling out of control!

Choose the perfect time to host your garage sale

Knowing when to host your garage sale can be a massive factor that determines whether it will be a hit or not. It is recommended that you choose a date a few weeks in advance so that you have ample time to spread the word about when it is happening. Plus, if you are really in the mood to go all-out at your garage sale, then it can never hurt to have some extra time on your hands to advertise your sale. From using your friendly neighborhood association’s Facebook page as an advertising outlet to sending text messages and emails with the required details, there are plenty of creative ways to advertise your garage sale.

Meanwhile, when it comes to selecting a date, you might want to focus on the following:

Keep an eye on the weather

Clear skies and sunny evenings are the best you can hope for when it comes to preparing for an upcoming garage sale. However, most research suggests that specific weather forecasts cannot be made more than 10 days in advance, so be open to shifting the date a few days forward in case the weather conditions do not seem favorable.

The beginning of the month is ideal

Planning for an upcoming garage sale requires putting yourself in the shoes of a potential buyer. Most employees get their paycheck at the end of the previous month or the start of the current month. For this reason, keeping your garage sale in either of the first two weeks of the selected month is a smart idea. That is when people have the most money to spend!

Check the calendar for other events

If your garage sale is scheduled for days close to national holidays or festive times of the year, then you might find yourself competing with other events for attention. It is a good idea to take factors such as graduation dates for local schools and church event timings into account when you are checking the calendar for other events before choosing a garage sale date!

Afternoons and evenings are suitable

Avoid keeping your garage sale very early in the morning or very late in the night. Doing so might work under certain situations, but typically you will want to attract as many people as possible throughout the day. Avoid office rush hour times such as noon or late in the evening as there will be plenty of traffic around this time.

Ensure all legal matters are in order

Many people may not be aware of it, but their residential (private) property may not allow commercial activities to take place without a change in license. Many places require that garage sale organizers have a permit on them before they can conduct such activities on their premises. It is recommended that you check out your state’s laws about this matter by running a quick search online. If that does not return any results, then try consulting a legal expert (preferably from your friends, family, or community network). You might be fined if you go against the law and hold a garage sale before looking into the matter!

Price your items days before the actual sale

Leaving pricing for the day of the garage sale is a disaster waiting to happen. Worse yet, if you change prices too quickly on the day of the garage sale, then people will lose trust in the authenticity and integrity of the sale being hosted. Even if you plan on reducing prices for certain items (if they are not sold within the first few hours), then you need to come up with the reduced prices beforehand. Do not overprice your items. Remember that this event is a garage sale, and people are looking to get a good bargain. Once your prices are finalized, ask a friend to go over them and provide you with feedback.

Here a a couple articles in our personal finance series.

Safe Investments That Beat Inflation. Here Are Five Awesome Ways.

10 awesome ways to start saving money now

Garage sales can be plenty of fun and planning them is the best part. Good luck with yours!

This article is for information purposes only.