Garage Sale Saturday

Lesson #56,788,404: Garage sales are a LOT of work!

The last several months, Jordan and I have been cleaning out our house.  We have a beautiful and comfortable home but I started feeling a little claustrophobic every time I tried to find something or put something away.  Together, we've managed to clean out every single closet in our home and alllllmost every drawer in the house.  That's 5 closets, cabinets in 2 bathrooms, kitchen cabinets, our china buffet, my car, and 2 sets of drawers!  

I did not get any progress pictures of the cleaning out process but you can trust me that it was an ugly messy ordeal.  The only cleaning pictures I have are of our master closet when we were done.  

We got rid of 100+ items of clothing.  There was just too much stuff.  These are pictures after all the hard work.  I can actually find things I'm looking for and it's not a disaster.

After all that sorting and cleaning (and sneezing from the dust), we put together a garage sale.  The idea was to make a little extra cash and whatever was left over would be donated.

Thanks to my mom's guidance, I felt very prepared for the garage sale.  Here are a few tips we picked up along the way:

The Tools:

• Blue Painter's Tape -  You have to label all sorts of things!  I found it best to use the blue tape for large ticket items (to better describe) or for items that I wanted to mark "FIRM".
• Pre-priced stickers - For the smaller items, these were extremely helpful to make the process go faster!  I would definitely use these again!  Found them at Target for a fair price.
• Sharpie Markers (jumbo and regular sized) - used them for signs and pricing items!
• Cashbox - something sturdy that wont blow away
• Petty Cash (small bills) - we got $100 in quarters and small bills.  This was extremely helpful to make change!
• Apron - Laughed at this idea but it was really convenient to have a little cash in my pockets to make change if I wasn't right next to the cash box.  BUT, someone should be near the cash box at all times!
• Tables - We borrowed 5 tables of all sizes and I think it helped to sell product.  Some people don't like to rummage through boxes on the ground.
• Clothes Rack - similar to the tables, clothes sell WAY better when they are hung up!  We thought about making a clothes rack out of 2x4s but then we'd have yet another thing to store in our garage (which we'd just cleaned out)!  Instead we took the bench swing down and used the triangular stand to hang clothes.  It worked perfectly!  
• Hangers - Keep all those ugly hangers you collect over the years!  It saved us time to just sell the hanger with the article of clothing!  If you use a dry cleaner, just collect those hangers!
• Permit - Depending on where you live, you'll most likely need a permit to have a garage sale in your city.  For us, the permit fee was only $5.  
• Plastic - We had plastic left over from our tile work.  Although we didn't need it, it was a comfort to know that we had it in case of rain!  

Other Important Tips:

• Friends!!! - Our friend, Jenn, was kind enough to help us price and stage items and she even helped us during the sale!  I can't tell you how much help it was to have a 3rd set of eyes, another person to make change, and enjoyable company!
• Theft - Sadly, theft is a fact of life.  If possible, you should stage items of value closest to you and items of lower value, further away from you.  We had a GPS stolen but, fortunately, that was the only item that "walked off".  This takes me back to my point about having an extra friend help keep an eye on things!  
• Weather - We had beautiful weather but it was pushing the mid-80s by mid-afternoon (February in Texas)!  If at all possible, plan the garage sale on a day with nice weather!  You'll have more shoppers and it makes the process more pleasant!
• Negotiate but be Firm - Price things to sell!  No one is going to buy a used ball-cap for $5 (real scenario I once saw)!  Be reasonable and be willing to offer a discount, especially when they are buying a lot of items!  After all, the more you sell, the less you have to pack up to donate!  Having said that...hold firm if you are confident they are getting a bargain.  Even if the buyer grunts and drops the items to the ground (more on that story below).

Here are a few pictures from our sale last weekend!

Top Left: These are the pre-priced stickers I mentioned above.  They were a life saver!  I have plenty leftover for our next sale.

Top Right: Our garage is behind our house accessible through the alley.  This is not ideal so we borrowed some road cones to show people where to walk to the sale.

Bottom Left: We had a big sign with prices of the clothes.  It's just not practical to price each item of clothing!

Bottom Right: Abby really enjoyed herself!  She quietly watched the people and occasionally got some pets!  Most people had to pass her sniff test at check out!  

Several people enjoyed her little face and at one point, Abby's going rate was $70,000!  

These are some early morning pictures of our whole set up.

Top: This is the view from the alley.

Bottom: This is the view from our garage.

We had some really awesome people stop by our little sale but we also met a few interesting characters.  Some people were extremely chatty!  We had a guy just stand in our garage dribbling on about the real-estate market.  It was very distracting while we were trying to work.  Then, we had one lady who tested my sanity.  She spent several minutes slowly combing through each article of clothing we had and approached me with an arm FULL of dresses!  I think she had 15-20 dresses all of various quality but at least half of which had tags still on them.  Since dresses were priced at $3, her total came to about $45/$50.  So we started haggling...

I started at $30 in an effort to give her a bulk discount and this lady threw out something like $10.  We haggled all the way down to $20, during which time she became increasingly rude.  In so many words/grunts she told me I wasn't coming down "at all" and I wasn't being reasonable...LOL!  Finally, I gave her my last offer of $18.  In my mind, if she didn't like the $18, I was prepared to re-hang every piece of clothing and, if necessary, donate it to charity.  She agreed on $18 but only gave me $15 so I had to insist on the last $3!  I couldn't believe the nerve this lady had!

She later came back a second time to buy shoes and a few other items.  Again, I gave her a little discount for buying multiple items but I wouldn't go down any further.  At this point, her rudeness (during both visits) had used up all of my generosity.  Again, she dropped the merchandise to the concrete and walked away.  No biggie.  The moment she left, a nice woman promptly picked up the shoes and wanted to buy them at full price ($2)!  This woman said she was just waiting for the awful lady to go away so that she could buy those shoes!  I got a chuckle out of that and discovered that several other folks had enjoyed listening intently to our exchange.  That lightened the mood again (knowing we'd provided some entertainment).

I guess my point is to have fun haggling but don't be surprised if you get a sour personality to deal with!

Top Left: Luggage sold pretty fast!  It worked out great to stage each piece of luggage separately!

Top Middle: I just love this tea set and was sad to see it go.  This was one of the few items that I priced firmly and didn't sell at the garage sale.  I later posted it online and got what I wanted.

Top Right: Picnic basket!  Lovely idea in theory.  In reality, they are rarely used and was taking up valuable closet space!

Bottom Left: Jordan and Me!  He was such a good sport (as always)!

Bottom Right: I could NOT sell this clothes steamer! I guess people just don't need these anymore.

Top Left: By the afternoon, Abby was exhausted!!!  She claimed Jenn's lap for a nap.

Top Right: Board games sold really well!  

Bottom Left: Jenn and Me working hard!  

Bottom Right: This was an adorable little bean crock that I was sad to see go.  I loved this little item but we just never used it!  At the end of the day we sold it for $6.  Not bad.

We ended the garage sale around 2pm and started cleaning up.  I was impressed that we sold so much stuff!  We boxed up the remaining items and Jordan took them to our local Goodwill drop off location while Jenn and I took down the signs leading to our sale.

After the clean-up, I was exhausted but proud of what we'd accomplished!  The last tip I'll share with you is to keep your afternoon open just in case you need some rest!  

I hope everyone has had a great week!