Garage sales. Some love ’em, others hate ’em. I LOVE them and generally have one a year. I find it not only keeps my clutter in check, but it also gives me a nice little chunk of extra cash. Our neighborhood garage is coming up next month, so I’m getting ready for it now! I’ll share my tips for getting ready for a garage sale and making the most of it – I mean if you’re going to be spending a weekend doing it – you want to make the most of it!
Garage sale vs. donate – I think this is the biggest debate for people tackling clutter. Do I save the time and hassle of having a garage sale and just deliver my stuff to a local thrift store? If the concept of a garage sale sends you into chills and/or repulses you – then yes. Some argue it’s actually better monetarily to donate your items – because you can claim the resale price on your taxes, versus just getting a quarter or $1 at a garage sale. Plus, it feels sooo good to donate to a greater cause, and it is easy. But if you could really use the cash in your pocket, you can’t beat a garage sale. . .
Be thorough, start early – I really believe that if you’re going to put the effort into having a garage sale, you need to be thorough and do it right. In the end you will still spend the same amount of time sitting, selling, advertising – might as well have put some serious effort into the sale ahead of time to make it worth your while. Right?
I’m going to bring you along as I try to clear my house of clutter over the next couple weeks and get ready for the garage sale! It’s not going to be pretty – but it’s going to feel good when you’re done!
STEP #1 –Put together a garage sale “tool box” that you’ll use as you go through your place. If you can clean, price and/or package your stuff as you go, you’ll save yourself a lot of hassle the week of the sale!
Suggested items in your box:
I recommend the Dollar Store for most or all of these items!
- Basket – the Dollar Store, you could also just use an old box or tote bag
- Garage sale price tags – the Dollar Store is the best place to get these! Some are pre-priced others you’ll write in the price. These are seasonal – so you could call ahead to make sure they have them, but they should!
- Different size resealable bags, for sorting like items
- Goo Gone for removing adhesives, stickers
- Garbage bags, for sorting like items
- Dish towel for dusting or cleaning
- Permanent marker
- Ball point pen
- Sticky notes – for putting notes on items.
- Scotch tape
- Scissors
- Also collect some empty boxes of reusable bags to put items in as you decide they should go.
So get your toolbox together – tomorrow. . . we tackle the kitchen!
Do you recommend anything else for the toolbox?
Naomi says
I’m excited about this series. I’m organizing a block wide yard sale and this breaks everything down into nice steps to get me going on my own clutter!
Kendra says
As I was driving around this weekend I remembered that I had originally planned on having a garage sale over Memorial Day Weekend…I’m really glad that it all got shipped off to Goodwill instead. What really made my mind up on donating over selling was that I didn’t want to deal with negotiations and people telling me that my stuff isn’t worth what I think it should be sold for.
Courtney says
I’m excited for this series! I too enjoy garage sales…both putting on my own and going to. I take the extra time to clean things and organize and it really pays off in the end. Looking forward to your ideas!