“My husband and I just bought our first home! We’re super excited about the move, but are dreading getting rid of our belongings we no longer want or need. There are just so many. We’ve been thinking about having a garage sale to offload some items, but we don’t know how to organise one or how to make it a success! Can you offer us any advice?”
Step 1. Choose your day wisely
The key to a great garage sale is having as many people show up as possible! Most people work Monday through Friday so it’s best to organise your garage sale of a weekend. Browse your local community calendar to ensure that you won’t be clashing with any big events on the same day. The warmer months also attract more buyers.
Step 2. Advertise until you can’t advertise any more
There is no such thing as too much advertising! Once you have your day and time selected (starting at 9am and running until 3pm is always a good bracket to follow) you need to start getting the word out. Great ways to advertise include placing an add in your local newspaper, listing the event on Gumtree, hanging posters around your local area, and of course, mentioning it on all your social media accounts!
If you can get friends or family to spruik your event, that’s even better. Make sure you mention any large items you have up for grabs too. Items such as lawn mowers and white goods attract a crowd and a crowd is what you want.
Step 3. Plan ahead and price items
You need to be organised on the day! One clever way of organising your garage sale is to group items by price. Separate price categories onto different tables and use different coloured stickers to label them. Having a $2 table will encourage more purchases, opposed to people having to sort through everything for something in that price range.
Also, ensure that you have plenty of change on the day. Plan on getting roughly $20 of each coin from the bank and have lots of smaller $5, $10, $20 notes handy.
Step 4. Allow for bargaining
The appeal of garage sales for many people is the sport of bargaining. Be open to people negotiating prices and have some fun with it. Some people will try and offer far below the listed price, counter offer this with a higher price. Just remember that you’re having the sale to get rid of everything! Accepting a smaller price than what you believe something is worth could save you money in removal or trash fees later on.
Step 5. Drop the prices
As the day comes to a close, drop the prices on everything left to sell. Selling an abundance of items for $1 or $2 each is better than being left with a pile of unwanted belongings.
Now get selling!
