How to Have the Perfect Garage Sale

April R.
April 17th, 2023

One person’s trash is another’s treasure, and that’s why garage sales have become a popular weekend pass time. Garage sales are a great way to declutter your home while reducing waste and environmental impact. Follow these simple tips to make your next garage sale a success.

Setting Up Garage sale hunters make fast decisions on which sales to stop for. That’s why your setup should look neat and organized with the most interesting, and well-maintained items upfront.

Display your items neatly without piling them up, or placing them too close to one another. Leave plenty of space between displays so shoppers can easily move from one area to the next.

No one wants to rummage through boxes of old clothes or shoes. Borrow or rent simple tables, or benches to display your items on. Hang clothing on portable racks or fold them neatly on a clean surface. You can find plenty of resources for building your own clothing racks online or on YouTube.

Arrange furniture as if they are in a living room, with knick-knacks displayed on end tables. Show your garage sale guests how great these old items will look in their own homes. Make sure all items are clean. No one wants to buy a dusty old laptop or grubby toys. Give your old things a good wipe-down before setting them out for people to see.

Rather than spending a lot of time writing out price tags for each item, group similar items together on a table or shelf with a price for each group. For example, you could display all books on a shelf with a sign that reads, “all books $2.”

Advertising Your Garage Sale Shoppers like to plan their weekends early, so begin advertising your garage sale a few days before. Social media and apps like Nextdoor are great ways to get noticed. Post ads with pictures of your best items, and be sure to call out any antiques or vintage items they can expect to find there.

Post flyers and brightly colored signs around your neighborhood on the day before your garage sale with your address written on them in bold, legible print. You can also place signs with arrows pointing to your house to help shoppers easily find your sale.

Balloons are more than a novelty for kids. They also make great attention-grabbers. Tie balloons to signs and around your house to attract potential shoppers. You may also want to offer balloons, or popcorn (if you have a popcorn machine) to children as a courtesy.

Hosting a Successful Garage Sale If people are having fun at your garage sale, they will linger a little longer which means you will likely sell more. So, play upbeat music on a simple sound system. Offer free lemonade or coffee, or pair your garage sale with a bake sale.

Some people have great success with themed garage sales. If you have a lot of holiday decorations to sell, make a special display with those items. You can even have a theme around your sale and let family members dress up in costumes that coordinate with the theme you choose.

Allow your shoppers to pay with digital apps rather than cash only. Many people will prepare to come with cash, but sometimes shoppers stop on a whim and they’ll need another option for buying.

How Storage Units Can Help with Your Garage Sale Even the most successful garage sale will have a few items left unsold. Rather than carting the clutter back into your home, store it in a storage unit. Granite Mountain Storage has storage units in Taylorsville and will be happy to help you move your leftover items into a safe place until your next garage sale.

Sometimes you find items around the house that you don’t want to keep, but you can’t bring yourself to sell them either. Moving them into a storage unit will keep them safe and out of the way until you are ready to part with them.

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