This past weekend, my mom and I held a garage sale at her home. I’ve held many garage sales in my life and really enjoy doing so because I strongly prefer to see things repurposed and reused rather than ending up in a landfill.

My mom’s neighbors are always amazed at the success of my garage sales and ask how I bring in so many people and make as much money as I do. Here are my top 10 tips for a successful garage sale.

1. Check your town’s garage sale ordinances. Do you need a permit? Are there defined days and times when you can hold your sale? Limits on signage (e.g., size, placement, etc.) or types of items you can sell (e.g., live animals)? Better to find out in advance than risk a ticket eating up your profits. Arlington Heights, where my mom lives, has adopted a garage sale ordinance.
2. Gather your items in advance and be discriminating. Gather your items in advance and make sure they’re in good condition. Selling clothes? Wash them first. If they are stained, worn out, or have holes, toss them out. Puzzles should have all their pieces. No one wants your chipped or cracked dishes. You can sell non-working electronics because sometimes people want them for parts or because they enjoy fixing them, but you need to price these items accordingly and be upfront that the item is not working.
3. Never put out items you haven’t reviewed first. This is an extension of #2, but it’s so important you need to read this story. On Friday morning, as I was setting up our garage sale, my mom’s neighbor hauled out a bunch of boxes and lined them up on her driveway for people to simply rummage through. After a number of people had purchased items, a woman asked her how much she wanted for a wallet and the neighbor realized it was her wallet that she used regularly. She informed the woman that it was not for sale and grabbed the box to see what was in it only to discover that the box contained unused pads of checks to her elderly mom’s bank account and a number of other highly personal items. It turned out that her elderly mom, whom the neighbor lives with, had hidden these items for safekeeping in a box in the garage without telling her daughter. My mom’s neighbor pulled in all of her boxes and closed her garage sale immediately.
4. Set up in advance. There is no way you can possibly organize and get all of your items displayed nicely on the morning of the sale. I set my sale up on Thursday and left most of the items covered in the driveway overnight. In order to block them, I pulled my car as far into the driveway as I could. Some bigger or more valuable items I put into the garage overnight, but I kept those items in their categories. If you live in a town where it’s not possible to keep your items outside overnight, you can store them in an organized fashion in your garage so moving them is easy. For example, I stored all electronics in my wagon in the garage overnight and just wheeled the wagon to the appropriate table on Friday morning.
5. Display matters. Your garage sale is your store. If you walked into Target and there was no rhyme or reason to the store, you’d walk out without buying anything. It’s the same situation with your garage sale. Categorize your items: clothing (boy, girl, etc.), holiday items (by holiday), home decor, dishes, electronics, toys, tools, etc. Don’t overstuff your tables. Dust off your items or clean them. Grimy items don’t sell, but you’ll get more money if your items look like they’re kept in good condition. If your customers have to work hard to find something, they won’t do it. Make their lives easier and they’ll spend more money.
6. Pricing. Pricing items takes a lot of time. Time is money, and your time is better spent focussing on your set-up and display. As a general rule, I do not price every single item. I have signs that say prices are negotiable and encourage people to make offers. Every garage sale has dishes (especially coffee mugs) and clothing, so these items need to be super cheap. I post signs listing clothing at $1.00 per item and shoes at $2.00 per pair and watch it all run out the door. I do price items that are more expensive, but part of the garage sale experience is haggling, so when someone asks me about a price of an unpriced item, my typical reply is “make me an offer.” If you’re selling vintage or items that are new in box/with tags, do your research to learn what these items are worth. Ebay is a great resource, but keep in mind that the audience on Ebay is far greater, so sellers can get higher prices. I price items lower than Ebay and often have printouts showing those prices.
7. Advertising. This is key. If no one knows you’re having a garage sale, you’re not going to get any customers. I rely on Craigslist and a site called GSALR.com, along with advertising in the local newspaper. Almost every town has a Facebook group dedicated to garage sales or online sales. Be sure to join your local group and post there. Finally, don’t forget to post about your garage sale on your personal Facebook page. In your online ads, be descriptive about your items and share pictures. The pictures definitely helped bring customers to our garage sale.

8. 

   Signage. Although advertising is important, signs are even more important. Lots of people will show up simply because they saw your signs, which should be large enough to be read easily from a moving car and be strategically placed. I make my own signs using neon-colored posterboard rather than purchasing pre-made signs because pre-made signs are typically small with very little room for personalization. I also make more signs than I think are necessary because garage sale signs disappear. Be a good neighbor and retrieve your signs down as soon as your garage sale is over.

9. Guard your money and your home. In order to prevent theft, I keep my house locked and money on my body in a cross-body purse. I keep singles, fives, tens, and twenties in separate labeled envelopes which prevents me from giving someone an incorrect bill when making change. I never accept bills over $20 and periodically take batches of money into the house so I keep a minimal amount of money on me at all times.
10. Have a plan for leftovers. I’ve never met anyone who sold 100% of their items at a garage sale. There are always leftovers. It’s important to have a plan in advance because you don’t want to bring your garage sale items back into your home. I always schedule a charity to pick-up my leftovers on the Monday after my garage sale. If you are going to throw out some items, remember that electronics, household chemicals, and other items are not allowed to be thrown in the regular garbage and must be specially recycled. The Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County (SWANCC) is a great resource for how to properly dispose of these items. I am also turning to Ebay and other online options for selling a few vintage items that didn’t sell.

That’s it. Those are my top 10 tips for a successful garage sale. How successful was I this past weekend? I made just shy of $600. It wasn’t my best garage sale, but I was happy. Do you have other tips for success? Please share them in the comments.

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