Saturday morning rolled around and we were ready to get our garage salesman on. Our fabulous DIY-in-training must have also been excited to get out there because he turned out to be our 6:15 alarm that morning. So early! But we had work to do; setting the rest of our treasures up and out for all the shoppers to see. The only bummer part was we didn't really have any 'big' or 'really desirable' pieces-- most of it was what I would call 'fluff' decor. I honestly think that much of it sold because of the tips we used.
Garage Sale Success... Oh, let me count the ways...
1) Staging-- totally, utterly completely true! We got several comments from our neighbors that they all loved the way it looked. It reminded them of a boutique or antique fair set-up. Success #1!
I rolled out the rug, pulled out an old chair and a few tables to try to get multi-levels going and make things more appealing. I also used baskets to hold books, CDs, and DVDs in. A coat rack held the small number of clothes and jackets we were selling. And I used our backyard chalkboard as a "welcome" sign too. Just small touches.
We also found it helpful to hang up tarps in the back of the staging to cover the rest of our garage...that was not for sale.
2) Free Box
Definitely had people looking in it, until a family took the entire box's contents early on. But I guess that was the point: getting rid of all the stuff in there. I could have put on the sign to only take a few items, but it wasn't that big of a deal. I just had to laugh because I didn't expect one person to take it all at once..and so early on! :) I also put my years collection of Real Simple out for free and a woman took them all but paid me for them. That worked well too! Success #3 & #4
5) Refreshments--My parents stopped by in the morning to take E on a walk and brought us some donuts! We put the extras out for free and then W got the fabulous idea to sell some bottled water and sports drinks. We sold quite a lot of them throughout the morning and got rid of our extra donuts. People seemed to be happy--so were we! Success #5
6) FUN--In addition to getting rid of a good amount of stuff and making some money, we had a great time with our neighbors. We're really lucky: our neighbors are a lot of fun.There were about 8 houses participating.
W did some pre-sale perusing with E and came back with this! Our neighbor didn't get it sold, but E had a blast on his first "Mo-mo" ride. I got a free bulletin board from another neighbor so I can actually do the burlap project now. And another gave us all the newborn boy clothes she had. Success #6
The sale ended with us all hanging out and kids playing before a few of us headed to the pool for a cool down. I think a neighborhood BBQ is officially in the works now!
Now, we still probably have a good truck load of stuff left to haul away, so sadly, our garage isn't completely clean just yet. And by the following day, I was completely exhausted and good for absolutely no activity. But we made enough on fluff for a sweet date night-- as well as covering the dump fee for whatever we can't donate!
1 comment:
I'm glad this went well! Looks like you guys are quickly becoming garage sale pros!
Although, a man who came to our garage sale earlier this year, pointed out to us that it should be called a "yard sale" since we weren't in our garage at all ;-)
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