Preparing for a garage sale can be a long and tedious process. When is the last time you and a group of family members worked together in trying to accomplish something? That’s what family is for to help each other out when we need them right? You have needed a garage put up or a new roof on your house or just help trimming a tree in your lawn. You pick-up the phone and call your brother or brother-in-law and most times they are happy to help with payment in the form of some adult beverage.
The big thing with a garage sale is coordinating who is going to work it, the weather and how to advertise. The one thing you can’t control is the weather, it could be hot, rainy and if your lucky, it could be a beautiful day where people will find something better to do than stop at your house to rummage through your unwanted treasures, it’s a crap shoot. To add to the frustration you spend a week getting all your stuff set-up in the garage, hanging clothes lines, setting up tables and deciding what that old pair of Levi’s should be sold for or that box of Hot Wheels, along with other stuff like, coffee makers, VCR’s, fish tanks and the like.
Bringing everyone together to do this big profit sale over the next couple of days can be rewarding or just flat-out pointless. The one thing you should do is have an exit plan for all the treasure’s that don’t sell, which will be most of it. When your sale is over load up yours’ or your brother-in-laws truck and drop it off at your local Salvation Army or Saint Vincent De Paul’s and donate it. This is a tax credit for you – consult your tax professional for current limitations and benefits.
Before setting out your items in a garage sale you should also look into Ebay. You can search for specific items and see what they are selling for, it maybe worth the extra effort instead of giving away. Do the research and make sure that a garage sale is the only option of getting this stuff out of your house.
The picture painted is not one of enjoyment, but try to get through it and add something different to your sale with selling some lemonade, pop, hot dogs or donuts. People will hang around a little longer if you feed them and make it more of a get-together than if you just give them a quick “what are you looking for” and then go about your business. Also organize the sale so it is easy to walk through and keep like items in the same area. You might just have a good time with your in-laws and the rest of the neighborhood before it is all over. If you are lucky you may find that some of the stuff you were just trying to get rid of is actually worth something, there are some honest people still floating around out there.
