10 Garage Sale Tips (ok, really 11).

We've just survived our 2nd United We Dance garage sale and like the first, it was a wonderful success! The money making ratio is still one of the best ($70/hr)!

Here are some tips and things we've learned along the way:

• Have a garbage can on site. Simple notion, but Yard Sales create a lot of garbage..
• Make reusable signs. Then remember where you store them.
• Have a theme.  If you have something special to sell (like flapper costumes), take fotos and add to your Craigslist posting.

                                            

• On that note, never pay for advertising. Use the free stuff: Craigslist, the corner telephone pole, your Fb page. Only advertise a few days before the event if it's held outside in the Great Pacific Northwet.
• Regarding weather, be flexible with your planning.  Even a 'partly rain' forecast will dampen spirits and give you wet feet. Don't hesitate to reschedule. 

                                       

• Buy the colorful round stickers with prices on them. Stick 'em on the 'decent, higher value stuff' as you go. It's psychological ...easy to say "one dollar".  Not so easy to say "twelve dollars".
• Don't price too high.  At our garage sales, we price things really low, but stuff moves and we make money.
• Do it with friends. Have coffee on site. Laugh a lot. (a little protein in the afternoon helps too!)

                                       

• Play store. Dress up your displays. When I drive by by a table full of florist vases, I seldom stop. A stuffed Kermit the Frog, wrapped in a quilt propped w/a book in a rocking chair  ... I stop.

                                                  

•  * Know HOW TO TAKE DOWN the Canopy.*

                                                  

• Call for a pick-up service at the end of the day.  We call "Lifegate Christian Ministries" who come and take all the leftover stuff to a shelter for homeless woman and children (tel: 360-714-8989).

When it's all said and done, take yourself out to dinner (maybe followed by a spa day?). You've earned it.