Garage Sale! ->->

It's summer and it's around the time when most people like to clean house and purge from all of their winter goods. If you're a money saving mom then some would go and do a winter stock pile now while things are cheap but most of us just want to sell our goods for some $$$ and go on a vacation.  If you want to stockpile your seasonal clothes money saving mom has yard sale tips too.

 This weekend, my hubs and I were asked to help with a friend's garage sale b/c they're moving up north. We're gonna miss this family verrrrry much!!! and we were glad to help. We joined their neighborhood garage sale (which I thought was skeptical at first b/c of all the competition but it turned out fabulous with lots of buyers...in a way, I felt like the neighbors were just switching their goods from one house to another but hey, way to do it budget savvy right?)

I've held 4 garage sales prior to this one and some people have asked me how to do a successful garage sale so here is my post.

I've got no secret tricks but
1) make sure that you have at least one or two big ticket items: ie, game system or a furniture piece. The most I've ever sold brought in $600 and the least amount we raked in was $400. This past weekend we made $1100!!!!!
2) expect to sell cheap, even if you have tags and it's name brand. For example, clothes = $1 a piece and jeans=$5. Your authentic LV purses are NOT to sell at a garage sale, try Craigslist or eBay.
3) I found that this website was the best descriptive and garage sale friendly site: yard sale queen The directions are long to read through but it's very thorough and pretty exact.
4) Yard Sale Queen mentions that there are early birds at 6am for big ticket items and they stick around to purchase a lot of stuff. There is a big group at 7am and then a lull at 9am and another big group at 11am.
5) Keep some plastic bags and paper bags on hand so that your customers can put all their treasures in one bag. It's a great way to be green by reusing bags and clean out your clutter. Speaking of bags, you can also put out your old gift bags and tissue papers out for sale for $0.25.
6) It's safe to say that 1 pm is a good time to close shop if you're satisfied with what you've made in your pocket.
7) Most importantly, make sure that you have small change in hand before you start your garage sale.
8) Last but not least...(tip by my hubs the "All Time Garage Sale Salesman of the year") don't let a customer leave with just one thing. Suggest to buy more and give a good price. We had multiple people leave spending $30 at a time and come to think of it, there are always people who will spend between $50-$100 on a grip load of things at your garage sale. Small things add up....One man's trash is another man's treasure.

These are brief directions and tips but check out yard sale queen for professional tips.

Here are some pictures from this weekend. I should've taken pictures of the home made buttermilk pancakes from scratch that fueled us all morning. Sorry for no pictures...and the chef had a sealed lip when I asked about the recipe. :( Anyone have a good recipe to share?

 

 

This is A as Super Garage Sale Girl. You can also see my hubs riding a razor scooter while taking breaks between sales. :)

 You can tell that we were not the MoSt neatest sales people but it was organized in children's clothing, books/videos, toys, kitchenware/dishware, adult clothes, and furniture, etc. It was sorted out as neat as $1100 worth!!!!~At the end of day, I was amazed at how hard my husband worked at helping out our friends. :*

There's my C waving down buyers while eating strawberries.

A and her accomplice Batman.

If you're the super organized type you'll LOVE i Heart Organizing Blog She just did a garage sale and had EVERYTHING labeled, bagged, and even had a lemonade stand. I'm also trying to organize our home a little more and looking for more organizing blogs. Does anyone have any good leads?

Now...go out and make some $$$ and share your success stories. :)