Garage Sale Week

Last week I didn't post because I was extremely busy with garage sale planning. I came back from the cabin on Monday night and then on Tuesday and Wednesday it was crunch time for work. I had to get a lot done because I took Thursday off to prep for the sale, which we ran Friday and Saturday. I host the sale at my house and my best friends all bring their junk to sell. We had just tons of stuff to sell, and while it didn't all go - a fair amount of it did.

We lucked out - the weather was beautiful! We got a lot of traffic. I would guess that we had even more shoppers than we have in past garage sales, which makes me wonder if having it at the end of the season like this there was a lot less competition! All told, our sale made close to $900 - not bad considering we only had a few things priced over $5, most of it was $2 and less! Personally, I came in at about $180.

I won't lie to you, it is a lot of work, but the best part of it is, not only do we earn a little money, but my friends and I also all get to hang out with each other for a couple days straight - it was fabulous! Now here are a few tips for a fun garage sale....

1) Have your sale with friends - people you want to spend the greater part of two days with. A friend of ours who stopped at the sale said she threw hers all alone or with one of her (very) unwilling children to help her out. She got so bored at them, she gave it up. I promise you - if there was one thing I wasn't this weekend, it was bored. Even in the rare lull of traffic, I still had fun people around me that I like to spend time with, sitting and having a beer with me, which brings me to...

2.) If you enjoy adult beverages, I highly recommend drinking. If you happen to have friends (as I do) who make amazing mixed tropical drinks or show up with cases of beer or bottles of wine, all the better! Not only does it make the afternoons more enjoyable, especially now that you are in the company of good friends, it makes it so much easier when you watch that candle holder you paid $30 for, go for $.25.

3.) Plan on food. You are now going to be spending hours in the sun drinking - you need food. This time I planned ahead by having sandwich fixing in the fridge for everyone, plus friends brought all kinds of munchies. This was a very good thing.

4.) Make it fun! We crack ourselves up with funny signs (on a latch hook wall hanging of a carousel horse - "Don't laugh, my grandmother made this. $3"), we joke with the customers, we send out emails and facebook posting to other friends to stop by and have a beer, we proudly proclaim that we have "The Best Yard Sale Ever." If you look at the cost to dollar ratio of work to income earned, garage sales don't make me that much money, however, once you add in how much fun I have - I'll do one every single year I have a yard and friends that are willing!



Photo by: William C Hutton Jr.
via flickr