Out With the Old, In With the Money: Yard Sale Tips for Sellers

If your garage is just a storage space for clutter, if you can’t park your car in its designated home, it might be time to sort through the mess and set up a garage sale. We’ve gathered some tips and tricks so sellers can have a successful yard sale, including advice from Simplify Experts, Clever Girl Organizing and Goodwill.

What to Sell at a Garage Sale

Other popular motivations for a garage sale are for “spring cleaning,” or if the owner wants to move to a new area. The seller’s items are displayed to passers-by or those responding to signs, flyers, classified ads or newspaper ads. In some cases, adverts of the yard sale can be displayed on a local television station. 9 Garage Sale Tips for the Most Successful Garage Sale EVER This post and photos may contain Amazon or other affiliate links. If you purchase something through any link, I may receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. Home » Earn More » 12 Garage Sale Hacks and Tips for a Successful Garage Sale. 12 Garage Sale Hacks and Tips for a Successful Garage Sale. Having a garage sale is a good way to get rid of stuff you don't want or don't need any more. It's also a good way to make some extra cash. But to really make the most money from your garage sale, you need. A sale early in the season attracts all those garage sale junkies who are itching to buy. Summer months can also be good, but beware of the heat. Most single-family garage sales can get away with a one-day event, usually on a Saturday, lasting anywhere from three to six hours. A multi-family sale will benefit from longer hours or a second day. Garage sales are often Saturday morning affairs, but the real garage sale fanatics know that Friday is the best time to go to yard sales. Double the number of potential customers to your sale (without doubling the amount of work) by holding the sales on Friday and Saturday.

“As Jerry Seinfeld once said, ‘The word garage seems to be a form of the word garbage.’ Everything goes to the garage to die,” said Denise Allan, a certified professional organizer with Simplify Experts.

If clutter has inspired you to have a sale, start by cleaning out your garage and organizing your home to see what you need to get rid of and what may be worth some money in your pocket. When deciding what to keep and what to part with, Kathy Vines from Clever Girl Organizing suggests asking yourself the following questions.

• How often do I use this and why?
• Could someone else get more use out of this?
• Does it have sentimental value? Is it irreplaceable?
• Is it in good shape? If it needs to be repaired, is it worth spending the money?
• Do I own another item that serves the same purpose, or can I borrow it from someone else?

As you cut through the clutter and part with the clothes in the back of your closet or the bike hidden in your garage, decide if the things you’re keeping are in good enough shape to resell at your yard sale.

“Be authentic to the life you are leading. If you have not camped in years, donate your camping gear. If your kids have launched your nest, let some of your ample sporting good equipment go. I have clients who have had landscape services for years with a full arsenal of yard tools. Donate those so they can bless someone else.”

Denise Allan, Simplify Experts

Rent a dumpster to throw away anything beyond repair, or that no one else would want secondhand. Some examples might be stained sofas, broken appliances and used mattresses.

5 Tips to Have a Successful Garage Sale

Now that you’ve figured out what to include in your yard sale, follow these tips to prepare and get the most out of it.

1. Price Items for Your Yard Sale

When it comes to putting a price tag on items like books, clothes and golf clubs you dug up, remember that you’re trying to get rid of these things. In order to get them to sell, you might need to ask for a lot less than you think.

So, how do you price items for a yard sale? Generally, items should be tagged at about 10% to 20% of the current retail price. For example, if something sells for $50 in store, price it at $10 if it’s in good shape or $5 if it’s a bit worn. Of course, factors like the item’s condition, demand and whether or not it’s in season can affect the price.

Before applying this rule, research to see how similar things are priced in your area. Go to other garage sales to see how much they’re selling those items for. Watch the shoppers to see if they respond to the prices or walk away. You can even check Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist and other online resources to compare prices.

Here’s a starting point for some items. However, keep in mind that in addition to the item’s condition and demand, name brand and size may cause you to fidget with the price as well.

Pro-Tip: Put a price tag on everything. Don’t make people find you and ask how much you’re selling an item for, because some just won’t bother. Use neon-colored stickers so people can’t miss the price.

2. Pick a Place and Date

Where you decide to set up is important. You need to be in a high-trafficked area in order for people to see your garage sale. If you live in a rural or quiet area, ask friends or family in a busier neighborhood if you can use their yard.

When picking a time, choose weekend mornings, about 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., and avoid holidays when people are out of town. Look ahead to the weather forecast to avoid rain or extreme heat. It’s also best to aim for the beginning of the month, when you can count on people’s purse strings being at their fullest.

3. Research Local Laws and Regulations

Some municipalities require you to have a permit in order to hold a garage sale. Make sure to check your city’s website for more information. Some may allow you to get the permit online. If your city or town does require a permit, make sure not to skip this step, or you could end up with a fine and get your garage sale shut down.

4. Advertise Your Yard Sale

Go back to basics. Take out an ad in your local paper and draw up handmade signs. Use bright-colored poster board and thick, black markers. These will catch people’s attention and be easy to read from a distance. Make sure to place them at main intersections near the sale location and at all turns leading to your yard. Don’t forget to draw arrows to point drivers in the right direction. You can also take out an ad in your local paper.

Make sure to include the following information on your signs:

• Time
• Dates
• Address
• The words “Garage Sale”

Pro-Tip: Keep the signs simple so potential buyers can quickly read them as they’re driving by and easily get to you. Make sure to put the signs out at least the day before so avid yard sale-goers can plan to make a stop at your home, and so you don’t have to rush around the morning of.

How to Advertise Your Garage Sale Online

Handmade signs in your neighborhood are effective, but people have the internet at their fingertips everywhere they go. Try taking out an ad on your local news sites and Craigslist to expand your reach. Because they’re probably a little more expensive than a Craigslist ad, start ads on your local news sites one day before the sale and run them through the sale period. On Craigslist, you might be able to afford starting the ad a day or two earlier than that.

Pro-Tip: Draw people in by listing your big-ticket items and popular things like kids’ toys and collectibles. Snap photos of in-demand items to attract more attention.

It’s also a good idea to use social media accounts to let friends and family know you’re hosting a sale. It’s the easiest way to spread the word to everyone. If your community has a Facebook page, use it to let neighbors know they can stop by.

You might also try using the following yard sale sites:

5. Prepare Your Items for the Sale

Now for the most tedious part of all – setting it all up. Follow these tips to help you make some sales.

• Put like items together.
• Cover up anything visible that you’re not selling.
• Try bundling some items, like sets of baby clothes.
• Clean and polish items to make them look presentable.
• Put toys on a blanket in the yard at kid’s level to save table space.
• Display valuable items close to you so you can keep an eye on them.
• Set up a few days in advance if you’ll be using your (now clean) garage.
• Hang clothing on a garment rack so it’s easy for customers to look through what you have.
• Give yourself at least an hour before the start time to get everything set up, but know where you plan to put everything in advance.
• Use folding tables to display your merchandise. If you use a coffee table or other furniture from your home, people might think it’s for sale.

Pro-Tip: Greet shoppers as they arrive so they know who’s running the sale, but then leave them alone to shop so they don’t feel pressured. Let the items sell themselves, but be available for questions.

Extra Garage Sale Tips and Tricks

Here are a few things to keep in mind to make sure your yard sale goes as well as can be planned.

Ask Your Friends and Family to Join Your Sale

Do your in-laws have some things they can sell? Is your sister also cleaning out her garage? Market this as a three-family yard sale. You’ll likely attract more customers with the additional items up for grabs.

Limit Your Inventory

While it’s good to have a lot of items to attract customers, having too much for sale can be overwhelming. Make sure you’re only putting out what will sell.

Have a Checkout Station

Have a designated area where you can pack up anything customers purchase. Gather all the grocery bags you keep under your sink and any extra boxes you have lying around to package items for buyers. Use newspaper to wrap up anything fragile.

Have Multiple Payment Options

If you accept credit cards, you’ll likely increase your sales. A Square reader makes it easy for a customer to make payments with a credit card. Advertise that you accept card payments – it’s a big selling point.

Make sure you also have change handy for those who decide to go the more traditional route and pay cash. If a customer tries to buy something and you don’t have change, you’ll lose the sale.

Pro-Tip: Wear something with pockets. An apron or fanny pack will give you a place to hold cash (a much better alternative to risking leaving a cash box unattended), your Square reader, extra pricing stickers, a marker and anything else you may need.

After the Yard Sale

Chances are, you have some lingering clothes, books or sporting gear you didn’t sell that you don’t want to bring back into your home. Try selling them again online on eBay, OfferUp, Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, or donate them to Goodwill, Salvation Army or Habitat for Humanity.

“Everything that can be found in your garage is fair game for donations. (When it comes to TVs, flat screens only.) We do recommend that oil and gas be drained from any lawn equipment prior to donation. We encourage people with any questions to give their nearest location a call to double check.”

Darcie Goodman, Goodwill Industries of Greater Cleveland & East Central Ohio, Inc.

Get Ready for Your Garage Sale

It’s time to start decluttering to build your inventory and prepare for your yard sale. If you find damaged items or need to clear out space before the sale begins, check out our disposal guides to find the best ways to get furniture, appliances and electronics out of your home.

Feeling inspired? Keep the momentum going and visit our organization page to keep your house orderly.

Let’s be real: HOSTINGGARAGE SALES ARE A PAIN IN THE BUTT.

There’s nothing worse than pouring your precious time and energy into collecting all your stuff, carefully organizing it, pricing it reasonably, cleaning out your nasty garage, borrowing folding tables from every person you know, and spending an entire precious weekend sitting in your garage only to make $100. NOT WORTH IT.

After making that mistake myself once, which was one more time than necessary, I came up with my new method for holding garage sales and I will never be going back.

I held a One Day Only Garage Sale last spring and I can’t believe how successful it was. OK, I guess I can believe it because I put in a LOT of work organizing. But, it was WAY more successful than the previous 3-day sale that I had done a few years before. Keep reading to hear my garage sale tips and exactly how much I made in one day…

I did a lot of research before the sale and relied on my own instincts to come up with a foolproof game plan that resulted in a highly successful One Day Only Garage Sale. I will never do a garage sale any other way again, it’s THAT GOOD.

If you’re contemplating holding your own garage/yard sale (and thinking it has to be 3-4 days, it doesn’t!), here are my tried and true garage sale tips for a massively successful One Day Only Garage Sale:

Make Super Eye Catching Signs

I started noticing other garage sale signs around town and thought, “Hey, I think I saw that idea on Pinterest.”

And then I realized, I actually read that sign instead of glossing over it. No matter who came up with the eye-catching sign idea that you choose to use, an eye catching sign is KEY. What makes a sign eye-catching?

• Bright, bold colors
• Contrast (hence the white eyes I used to contrast with the pink sign)
• A bit of humor
• Easy to read, not too much writing

UPDATE: Since publishing this post, I came across my very own garage sale sign design out in the wild IN MY OWN HOMETOWN! These signs work, people. Just be sure to tell people where you came up with the design when I make you rich from all your garage sale traffic 😉

Advertise in local Facebook garage sale groups

This one was HUGE for me. I started advertising my sale the night before with special “pre-sale” invites for people to come and shop before the sale.

How To Have The Most Successful Garage Sale

I only had 2 people make the pre-sale time, but it created buzz around the sale. People were commenting about how they were sad they missed the pre-sale and that they would be by first thing in the morning! I also used these groups to promo my sale on the day it happened.

Do a One Day Only Sale

This is the epitome of all garage sale tips, if you ask my educated opinion. I’ve only held 3 garage sales in my life, but in that time I’ve learned what works for me.

1. I really despise holding garage sales. Any more than spending one day sitting in my garage selling my junk, and I go crazy.
2. People are drawn to the scarcity of one day sales. There is a reason why scarcity is a known sales tactic.

Price to Sell

There are plenty of garage sale tips and pricing guides out there, but I like to refer to my own penny pinching instincts. If I would be willing to pay a certain price, the price went on the item. The goal here was to sell as much stuff as possible and make as much cash as I could in just one day. Whatever was left over after the sale I was either willing to hold on to for the next sale (whenever that might be) or donate.

Offer 50% off

During the last hour of the sale, I posted in the FB groups that I was running 50% off any item $10+ for the last hour of the sale if they mentioned they had seen the post on Facebook. I didn’t have to give a deal to everyone who happened to shop during the last hour, and I was able to snag a few last minute sales!

One person came back and bought a small patio umbrella from us because she spotted the post after she had already bought a few other items full price. Bonus sale!

Successful Garage Sale Pricing

Use What You’ve Got

I own ZERO folding tables. I was somehow able to scrounge up 3 small tables from my mom and sister, but beyond that we had nothing to lay our stuff out on.

What I did have was plywood, sawhorses, tv trays, and bed sheets. I used the pieces of plywood to create makeshift tables between the tv trays and sawhorses, and the bed sheets on top finished it off so it looked presentable.

Pool Your Efforts

Bigger sales draw bigger crowds. If you don’t have enough junk to draw people in yourself, collaborate with a friend who also has stuff to sell. Plus, having a friend to chat with all day during the sale is a bonus 🙂 My sister happens to live in town, so we decided to pool our junk for a massive one day sale.

RELATED: ruthlessly declutter your home with my 7 Mantras for the Wannabe Minimalist

Secrets To A Successful Garage Sale

Plan According to Season/Day

I know from a lifetime of experience that end of May/early June is a very popular time of year for garage sales in our area. I planned to hold mine during that time to ensure the biggest crowd. Do some research for your area when deciding when you should have a sale. Organizing and planning in advance is a must for success!

Successful Garage Sale

There was one garage sale tip that I tried that totally flopped. I had stumbled upon a tip to sell cold bottled water at the sale. I remember garage sale-ing in the heat as a kid, so I thought this tip was a great way to make some extra bucks. I bought a case of bottled water at Costco, put it on ice in a cooler, and sold… one. One bottle for $1.

To be fair, we didn’t have the best weather the day of our sale. It rained about half of the day and it was actually quite chilly. This makes it all the more impressive how well our sale did! But it didn’t make for a very successful water bottle selling day. Oh well.

All in all, I sold a grand total of $411.

Planning A Successful Garage Sale

In one day. And that doesn’t even include my sister’s profits. After my first 3-day garage sale, I said NEVER AGAIN. After my second one-day sale, I would totally do it again.

Successful Garage Sale Tips

UPDATE: …and I did! My 2nd one day garage sale brought in a total of $383!

If you’re still looking for more advice on organizing your garage sale for success, this video hit on a few areas that I missed (like moving more of your big ticket items to the end of your driveway!)

Successful Garage Sale Tips

I’ve taken all of the guess-work and stress out of planning a super successful one-day garage or yard sale for you! Download my FREE One-Day Garage Sale Planning and Organizing Printable Checklist below…