So, we finally had our garage sale this past weekend. My husband has been begging me to do this for years and I finally caved in and agreed. NEVER AGAIN!!! I have never had a garage sale and had no idea what all was involved. The whole process of going through all of the things that you have accumulated over the years is exhausting. Its really hard for me to let go of things. I seem to have a memory or attachment to everything. I found things that I didn't even know I still had. Such as the dress I wore to my high school graduation (over 10 years old!), notes between friends from high school (man were those interesting), college projects and papers (I was pretty impressed with a few) and PICTURES. Some of the old pictures I found were seriously hilarious! It was pretty fun taking a walk down memory lane. But the task of getting all these items set up and ready for the garage sale was not fun. We had to borrow tables and rent a clothing rack. The first two weekends we attempted to have the sale were rained out and this past weekend was hot and very windy. The actual garage sale itself wasn't that bad minus the few freak shows that showed up. We sold some things on Friday afternoon and then we didn't get out there on Saturday until 8:30 because my husband had to work and I didn't want to go out there by myself. When my husband went to put the signs out he literally had people following him back to the house. Overall we made about $250.00 which isn't bad but we still have a ton of stuff to get rid of. I think we are going to try again this Saturday and then whatever we have left is going to the Goodwill.
Here are a few things I learned throughout this process that may help you out in your future garage sales:
- If you say the sale starts at 9am that really means 8am. Even if you state no early birds.
- People will try and haggle with you over a quarter.
- Put a price on as many items as you can in advance.
- Be organized. We had many people tell us how nice it was to see a garage sale that was nicely organized.
- Hard core garage sale people are a little crazy, be prepared to deal with it. We had one lady that stayed over an hour and told us her whole life story and all her families dirty little secrets. Another lady almost shit herself over a Sex and the City game. That same lady also had on a dress that didn't leave much to the imagination, she must have been channeling Samantha.
- Make sure you have bags to put the purchased items in, they expect it!
- Have a calculator handy so that you don't look like a total moron when trying to add up items and giving change.
- Be prepared for your children to find items that they don't think need to be sold. Mine found an old fax machine that he now is using to conduct his business on.
- Watch out for groups of people that come together and spread out. I discovered that this is a tactic to distract you from any one person and a perfect opportunity to steal things.
- Don't be afraid to put anything out for sale. The things that I thought would never sell were the first things to go and the things that I thought would sell quick we still have.
Here are a few pictures I took:
