Every year we take a break from our regular homeschool studies to participate in the citywide garage sale. The boys learn lessons in pricing, marketing and work, while spending a few days outdoors. This is our sixth garage sale year, as we attempt to purge our house of old toys and clothes and other miscellaneous items. We often coordinate our sale with the neighbor’s sale so that we benefit from the increased traffic on our otherwise quiet street.

We’ve learned a few garage sale tips and tricks over the years, including:

1. The early bird gets the worm. The citywide sale is advertised on Saturday, but the early shoppers come out on Thursday and Friday. We run our sale from Thursday to Saturday. The earlier we start in the morning, the better. We’ve had people parked outside our home at 8 a.m.
2. Coordinate with your neighbors and friends. The more sales on one street, the more likely shoppers are to stop and check them all out. This year we had two other families bring stuff to sell at our garage sale and a total of six garage sales on our street.
3. Use garage sale signs to direct shoppers to your sale. We put signs on both ends of our street and a sign in our yard.
4. Pull the big stuff out on your driveway so people will stop and shop. Things that have worked well in the past include a couch, a dining room set, a Little Tikes playhouse, and bicycles.
5. Clean and repair items before you sell them. They are more likely to sell that way.
6. Find free ways to advertise. I put an ad in the citywide sale one year, but in other years I simply posted an ad in our homeschool group’s Classifieds and emailed all my local friends. This year I noted our garage sale on Facebook while a friend posted it on Craigslist. It’s nice to see familiar faces amidst a sea of strangers.
7. Greet and make small talk with the shoppers. Everyone likes to connect and feel like someone cares about them. It helps to increase sales too!
8. Post a “Cash only, please” sign at your cashier’s table. A friend related that a sweet elderly lady came to her garage sale and then bounced her check!
9. Price a little higher the first day and then drop your prices by the last day of your sale. Know how much you are willing to negotiate on price. There should be a little room to bargain, but you don’t have to give your things away.
10. When your sale is over for the day, keep your garage door closed or people will walk in!
11. Know what people want. If they start asking for jewelry, get your old jewelry out and price it. I’m glad I did!
12. Play beautiful music in the background. We’ve used Pachelbel in the past and this year we played Beethoven.
13. Include your children in your garage sale by having them find items to sell, price the items, set up tables, work as cashier or security, and market the garage sale. This year our 8-year-old helped type our ad for our homeschool group and our 11-year-old hauled the TV from the basement to the garage.

Are you doing a garage sale this year? Do you have a garage sale tip to share? Do you enjoy shopping at garage sales?

Lisa (aka Morning Rose) has been teaching her two elementary-aged sons for four years and incorporating study, work, service, and play into their homeschooling days. She enjoys reading, writing, and photography and blogs publicly at Pockets of Time and privately at Scooter and B.