'Tis the Season (Garage Sale Season, that is)
Spring Cleaning is a wonderful accomplishment. Everything is fresh and clean. The house is decluttered. But what do you do with all those junky doo-dads (I mean "treasures") rescued out of the closets and garage and now need to find new homes? Making a few extra pennies by holding a Garage/Yard Sale could be just the ticket.
Last year I held a four day Garage Sale that was successful beyond my wildest dreams. I thought I'd share some of the ideas I used during my sale last year in case anyone else is thinking about holding a Garage Sale or Yard Sale now that Spring Cleaning and Summer weather is well underway.
NUMBER OF DAYS
To begin with, I planned the sale for more than the typical one or two days. For my most recent sale, I decided on four days -- Wednesday through Saturday. I'm glad I decided to go for the longer sale starting earlier in the week. Many shoppers stopped by just out of the novelty of seeing a Garage Sale being held on a day different from Friday/Saturday. Also, holding a Sale on an "off" day when there aren't other Sales going on is beneficial because people aren't holding onto their pennies, waiting to see if there's something better at the next sale down the road. If you're the only game in town, they buy rather than browse.
CLASSIFIED ADS
I placed two separate ads in the local paper. The first ad covered the sale for Wednesday and Thursday. The second ad was for Friday and Saturday. I thought that if I had just one ad that said the sale goes from Wednesday to Saturday, fewer people would show up on the last two days of the sale -- from reading the ad, they would probably think all the good stuff had already been picked over.
Be sure to double-check your ad when it appears in the paper. One of the days my ad ran, the newspaper misprinted some information. I called the paper about it and they refunded my money.
Also, the longer your ad, the better. Most Garage Sale advertisements are fairly short, but longer ads stand out better amidst long listings of Garage Sales. Try to list things individually: furniture, clothing, small appliances, toys, baby items, blankets, collectibles, etc. If there's anything special about your sale, mention it. I put in my ad that my sale contained five generations of junk ... umm ... well, I actually wrote "treasures" in the ad itself.
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