Tips on running a sucessful garage sale

My mom has always had 1 or 2 garage sales every year since I can remember.  I've learned a lot from her over the years on how to run a sucessful garage sale.  Remember, all those quarter shirts add up to some nice cash over the course of a day.

So here are my tips from watching my mothering and some of own ideas:

1. Ask your neighbors and family or friends if they want to sell anything.  This makes the sale look bigger and better to passerbys. 

2.  Advertise, advertise, advertise.  This means putting an ad in your local newspaper AND a craigslist ad.  It's well worth the extra few dollars to get the big ad in the newspaper. The ads need to have your address, the times and items.  If you have big ticket items than be sure to list them.

3. Organize your items.  Don't just throw them out in the lawn and expect people to bend over and sort through them.  Nearly everything should be on a table and everything should be priced.  That can mean you tag each item or the whole table of clothes $.25/ea.  People don't like asking how much something is, they will just walk away instead.

4. Pricing.  Nobody likes driving to your house and finding out that you want to charge too much.  If you want stuff to sell, you've gotta price it as such.

5. Signage.  I highly suggest having color-coordinated signs, meaning all of your signs that you have placed around your neighborhood and on the main drags + the one in front of your house, need to be the same color.  If everyone in your area is doing a sale that day people will get lost following different signs, so make yours all one color w/ just "GARAGE SALE" and an arrow.  Boxes are best to tape to with rocks in the bottom.

6. Be prepared.  This means several things.  Everything should be priced the night before.  Your friends and neighbors should have already brought their stuff over priced.  Everything should be waiting inside your garage or somewhere safe and then head out about an hour early to pull everything out and sell to the "Earlybirds".  Also, be sure to have plenty of change handy, but secured.

7. The customer.  Whether its the blue-haired granny from down the road, the aspiring eBay seller, or the kids from next door be sure to give everyone a warm welcome.  This makes them feel welcome in your yard and encourages them to ask questions rather than just walk away.

8. My preference.  Whenever my mom and I have a sale I always ask her to have it 1 day.  This makes people have a sense of urgency.  When the customer scans the newspaper or Craigslist and sees your "1 DAY SALE" vs the other persons "Friday, Saturday, Sunday SALE" they think to the themselves "Well, I better get to this one since it's only 1 day.  I can hit up the other ones later this week."

So, do you have any tips for a successful garage sale?

Peter Walsh

I'm sure most of you have heard of him, he's on TLC's Clean Sweep and he's the author of several books, one of which I have checked out of the library.  It's called It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff.  The premise is de-cluttering your home/office/garage or what have you.  The reason I got this book was because we have a small home and too much stuff.  The hubbs and I have lived here for 6 years and have accumulated tons of stuff.  I'm not a good housekeeper and have struggled for many years in that department.  Since having Baby J, I've turned it around somewhat, but my sewing area is a wreck, the "office" to put it lightly is a mess, and the kitchen seems to be a catch all for all things that don't have a 'place'.  I love my hubby dearly and he's a very neat person, but he likes things.  He still has every CD he's every purchased (think 250 or more) + he loves movies, so he has at least 100 DVDs.  He also loves history and has a Master's in it so he has lots of books and movies and what not that pertain to his teaching.  So, what am I getting at?  Well, it's time to get this stuff out of here.  I'm tired of my clutter, his clutter and the kids' clutter.  It's all too much!  We only have 900sqft on any given day to live in.  With 4 humans roaming around, that's ends up being a lot of stuff we need.

The good thing in reading this book is realizing how much stuff we think we need.  Tonight the hubbs went through all of his DVDs and has so far gotten rid of a large stack of them.  This has been very hard for him and I'm so proud.  He also went through all of mine and got rid of 75% of them.  We agreed that if we want to see them again we can just rent them from Netflix.

My mom and I are planning a garage sale this Friday, if the weather permits.  Whatever the hubbs doesn't want to put on DVDSwap will go in the G-sale.  Later this week I'll be posting my hints for having a top-notch garage sale that will make you some serious cash :)

We have a long road ahead of us but it will be so rewarding at the end.  I'll keep you all posted on our progress as we go through the house and garage.

What are the areas in your home that tend to get cluttered?  Do you collect anything that you could pare down?

Happy Easter everyone :)

Today's great finds

This morning my wonderful MIL came over to watch the kids for me while I ran errands.  I had to go to the bank and to the pet food store for dog food.  I happened to stop by the Salvation Army on my way b/c I was looking for a cardigan, a light jacket , some 3T sleepers, and possibly some capris/shorts.  Well, I scored all of this for $22!  It's not my best deals, but for what I got I'm MORE than thrilled!

I got a Helly Hansen fleece zip up for $3.89, for myself.  These retail anywhere from $75 - $125, SCORE!

These are Levi 542 capris that appear to be like new! $4.89 (retails for $45)

2 Carter's 3T jammies for Miss A (she really likes the sports and big trucks) $1.89/each

I hit up the $.25 rack and found these.  They'll be great diaper covers and I'll hem them into shorts when he outgrows the inseams :)

Cute 3/4 sleeve top for Moi, $1.79

The stacker in the back is Melissa & Doug, the other two are from Ikea (made in Sweden).  These came all in 1 bag and were $5.89!!!!!!!

Educo "Double Bubble" for $1.89.  Made in Canada.  

We already have about a dozen of their Anamalz and love them

So needless to say I'm so stoked with my finds.  We're now set for Jamesy's birthday tomorrow!

Buy Local

While driving around town and shopping, I've noticed more and more of these window clings on cars and the front doors of businesses.  I strongly believe in buying local.  My husband owns and operates his own business and with out the people of our local community we would have been sunk long ago.  For nearly everything you buy there are 2 options, buy local or buy big-box.  You can get your groceries at the locally run grocery store or the big-box.  You can buy a toy from Toys R Us or from your local artisan on www.etsy.com.  You can buy a gallon of paint or a bucket of nails from your neighborhood hardware store or the big-box alternative.  It's all about choices and where you want to put your hard earned dollars.  While I was reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle she said that nearly 75% of your dollar stays in your city when you BUY LOCAL.  Isn't that amazing!  That's what we should all strive for.  So next time you're planning your errands for the week, take an extra minute to see if you can buy local instead.

To see if your town supports Buy Local, just Google "Buy Local and your town name".  I've already emailed our Greater Spokane Incorporated to buy a window cling for my car :)

The loot

Good morning everyone!

I went to Fresh Abundance first thing this morning and picked up our fruit box a 1/2 gallon of Spokane Family Farm's milk (for Miss A).  This pictures if missing some bananas, some apples, the strawberries, and a few tangerines :)

So now the challenge begins to see how long we can make this last.  One of ours goals is to buy less junk food (read CANDY and KETTLE CHIPS).  The hubbs and I love an indulgent snack after we put the kids to bed and we watch a little TV.  We're hoping all this fruit will help our waistlines and our budget :)

CSA aka Community Supported Agriculture

We're doing it.  We've thought about joining our local CSA, Fresh Abundance, for about a year now, but the membership fee of $50 was keeping us from doing it.  Well, we got our tax return back and I said that I wanted to do it, so we did.  The hubbs doesn't bend to my will usually, but I told him that lots of fresh fruits would be his pay back, so he obliged. 

My BIL expressed interest in wanting to take about a 1/3 of it, so that will help us with the cost + eliminate any potential food waste.  Although we may be upgrading the Happy Family Produce Box next week because hubby's aunt said she would like to split a box.  We'll see if that happens or if it's even feasible with that many people eating out of 1 box.

Right now we're getting the Fruit Box and I will pick it up this afternoon or tomorrow morning.  The plan is to get it every other week, but it may change to every week.  The contents change each week and this is what we'll be getting this week:
1 Pound LOCAL Organic Pink Lady Apples
2 Pound Organic Minneola Tangelos
4 LOCAL Organic Bosc Pears
1 Organic Mango
3 Organic Medium Navel Oranges
4 LOCAL Organic Fuji Apples
1 Organic Pineapple
2 LOCAL Organic Cameo Apples
1 Pound Organic Strawberries
2 LOCAL Organic Red Danjou
1 Large Organic Grapefruit
5 Organic Bananas

I'll be sure to post pictures of it this week...that is if there is anything left ;)

Today's finds

Hi everyone and Happy Friday!!!

Today I had to run errands while my MIL watched the kiddos.  I stopped by Savvy Moms but they weren't open yet (I was out the door before 9am).  They are a nicer thrift store w/ name brands like Gymboree, Hanna Andersson, etc.  I was looking for 3T footed PJs for Arabelle.  So, I ran to Aslin Finch and got cat food, than to the Franz Bakery Outlet and got all this for $5.96!!!
The loaves of bread are our favorite and we were completely out of bread.  They usually go for $3/loaf and I got them for $1 and they all expire next week, so they'll be going into the freezer.  The english muffins were $.48/each, usually $2/each

I stopped by The Army looking for PJs still and found a pair.  They're boyish with a dinosaur on them, but Arabelle won't care, they were $1.89.  I've also been looking for stainless steel cookware and a few bowls since we don't do plastic any more.  I scored!  I got all this for $14.  They look a little dingy, but the dishwasher will take care of that :)