are the ones with the most merchandise. Tables should be laden with goods. Lots of clothes should be hanging on racks. Boxes to rummage through should be everywhere.
Suggestion: Get your friends and neighbors to join in the fun and be co-sellers and co-workers! Tell them to bring over any and all of their recyclable household goods and turn the garage sale into a big event -- so everyone makes money -- and has great fun also.
Once you've interested your friends and neighbors, the next step is to start planning and organizing. A garage sale requires preparation and creativity, but your efforts will pay big dividends.
Start by setting up a schedule of activities that begins at least two weeks before the first bargain hunter arrives -- and preferably four weeks before -- and ends the day after you make your final sale.
Select a date (and rain date) for the sale. Do not schedule the sale on a holiday weekend.
Call Town Hall and find out if you need a permit.
Warn your immediate neighbors so they have time to put up "no parking" signs on their property if they want to put their cars in their garage to provide more parking space.
Invite cosellers and assign them their own specific price tag (red, blue, green, etc.) to be hung on their merchandise for easy recordkeeping.
Schedule friends and family to keep an eye on things.
Write and submit classified ads to your local newspaper and radio station. Don't forget to put notices up around town, too. Use index cards or flyers and post them in supermarkets, libraries, etc.
Design garage-sale signs and decide what street corners they'll go on. Use large construction paper. Tape signs to telephone poles and trees with arrows pointing people in the right direction. Put some signs on the main road and some at intersections.
Decide if unsold merchandise will be taken back or find a charitable organization that will pick up unsold goods.
Review cashier procedures and give helpers their assignments and schedules.
Have $50 in change in a cash box:
Make arrangement for your pets to be out of sight and sound.
Put your garage-sale signs around the area.
Arrange merchandise by hanging clothes on racks, having $10, $5, $1 and $50 tables and boxes for rummaging clearly marked in advance with what is contained inside of them.
Place a "Sale beging at 9 o'clock" sign on your door to discourage early birds, but expect an onslaught by 9.
things or to know where to begin, so start with a systematic search of your house, and be ruthless.
Walk through every room dragging a box. The things that people will buy at a garage sale are mind-boggling. (Is it junk or a find? It's a matter of opinion.) So grab half-empty paint cans, ceiling tiles, old toasters, bell bottoms and love beads and throw them in the box.
And the kid's stuff? You won't have to wrestle toys and games from the arms of waiting children if you put them in charge of their own "toy booth" and give them a commission.
This is your opportunity to do what you're always saying you're going to do -- make room and get organized. So do it. Once you've filled box after box to the brim, do not allow yourself second thoughts. Tell yourself you're not looking at anything you really need, you're looking at money in the bank!
If you don't take a few precautions, garage sales can be memorable for all the wrong reasons. For example, you want your friends and neighbors to remain just that after the sale. You don't want any misunderstandings.
A written agreement between your cosellers and you in which they agree to deliver their sale items no later than a specific date. They should also commit (in writing) to setting up their own items and manning their own booths. In addition, they should agree to share the cost of advertisements and supplies, such as signs and cash boxes.
To avoid underpricing items: Ask a knowledgeable friend or allow a dealer (they'll be calling) to take a look at what's for sale and to give you an idea of its true value. Don't be pressured into selling to dealers. Take their bids and call them after the sale.
Channel shoppers directly to the sales area and do not let them wander through your home unsupervised or use the bathroom. Build some primitive display cases out of window glass (tape the edges) and put your costume jewelry and small valuables under glass to keep sticky fingers under control
