Skip to main content

The best day for a garage sale

A big part of downsizing is finding new owners for your no-longer-needed items. These items are still fantastic. Many of them are little treasures. It's just time for them to find a new home.

For tips on online selling, grab my free e-book Less Clutter More Cash.

Today's topic is garage sales. Are they worth it and when's the best time to have one?

They do take some work

Let's be frank. Garage sales can be a bit of work.

Moving all your items to your garage or driveway. Pricing the items, or arranging them in boxes or on tables according to price. Promoting the garage sale to your neighbours - either online or with cardboard signs around the neighbourhood. Sitting around for hours on the day (not really hard work but time-consuming). Packing up after it's all over.

Are they worth it?

Garage sales can be worth it. If you have a lot of items to sell and they are fairly mainstream items then a garage sale can be worth the time. It's still a lot of work but there's a good chance to move some items.

The best day of the year?

If you are ever going to do a garage sale, do it during the annual Garage Sale Trail. This year it is the weekend of 20-21 October.

Garage Sale Trail is an Australia-wide initiative to promote garage sales and buying second-hand. More than 400,000 Australians participate.



We've occasionally done a garage sale on another weekend, but never as successfully as on Garage Sale Trail weekend.

Why is it better?

In short - less effort, more sales.

Register your sale online and it goes on a map where keen buyers can add you to their "sale trail". The people at Garage Sale Trail also promote the national day. Together these two things mean that you can get people coming without doing any of your own promotion.

You can also list your items and post pictures to the Garage Sale Trail website. Because people can see what's there before they come, the people who come along are more likely to be interested in what you have. Also people who are after something in particular (eg Elvis records) can search the website for sales that have those particular items.

Any other tips?

Make use of the time. Take photos of your items while their out on display (if you haven't already). If they don't sell at the garage sale, it will be quicker to put them online later.

Show all you've got. If you are already selling items online (and following my tips in my free e-book) then you can also add the web address of your online list to your Garage Sale Trail profile.

Even if your garage sale profile is just a basic one, you can show people where to find your complete list of items. You might even make some extra sales in advance.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

You know what to do. Ignore this ad!

Yes, jewellery stores pump out the ads around valentine's day - that's no surprise. After all it's a made-up day designed to sell more stuff at higher prices. But this year they seem extra desperate to sell stuff we don't want, with the "You know what to do" campaign. I reckon the sales team are scared by the number of couples that have realised that love is not in physical merchandise but in quality time. So they've made an ad exactly about these people. The message seems to be aimed straight at guys to say "even if you and your partner agree not to waste money on jewellery, you should buy her some anyway". Apparently in a relationship it's important to ignore what your wife or partner says and do what profit-motivated corporations tell you to do. I tend to disagree. If you're interested have a look - it's interesting to see how transparent it is.

Less Clutter More Cash - now available

Do you feel like you have too much stuff? Is your home full of things you never use? Would you like to swap them for cash? We did My wife and I have sold more than 550 items online as we downsize and we've learnt a bit along the way. I've put some of our best tips into this handy ebook. I hope you can use these tips so you too can have less clutter and more cash. Enter your email address below to receive the book for free. Less Clutter More Cash Get my new ebook for free. PS. This will subscribe to the But Wait There's Less email list, so you'll know when the new updated version of the book is available. You can unsubscribe at any time.

The Transformer Table

Our new table transforms itself, and our view of furniture Here is our new table It has 3 modes. Friends mode: Seating up to 6 for dinner or board games. Couple mode: Great for the two of us. Or for doing some writing while looking out at the view. 99% mode: Most of the time we don't need a table, so it folds away. Storage in the side drawers. Best of all it allows the space to be multipurpose. Ordinarily a traffic area (between the kitchen, other rooms and the balcony) it can also be a spacious area for the two of us, a table for 6, or an expanded lounge area if we push the lounge furniture back. How it transforms homes Traditionally each room has one purpose. TV room for TV; bedroom for bed; study for studying; the dining room for the dining table. When furniture is cleverly designed , spaces can be multifunctional and we don't need so many rooms. It's one of the key concepts behind tiny homes . One of the architects from The Tiny House Company showed...