Saturday, May 29, 2010

Let's Dish - May 29th

I hope ya'll are having a happy memorial day weekend with friends and family. Hopefully there is some sort of delicious grilled food to go with your fellowship! What are we up to you say? Well, we are having a garage sale. I'm not a gigantic fan of random people coming and picking through my stuff, but hey, extra money for things I don't want anymore is not too much to complain about. okay!

Let's Dish about this. Do you garage sale as either the buyer or the seller? Any great tips you've picked up along the way? Are you mortified by how much stuff you have laying around your house that you don't want/need anymore or is that just me? Have you ever sold parts of your stockpile?

Spill it all and I'll update how we're doing at our sale as we go!

5 comments:

Laura said...

My parents are pack-rats and so I try not to be. We try to clean out clutter regularly, but we haven't had a garage sale in a long time - it's harder in the city I think. Most people up here use Craigslist for the same purpose.

The best garage sale we ever had, by Far, was the one Kyle and I put on to help us raise money for our wedding. We really focused on the advertising and it paid off. I made cute/catchy signs and put them up and we advertised in the paper as having a "Love Sale"...to help us raise money for the wedding. I printed out funny signs and captions to put on various items, like "Hey, you, I see you lookin' at me - take me home!" or "I would look fabulous on your mantle...by that picture"

We printed Sale "menus" that just had the various prices - but everything was themed around love. I wore a bridal veil a lot of the day, we played music, and had refreshments for people (lemonade & cookies)

Anyway - it was a little more work, but we made $700-800 that day. Lots of people came by just to see what the "love sale" was about.

SO, that's my 2 cents. Themes. :)

On the flip side - I've learned that where you hold your garage sale can make a difference. My parents used to live in a poor neighborhood and people would haggle something that cost a quarter until they got it for a nickel. The next time, we moved all their stuff and held it at their church - in a nicer location, and made 3x the money.

Not that any of that is helpful for you today - but I'm sure you guys will do great. Good luck!

Ben and Bethany said...

Laura - you are the most creative person I know! That is a WONDERFUL idea, seriously, really awesome. I will definitely be doing that next time. Only we'll pick a diff theme bc, I doubt anyone cares about 5 1/2 year married love - ha!

We're doing ok. We've made about $150 so far and I'd love to make around $300 total....here's hoping!

Ben and Bethany said...

Well - we did it! We made almost $400 today. It was a definite success :)

kelly said...

I collect items all year long for my garage sales and I try to have 2 a year. I had my husband floor more of my attic so we can store stuff. I keep a box in my guest room and any time I have something to get rid of I put it in my box. I am going to start pricing the item as well when I put it in the box so that all of that will we done when time to garage sale. all I will have to do is lay out the items. I tell all of my family and friends that I will take "anything" for my sales so I have other people add stuff as well, give it to me instead of throwing it away. I also try to have the sales at the first of the month, when people have more money. Around noon I start to group items together and post it on craigslist 9all baby items for a price, all decorative items or clothing) for sale as well. I also let people come "early" on Fri, they are willing to pay "full price" for first look. I am lucky to live in a great area for a garage sale too!

Hope that helps

Bethany said...

thank you Kelly! that is really helpful. We just found out that we are moving and are going to have another yard sale in 2 weeks to sell whatever else we come across in the moving process. I love the "have a box and price as you go" method. That has to be so helpful. I also love that you will take the time and effort to sell things that others would just throw away, that is so resourceful! My husband has found several items on the side of the road that people were throwing away, good things that had nothing wrong with them, that we sold at our yard sale on Saturday. I think we totalled and we made $80 of pure profit over something someone was sending to the dump. Plus, that's one less thing hanging out in the landfill!