10 Tips to Make Your Garage Sale Successful

It's time to grab your fanny pack full of cash and head to the local garage and yard sales!

This is my favorite time of year. So many people are hosting garage sales, and if you are lucky, you can find a whole neighborhood or town participating in one.

You never know what you may find at these sales, but you can almost certainly buy something fun and interesting. The saying, 'one man's trash is another man's treasure' is most certainly true in the case of the yard sale.

David Sacks, ThinkStock

I love to find furniture pieces to restore, small display items and vintage records. Shopping is the fun part, but setting up a garage sale is tough work. I've done quite a few and helped many others with their personal sales. If you want to have a successful garage sale, here are some tips to help you make some serious cash.

Advertise! Make sure the location, time and hours are clearly marked on your garage sale signs. Put balloons on your mailbox so everyone knows that your yard is where the biggest and best sale is! If you are doing a yard sale solo, as in not a community or group sale, advertise in the local paper and Craigslist. You can even put your signs out a few days ahead of time for drivers to see before the weekend.
Get some help! It's not easy putting prices on everything, cleaning items, moving everything to the garage or yard and displaying everything neatly. It can take days, even months to get everything together. The more pairs of helping hands the better. This is true the day of sale as well. Helpers can bring smiles when there is a lull in customer traffic, be there for potty breaks and assist in sales. It's an added bonus when your friend sells items at your sale as well. The more items you have at a sale, the more likely shoppers will stop.
Present neatly! It's fun to look through your junk, but make sure we can see it. If everything is cluttered, put in hard to reach areas or require a lot of bending over, shoppers may deter from purchasing specific items. To display clothing, you can use a broom between two ladders and hang them. Set out tables neatly with enough walking area between them. Section things off into specific categories, kids clothing, toys, housewares, etc.
Make it fun! Turn on some soft music so shoppers aren't shopping in silence. (This would be a good time to turn on The Eagle.)
Save your bags and newspapers! Keep plastic and paper bags handy for your guests. When they leave with arms full of your trinkets, you can wrap them in newspaper and put them in bags for easy transport home.
Hydrate your shoppers! Buy a few cases of water and put them on ice. You can sell them for a dollar a bottle. I wish more garage and yard sales would do this. On super hot days, most yard sale shoppers are going from sale to sale, late through the afternoon. Nothing beats a cold bottle of water. On the same note, I've even seen yard sales serve bags of chips and hot dogs too! Now that is service!
Mark items clearly! I'm pretty shy when it comes to my yard sale adventures, and chances are if I can't figure out what price it is, I'll assume it's really not all the item is cracked up to be. Or if I really want the item, I'll have to come and bother you for the price. You already have enough to do.
Let me test your item! You told me the lamp works perfectly, but I don't know you or my soon to be lamp. Have an electrical outlet handy to test that lamp, blender, microwave etc. I want to know what I'm purchasing works. This is the same for items that require batteries. Have them on hand as well.
Have cash ready! Making change involves nickles, dimes, quarters and singles. Make sure to have them ready for an easy exchange.
Bonus: Have a Half-Off Day! If you plan to do a Friday and Saturday garage sale, why not mark everything half-off? Everyone loves a good deal! It will help get rid of the rest of your unwanted items quicker.