How I Made $1,000 at My Garage Sale

Ah, garage sale season. I love the thrill of finding amazing deals at garage sales but even better, making money and reducing clutter in my own home!

This spring, I decided to have a garage sale during our city-wide rummage sale weekend. In the end, we made roughly $1,000, which was enough to pay our mortgage for the month!

Here are over 35 tips to make your garage sale the best one yet.

• My city charges $15 to be on the community-wide rummage sale map. Your house is assigned a number and the description on the map includes your address, description of items and contact information (if you wish.) There have been years I wanted to save money and didn’t put myself on the map. I can’t say for sure if I had less traffic those years, but sales weren’t as high. Consider having your sale during your community rummage sale days and put yourself on the map if they offer one.

• Is there a community-wide Facebook event or page? Post your sale early. I did not include photos in my post, because I was still setting up the night before the sale. Plus, everything was crammed into my garage. Instead, I created an ad that I posted on the Facebook event, community page and my personal Facebook page. I posted about a week before the sale and then again two days before the sale. The ad was a bit vague but included fun little icons to represent items I was selling. I know this tactic worked because I had some shoppers mention the “fun ad” they saw online.

• If you have larger items for sale, post them on Facebook Marketplace. I posted several items on Marketplace and Craigslist but made sure buyers knew I would not hold items. We had quite a few people who showed up to purchase some of our larger items because they saw them posted online first.

Alright fellow garage sale shoppers, raise your hands if you’ve been annoyed by poor signage? Yeah, me too.

SIGNS. ARE. CRUCIAL.

Here are some best practice tips for signs.

• Make your signs bright and big. None of this tiny business. Also, make sure your signs are obviously connected. Same colors (or group of colors), same verbiage, etc.

• Your address isn’t necessary. No one cares. No one has time to read and enter it into their GPS or figure out which way to go. Arrows are all you need. I did write my address on the inside of the arrows, but you can do without an address.

• Use black paint instead of sharpies to write. I found this way easier and also less of a headache, in literal terms.

• My mom taught me this one: Use old realty signs as your posts. If you can find some old realty signs, these make perfect anchors for your sign. For some of my signs, I just put a bag of rice inside a box to hold it down. Use what you can to anchor the signs.

• Wrap your signs in clear wrapping paper. If rain hits, you don’t want all your hard work to be a runny mess. I just purchased a roll of clear wrapping paper. I found my signs held up much better in the elements.

• Use exciting words! When I had my sale, I was a newlywed. My husband and I both downsized before he moved into my house. We decided to call it a “Mega Moving Sale.” We weren’t actually moving, but, we both were drastically downsizing and making room so we could both fit in our smaller home.

• If your house is on a community-wide rummage sale map, include the number you were assigned on your sign. I am going to try and have the same number next year.

• Make your signs evergreen. Signs are a lot of work and can sometimes add up. If you can find a way to make the sign work year-to-year, you’ll be saving money! My signs will work again next year, just as long as I can request the same number on the community map.

• Have someone help you put your signs out on the morning of the sale. I usually keep mine up for the whole weekend, but I make sure to take them down the same time I am closing. It helps to have someone who can put them out or pick them up.

I hate going to a sale that is only meant for one type of buyer. Grandma’s old Christmas and Easter decor. The mother of three who is downsizing baby clothes. Uncle Larry who wants to just sell all his old tools and hardware.

Have you ever walked up to a sale and instantly walked away because there just wasn’t enough variety? I have!

When you are putting together a rummage sale, see if friends and family can pitch in some items!

Have a mix of products and sizes. This just means your shoppers will probably stick around longer. Husbands will find something while their wives shop. Kids will play with toys while grandma browses. It’s hopefully a win-win for everyone.

• Let your family and friends know what your general pricing will be. $1 DVDs, clothing will range from $1-$5, $2 books… Whatever prices you set, try to be consistent.

• Offer to pick up the items and organize them in the sale yourself. The only thing I ask friends or family to do is to price and initial their items. If they really don’t have time, I offer to do it. You want to make it easy for them to say “yes!”

• Variety, especially in clothing, is REALLY helpful. Don’t forget to also include other genders and ages. Don’t have a lot of men’s items? Ask a few friends or your dad if they have some stuff they want to sell.

• If you can, make sure to include large products or name brand items in your mix of products. We sold our kitchen table and a few dressers. We also had some name-brand items that sold right away. Be critical of what you’re keeping around the house and be okay letting go of items you really don’t use or like…even if they are name brand.

• Keep like items together. When I had my sale I had a TON of wedding stuff from my wedding and my sister’s wedding. We just had one big wedding table vs. splitting everything apart. We sold probably 75% of the items on this table.

Instead of scattering things mindlessly, do your best to have a system of organization.

• Print labels / signs. Don’t overkill, but a few signs here and there are nice.

Vintage
Media
Clothing
Workout Gear
Crafty Stuff
Books
Tools
Shoes

• Use boxes or shelves to make levels and set things apart.

Here are a few ideas:
Display books on a bookshelf from your house (just mark not for sale on the bookshelf.)
Use kitchen drawers (if they pull out) to display items in
Flip totes over and put a board across it to act as a table

Tables are great but having different boxes and ways to display items will help make it easier for people to shop.

• If you put things below or above eye level, put a sign that says “more above” or “more below.” Sometimes people miss where things are. Help them navigate.

• People LOVE 25 and 50 cent bins. I had a lot of clothes that I really didn’t care if they were donated after the sale. I marked each one either 25 or 50 cents and threw them into a bin. People LOVE to rummage these! These bins were usually cleared out by the end of the sale.

• Inspire buyers! I had a ton of old frames. You’ll see in the picture above, I pulled an idea from a magazine about starting your own frame wall. A few people read this and said they’ve been meaning to start one and ended up purchasing a few frames.

Garbage week is almost like a holiday to me and my husband. We’ll drive around and look for free things to either keep for ourselves or resell.

This year alone, I made over $100 in items I found on the curb! This included dressers, random art, board games, working lamps, books, a cute old vintage riding horse, etc.

• Find out when your garbage week is (or surrounding cities) and see if you can find some curbside treasures that are worth putting in your sale. Yes, it’s more labor-intensive, but it can be fun to make $20 on a dresser that all you did was move it from the curb to your car and back into your garage.

• Play soft music in the background. I found spa music playlists on Spotify worked best! People said they enjoyed the calm music, especially in the morning. Music with words can just get kind of annoying if people are visiting while they shop.

• Sell water or other treats. We bought treats from Costco for cheap and then sold them for 50 cents at the sale. I estimate we profited about $25 alone in treats and water.

• Say hello but leave people alone when they shop. I don’t mind some chit chat but I am instantly turned off at a sale if someone starts trying to sell me stuff or comments on everything I pick up. Let your customers shop and if someone has a question, be sure to answer it to the best of your ability.

• Have a few outlets available for testing electronic items. We had a lot of questions if things worked. We were able to plug things in and show people they functioned just fine.

• Have a free box at the end of your driveway. Everyone loves free stuff!

• For ease of adding, I keep low priced items to 25 or 50 cents. Never 75 cents and never 10 cents.

• Always have enough change on hand. I start with:
25 – $1s
10 – $5s
15 – $10s
5 – $20s
and one $50
and two rolls of quarters

Make sure when you’re adding your total at the end of the sale to deduct what you started with if you truly want to know what your profit was.

• Personally, I never accept checks unless I know the person and I rarely accept $100 bills. If you do plan to accept big bills, I recommend buying one of those special counterfeit pens.

• I rarely ever go down on pricing my first day. If it’s the end of the first day, I may negotiate, but oftentimes I can sell the item sometime later in the day for the original asking price.

• Thursday night was the busiest night!

• Make sure you have curb appeal. I had some pinwheels I put in my yard to draw attention and make sure to pull out all the largest items to the end of my driveway. I also had two center tables with a variety of items. Whatever you have on the curb, make sure there is a good variety for those people who like to drive-by shop. You want to catch their eye!

• Have clear tarps on hand in case of rain! We had quite a bit of rain on day two of our garage sale. I just threw over some clear tarps and held it down with table clamps. People could still shop and not have to lift up a big blue tarp to see items. If someone wanted something, I just ran out and assisted them in pulling the tarp off. I’ve also seen people have pop-up tents. I haven’t invested in those, but if you’re serious about having a dry sale, you may want to purchase one or two.

• It’s okay to ask people to come back if you’re setting up. I try to set-up at least an hour before I know people will arrive. Friday mornings I set-up at 7 a.m. and Saturdays I usually set-up at 8 a.m. However, sometimes there are those people who want to barge into your garage when you still have a lot to haul out. Kindly ask them if they can wait in their vehicle or come back in 15 minutes (or however long you need.)

• Make sure to stay hydrated and fed throughout the day. My husband is a handy assistant on rummage sale days. He will refill my coffee, make me some food and fill in when I have to pee. If you can, ask a friend or family member if they can help out for a little while if you need a quick break.

What are some of your favorite tips and tricks for having a successful sale? Share and comment below!