Are you downsizing because your children moved out and you don’t need all that extra space? Or are you moving to another area in Boise, Idaho, because you found a better-paying job?
Whatever your reason for moving, it’s a good time to cull through all the things you own and make sure that you don’t move unnecessary items to your new home. It can be a good excuse to do a spring cleaning of your home.
Not only can you get rid of everything that you don’t use anymore, but if you hold a pre-moving yard sale, you can even make money from your unwanted items. Keep reading for some tips on how to hold a garage sale so you make the most of this experience, both in time and cash.
1. Don’t Sell Broken or Cheap Items
This is not meant to be a garage sale where you give away all your broken or non-functional items so you can get rid of them. It’s meant to be a garage sale where you give away items that might end up being more useful to someone else than they would be sitting around in your attic or basement.
If you have items that can be repaired cheaply or in a DIY way, then do that before adding them to your moving sale. On the other hand, if they can’t get repaired easily, it would be better to take them to a landfill, as they are going to be no good to anyone.
2. Think About Bundling Items to Make It a Better Sale
Just like retail stores will bundle items to make them more attractive to buyers, you can do the same. If you have two items that will go well together, consider bundling them together and giving a better price on them.
This way you will be able to sell your items faster, and your pre-move garage sale will be even more of a success.
3. Make Sure You Have Prices on Everything
You don’t want purchasers coming to ask you every time they are interested in an item. It’s embarrassing and it will make them self-conscious and less likely to purchase the item.
Put prices on everything you are selling, so that folks will know exactly what their final bill will end up being. And they can comfortably pay cash for everything.
4. Do Some Marketing to Make Sure Your Garage Sale Is Successful
You will want to post your pre-move garage sale date and details in a few places around your neighborhood and also online on Kijiji or Facebook. This way folks will know that you are selling items before moving, and they will show up in droves.
There’s no point in holding a garage sale if only a few people show up because you didn’t bother to make an effort to market it. Use word of mouth as well, by telling your friends, neighbors, and family members about it (so they can spread the garage sale details).
5. Consider Bringing Your Neighbors in to Make It an Extravaganza
If you have neighbors you are close to, consider asking them if they have items they would like to sell in a garage sale as well. If they do, then you can do a mass garage sale with items from 4-5 neighbors and make it a huge deal.
Not only will you have more items to sell, which is always a positive when it comes to garage sales, but you will also attract more customers as bigger garage sales are always more attractive to folks than smaller ones.
6. Let Customers Haggle With You
Allow haggling or bargaining in your garage sale. Maybe it’s something you are not used to doing, having bargained last when you visited Asia. But it’s a great way to entice customers to visit your moving sale.
People love to bargain and get a good deal on an item. It gives them a positive endorphin rush, and it will allow you to form deeper bonds with your neighbors and other folks visiting. Who knows, you might even end up making some great friendships due to this pre-move garage sale.
7. Don’t Overprice Your Items
Everyone thinks that their stuff is expensive and valuable, and everyone else’s stuff is not so much (it’s also known as the endowment effect). Remember this psychological trait, when pricing your items for the garage sale.
You don’t want to overprice everything and turn visitors off. Even if you allow bargaining, make sure you price your items fairly from the start. This way you won’t have to spend too much time haggling since people will be more than willing to pay a fair price for an item they desire.
Don’t know how much to price certain items? Go online to sites like Craigslist or Kijiji and see how similar items have been priced. It should give you a good idea of what to mark your items at.
Also, remember that it’s always better to price something lower than what you think it’s worth, so people think it’s a bargain and snatch it up quick.
8. Organize Everything So It’s Easy to Walk Through and Browse
You’ve probably been in those stores where everything is stuffed together so tight that you are afraid to hit something with your body, drop it to the floor, and break it. Shopping in such an environment is uncomfortable and not at all a fun experience.
Not to say that you need to start creating retail-like aisles and have shopping carts available. But doing the little things, like having enough space for folks to walk through and browse your items is helpful.
Also, have reusable shopping bags or something like that available for folks to use when they are shopping, so they don’t have to carry everything in their hands. If you have fragile items for sale, make sure you store them in a way that if a child or a pet rushes past, it doesn’t fall and shatter to the ground.
Have some good wrapping like bubble wrap or paper around them, so they are safe and sound. It will also be helpful when folks want to take these items home with them – they won’t have to worry they will break them in transit.
9. Have Refreshments
One way you can encourage people to stay longer and browse comfortably is by having refreshments available. It can be something as simple as some apple juice in a paper cup or it could be a little more elaborate like peanuts in little paper cups or lemon ice water.
This will allow your visitors to be refreshed on a hot day and they can spend more time shopping (shopping can be a tiring business, after all).
If you wish, you can also combine the garage sale with a bake sale, or have drinks and pizza for sale. You could sell cookies or brownies you have baked yourself or something else like that. It can give you that additional income, and it’s also fun to cook for other people.
You could even donate everything you make from the bake sale to your favorite charity organization and advertise that on your flyers so people can come to support you. Americans are great givers, and this is always a good way to get them interested.
10. Give Away or Donate Everything You Don’t Sell
Even if your garage sale is a smashing success, you will still have items leftover that weren’t sold off. This could be because they are of poor quality or they are too outdated and no one wants them.
Whatever the reason, don’t fret. If you wish, you could hold a second garage sale to sell all the leftover items. But if you don’t have the time or patience for that, then it’s easy enough to give the items away to Salvation Army or other such charitable organization.
You could even give away all the items that are leftover to all the stragglers for free. This could be a great way of getting rid of them and not having to haul them somewhere else.
Or you can take it all to the landfill or salvage yard and let them handle it.
Once this is done, you will feel very good about all the unwanted items you don’t own any longer. It will feel like a true spring cleaning has gotten completed. You can go into your new home feeling cleansed and relieved.
Get Excited About Your Moving Sale
No need to treat your moving sale as a chore and be grumpy throughout. Why not have some fun with it and make some cash in the process as well?
Once you are done with all of this pre-move garage sale business, contact BoiseBox to move all your precious household items over to your new place. We will treat your valuables as carefully as you would and move them safe and sound to wherever you wish.
