So, its summer and you’re looking to unclutter your garage, right? Great! Now, do you know what to do to make your yard sale successful? If you don’t that’s why we’re here. Having a successful yard sale depends on a multitude of factors. While it isn’t that much of a big deal, the truth is doing a few wrong things might attract the wrong crowd or less crowd than you want. That said; let’s jump right into what you need to do.
Check for Neighborhood Restrictions
This is the very first thing you want to be sure of. You don’t want to arrange and plan for everything only to find that there is neighborhood, zone or local government restrictions on yard sales. Find out if there’s need for a permit and how many you’re allowed to have each year. If you don’t do this frequently, you don’t need to worry about the latter. You should only worry if you do this frequently.
Advertise the Yard Sale
It’s assumed that you already have everything you want to sell. So, after you’ve collected them, it’s time to advertise your garage sale. First off, start with local community boards, flyers and plastic yard signs. The plastic yard signs are great because they are durable, stylish, can be customized, low cost and easy to install.
Also, they aren’t inconveniencing and are bound to attract a lot of attention to your garage sales. If you want to further reach out or attract those who specifically hunt for yard sales and bargains every week, try posting your ads in local sections of free online classified sites like Olx, Craigslist and USFreeads.
Get an Appropriate Number of Bags
You should have more than enough bags to take care of the items people buy from you. Having a shortage of bags can result in lower sales and revenue. Instead of going for the exact amount of bags for the items you will be displaying, get even more because you will always find that the exact number won’t be enough.
Avoid Picking a Holiday Weekend
This is crucial. Holiday weekends are meant for people to connect and spend time with each other. Fixing your yard sale for a holiday weekend with the intention that more people will be around won’t work as well as choosing an ordinary weekend.
No Early Birds
Yes, this is crucial. Most times, early birds come around so that they can get the best items. In fact, some people have been known to come the previous day with the excuse that they won’t be available the next day. Most of those who do this are either antique shop owners looking for bargains on good stuff that they can resell in their shops or people who buy with the intention of reselling at higher rates. Avoid this and clearly indicate a specific start time. You may want to put out a warning that all early birds won’t be considered or something like that.
Set it Up to Coincide with When People are Paid
If you have a major employer in the area –for instance, Amazon and Microsoft in Seattle- find out when they’re typically paid. If they’re usually paid on the first of every month and it falls on a weekday, schedule your yard sale for that particular weekend. Don’t worry about others doing theirs on the same day too. There’s usually enough to go round.
Avoid Unintentionally Insulting Your Buyers
This is crucial. If for instance, you were to spot a big guy going through some smaller undersized pants, don’t ask him if it won’t be too small for him. You don’t know why he’s there or who he’s getting the items for. The same goes for assuming what people want just because of how young, fat, old, slim… whatever they are. Just let them go through the stuff and choose whatever they see fit.
Finally, keep the pets away –some people don’t like or are allergic to them, keep the kids inside, put the prices of all items on top where they can be clearly seen and arrange everything neatly. Good luck with your yard sale.
Amit Gangrade is from Orlando, Florida. He is a recent alumn from the University of Florida, where he studied anthropology and Spanish, and will be attending law school at Emory University in the fall of 2014. Amit currently works as a content writer and blogger for DG Promo Inc.