8 Garage Sale Tips to Have a Successful Garage Sale

Garage Sale Tips
Garage sale season is upon us. If you are finding more junk in your trunk, closet or a garage full of stuff you need to get rid of, having a garage sale is a great way to make a little cash doing it. After having a few garage sales myself, I’ve put together my garage sale tips to have a great sale.
Here’s some tips to help you be successful.
Successful Garage Sale Tips
- Location. Put all your items to sell in one area/room. This will allow you to have one location to go through and sort out the items you are selling.
- Sort it. Sort your items by like items/categories. It makes going through items much easier. If you can put clothes together by size, it makes it easier for the shoppers.
- Price EVERYTHING. Not everyone will ask for a price if it’s not marked. Price things reasonably and to sell. Price fairly and if you want it gone, price it to get it gone.
- Clean it. Clothes should be washed. Dust off furniture. Make it look like something you’d want to buy it.
- Timing. Have you garage sale during a city wide garage sale.
- Advertise. A free ad on CraigsList, Facebook and local groups for your community. Place a free online ad for your newspaper. Have a garage sale when you see a neighbor is having a sale, have one that same weekend. And have signs out pointing people to your sale. Make a sign at your house too. Do I need to mention, write in THICK letters so people can SEE when they drive by? I can’t read scrawny letters written small. Go big or go home with the letters and make them THICK and on a color poster board people can read easily as they drive by. This isn’t a science project poster.
- Solicit sales. Put bigger items outside to attract those lurker/drive by people (like me) something to catch their eye and make them stop.
- Hours. Have reasonable hours for the early birds and the people who work (especially if you start on Friday). So everyone can get a chance to stop.
Use a garage sale as a way to help you declutter your house.
What to do With Unsold Items?
After the sale, anything you have left, you have a few options.
- Put it on the curb for people to take.
- Take it to a local shelter/service organization to donate (possible tax donation)
- Throw it away.
- Post ad on CraigsList or Facebook for pricing of individual items.
These tips can also be used as yard sale tips and tricks.

Thanks for these tips! I couldn’t agree more with making sure the signs are readable–it can be so frustrating to try to find a garage sale because the letters are so hard to see/read. Thanks for sharing!
Those hard to read signs drive me bonkers! Happy saving!