If you’re preparing to hold a garage sale to clear out some of your old things, you can save yourself some time and money by following these three simple steps before the big day! When you take the time to declutter your home and prepare the items you’re planning to sell, you can go into your garage sale with confidence knowing that you’ve done everything you possibly can to maximize your profits. Follow these 3 steps to declutter your home for a garage sale, so you can make some extra cash!
1) Get Rid of the Obvious Things
Look around your home and decide what you don’t need. This might be clothing, books, furniture, collectibles – anything that you haven’t touched in years. Now go through the rooms of your house and get rid of everything that falls into this category. It’s easier than it sounds! Once you have all those items out of the way, spend some time deciding on a selling price for the things you want to hold onto. If there are any items you’re not sure about, give them away at one of your garage sale tables so people can take them off your hands (and save yourself the cost of advertising). Finally, put together a list of prices for everything else. These are going to be the prices you use when people come over or call up with questions about pricing before they buy.
Now you’re ready to sell!
2) Sort by Category
Separate your items into the following categories: Donate, Sell on Craigslist, Consign for sale, and Keep.
The easiest way to donate is by doing a simple drive-by drop-off at Goodwill or another thrift store. Ask the manager of that location what they accept when you arrive and if there is any cost associated with donating items. You can also search for your nearest donation center online.
Make sure to do some research about what each charity does with donations because not all organizations are alike! Be sure to sort through these donations one last time before dropping them off because you might have an item that was mistakenly donated. If this happens, it’s good practice to take it back home so that you don’t accidentally give away something important later on.
I had a friend who once gave away her favorite chair from college thinking she would never need it again, but then six months later needed to host an event in her living room. It wasn’t until she called me panicking that I realized she had given it away without realizing how necessary it would be in the future. Always keep hold of those sentimental pieces – even if you’re not using them right now!
3) Donate or Sell the Stuff That Isn’t Selling
If you have some items that you want to sell but don’t seem to be popular, donate them or put them up for sale on sites like eBay. If that doesn’t work, pass them on to someone who will appreciate them! Give your home the TLC it deserves: Take time to organize any clutter in your home so that your home looks beautiful for when people are coming in. Cleaning should take up about half of the time allocated for decluttering so make sure you take care of this before getting rid of anything else. Make Sure You Do Some Sort of Marketing: Don’t just post an ad on Facebook and expect people to come flooding into your garage – do some sort of marketing!
