Garage Sales 101

Tonight I'm going to brag a little about what a FABULOUS garage saler I am! Friday and Saturday my friend Brecken and I had a garage sale. With Adam out of town, it was the perfect weekend to do it since we had no other committments! Anyway, we had had a garage sale with 5 other friends back in April to help raise money for Brecken's sisters wedding reception. We made $1500 bucks and which ended up being exactly enough money to pay for her entire reception with leftover to give them for spending money on their honeymoon! It was so much fun and since Brecken and I both did some extra organinzing in our houses over the summer we decided to have another sale before sending all our stuff off to Goodwill! I didn't think we would make a ton of money this time cause there wasn't as much stuff, and we were selling it for a little more than we did last time....but, once again, we made $1500! With just the two of us! Unbelievable! It is truely amazing how one persons trash is another persons treasure! We had so much fun setting up, selling, bartering and of course, counting the money after everyone was gone! We decided that the reason why our sales are so successful is because 1. We price our stuff really low, but not too low! We usually price it a little above how low we'll go so if someone wants to buy a glass vase, we price it at $5, barter with them down to $3 and they think they got a good deal! More times than not, the person will still spend that leftover $2 and we not only made money, but got rid of one more thing we don't want! 2. We are always friendly and chatty (even if they don't understand English...my friend Erin served her mission in South America and it was awesome to see the looks on the faces of some of the customers at our last garage sale when she would start talking to them in fluent Spanish)! A definate boost in sales was the result! 3. Organize and clearly mark prices, sizes, etc. We had rubbermaids to divide kids clothes, we had tables to set up all the knick knacks, blankets, electronics, etc. We had a money safe and kept track of how much each person sold and 4. We had clearly marked signs off of the main roads to find our house! Anyway, I'm really getting a knack for getting rid of my JUNK and getting money for it! After the sale was over I gave each of my kids a few buck (they were all such HUGE helps during the sale) and we went to Target! The kids each got a treat and I bought a new end table and a really cool wicker chest thing to put all my blankets in for our Downstairs family room! It was so fun to pay cash!!! If you ever have a garage sale, let me know, I'd LOVE to help!!