I've never hosted a garage sale myself - and many people feel it's too much work for the money raised. So when I heard that a colleague from CoastViews Magazine, Jean Headley Darmody, just had a garage sale with her husband Daniel, I asked if she would share her thoughts. Here's Jean!
I would always have a garage sale as opposed to just donating. (We usually donate what's left at the end of the day to Goodwill, but we didn't really have that much to start with this time, so whatever was left we kept for our next garage sale.)
When we have a garage sale, I always invite friends to bring their things and join me because I have such a great location. (Editor's note: Jean's home is on a major road, so many people pass by her sale - and there's plenty of parking, too.) I also put an ad in the local paper the previous Wednesday to bring people from other parts of town.
One friend, Sandy Morgan, always brings stuff by the night before the garage sale. She's not a morning person, so Daniel helps me set up the tables and get things out onto the tables, and then Sandy arrives around 11:30 or 12:00 and we spend the rest of the day together just hanging out - which we, as two busy ladies, rarely get time to do! Daniel usually goes out to do windshield repairs once he helps with the setup, and he's back by the end of the day and the three of us (Daniel, Sandy, and I) do the boxing up of leftovers and breaking down the tables.
Another good thing that comes from having a garage sale is that I pass out Daniel's and my business cards to almost every customer, thereby promoting both of our businesses and gaining future customers. (We often get business from people who say they got our card at our garage sale.)
We also get to socialize with friends and neighbors that drop by.
We're always happy when someone finds just what they're looking for. I love passing my things on to new homes that will appreciate them as I did. I do find, however, that clothing, no matter how beautiful and special, does not move very well.
So, in summary, it's a lot of work and leaves us all exhausted, but I feel it's worth it in the long run.
Jean's business is Headley Office Services, located in Pacifica, Calif. Her husband Daniel is the Windshield Wizard.
Related Post:
Garage Sales - Love Them or Leave Them?
3 comments:
I've had a few garage sales. The first 2 were great, I had many baby/toddler clothes and toys. Quite a few people came and bought most of it. But then after my son was out of the toddler stage, the clothing was rejected as too tatty/out of style/wrong size/too expensive (at a quarter for a like new item?). After that, we started giving the clothes (still in good condition) he outgrew to an acquaintance with a boy several years younger. Then when *he* didn't want hand-downs, we started donating to a shelter in a near-by town, including small household items. For us, it works much better, as I can fill a few bags and drop them off at my convenience. No, I don't make any money, but then, no hassles either.
Just held a yard sale this weekend, and i only sold like 4 items. More and more things went to a "free" pile toward the end of the day, and finally i gave up and posted the items to my freecycle group, who happily took the items. I saw the sale more as an opportunity to teach my son about selling, but he grew bored quickly. We don't live on a parking-friendly street, so that didn't help. But I really believe in the Freecycle system -- i get stuff i need, people get stuff from me they need. It's like selling each other items from yard sales across the street. And we build goodwill with each other.
JustGail and Sandi, thank you for sharing your experiences!
Sandi, I'm very much into Freecycling, too.
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