Clean Up Your Clutter and Make Some Extra Cash
Tri Valley Garage Sale Tips
Has your garage turned into a giant room full of old items and clutter, so much so it’s become your impromptu storage shed? Many people in the Tri-Valley are in that same situation. It starts out small with a few boxes here and there. Before you know it there’s no more room for anything in your garage. Depending on how attached you are to those items, it might be time for you have a garage sale. Since UNITS is a portable storage company we know a thing or two about freeing up space in a home and our garage sale tips are a great place to start if it’s your first time having a garage or yard sale out of your home.
Organization And Pricing Is The Key First Step To A Successful Garage Sale
The first step you’ll need to do to prepare for your garage sale is gather together everything that you are willing to part with. Anything that you may need in the near future or anything with sentimental value you’ll want to double check to make sure that you are okay with getting rid of it.
Once you have all your items together you’ll want to research what similar items are selling for online so you know how to price your items. Most people that attend garage sales are there to pick up deals and most sellers are having them to be able to move items quickly while also making some extra cash. You’ll need to keep this in mind as you price stuff. It’s unlikely you’ll get top dollar for your items or even similar to the prices that you see items going for online at places like eBay. Online retailers are charged pretty hefty fees to list and sell items, and it takes time to research, take photos, and list your items there. Since you won’t be paying fees or doing the same amount of work to list items you’ll want to reduce your price from what you see similar items going for on eBay.
You’ll also want to get enough tables to display everything that you have on sale. If potential buyers have to root around in boxes or put in work to go through everything you are trying to sell, then you won’t make as many sales as you could if everything is laid out in a nice and easy display for everyone to see. You also want to avoid having items on the ground if possible. Garage and yard sales attract buyers of all ages. If you have items on the ground they could be stepped on, played with and then broken by children, or just be too difficult to reach for older folks.
The More People That Know About Your Garage Sale, The More You’ll Be Able To Make
Our next garage sale tip is for when you have your items, pricing, and displays ready to go for your garage sale in Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin, or San Ramon you’ll now need to get the word out. You might have an entire garage or yard full of high demand items but if no one knows your sale is open then you won’t be able to sell a single thing.
Days before the sale you’ll want to post online about your garage sale. Places like craigslist, Gsalr.com, and YardSales.net. It’s best to post before the day of your sale so that people can plan their routes for the day and include your sale as one of their stops.
When you make an online ad for your sale you’ll want to make sure you include keywords for your higher end items. Many people search for specific items rather than any generic garage sale in their area. So if you are selling certain types of items like furniture, toys, shoes, video games, clothes, or sports collectibles you’ll want to make sure you list it in your ad. Anyone looking for those certain items will make your sale a top priority for them.
If you have the time you should also include photos of your items. The more info you have in the ad, the more likely people willing to buy what you have will be the ones that show up to your garage sale.
The morning of your sale you should make some clear and easy to read signs and place them around your neighborhood. Make sure you have enough so people driving by, can easily follow the signs to your house. Maybe people make impulse stops on their way to and from other places when they see signs for garage and yard sales. It’s a little extra work that can bring in lots of extra profit for you.
What Day And Time Should You Have Your Garage Sale?
If you take a look at other sales that are being done in Livermore, Dublin, Pleasanton, and San Ramon and you’ll see many different start times from 7-10am typically. The start time totally depends on what you are comfortable with. If you are more of a morning person than a 7-8am start time would be good. You’ll also have the benefit, or detriment depending on how feel about it, of early birds. Early birds are the professional garage and yard sale goers that know the best items go early and fast. If you start your sale at 8 you likely could have people waiting or driving by at 7 or 7:30 trying to snag an early deal. It’s up to you if you want to have that happen and we recommend if you do not want early birds you make that extremely clear in your online ads for the sale.
Most sales are held on Saturday and Sunday but some also start on Fridays. Fridays will be slower as people are normally working so if you want the most traffic you’ll want to stick to the weekends for your sale.
What To Do With Your Leftover Items?
If you find yourself at the end of your sale with items leftover you can also donate them to places like Goodwill or other thrift stores. It’s better to donate them if your goal is to declutter your home than just hold onto them. If you have electronics leftover most cities have e-waste programs that will take care of them for you. For information on your city’s program check out these links:
Use UNITS Moving And Portable Storage To Declutter Your Home
If you decide after reading all of our garage sale tips and deciding that you can’t part with everything you have, or putting on a sale is just too much of a hassle, you can still get your garage back by calling us and having one of our portable storage units delivered to you. You load it up at your pace, with whatever items you would like to store and then we come and pick it up and store it in our secure storage facility. When you need your items back, just give us a call and we’ll deliver the unit right to your door. Contact us for more information.
