Yard Sale Tips/prep?

Be set up early.
Have Change
Watch for people trying to steal<yes people will steal at yardsales>
Have a lockbox for the cash you make
Hope for nice weather
And have a back up plan to donate anything you don't sell thats in decent shape by some means to someone who can't afford and may need some of what you don't need

Personally, I hate garage sales and now I just donate everything to Goodwill. Its less stressful than haggling and giving away a $10 deal for .10. Anyway, its likely you will have things left over at the end. Keep all the signs up and write on a big box "EVERYTHING IS FREE...TAKE WHAT YOU WANT". And leave it at the end of the driveway. Shut the garage door and go in the house. I swear, we did this, and within an HOUR (if even) every single thing was gone. SO EASY!!! Good luck!

I've got some logistics tips.

1. make sure you have help on hand.
2. have someone responsible ready to mind your kids if they are little.
3. decide in advance whether you will decline to let strangers into your house to "use the bathroom," see more of your "figurines" or whatever.
4. if its a hot day, a couple of cases of bottled water on ice might bring in money as people thumb through all your paperbacks.
5. have a wealth of bags available for people to take stuff away in.
6. rather than price everything, you could sort things into areas marked at easy intervals ($.25, $1, $3, $5 etc.)

Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.

People do not like to look at stuff on the ground. Things on the ground do not look important. Older people cannot bend over to look at things.

Try to borrow or rent tables. It will increase your sales.
Of course I am talking about clothing, kitchen stuff and household items.

Gather alike things together so that it makes sense.
Clothing, Books, kitchen, Bath, Bedroom, Collectibles..

Be willing to make deals to get rid of stuff. Otherwise you will be stuck with the stuff either donating, trashing it or packing it..

The goal is to not have to throw it away and to get at least something so people will take it away for you.

Try to have help. One person is not enough to collect money, answer questions and keep things tidy.

We do a lot of garage sales. People give us stuff they want to get rid of and somehow we collect a TON of things.
1. BIG SIGNS. Bright colors. OBVIOUS arrows and times on the sign.
2. Tables. Lots of them. Older folks do a lot of garage saleing and don't want to be bending down on the ground.
3. While the goal is to get rid of stuff, don't sell yourself short either. People HAGGLE (at least in my area they do) and sometimes it's almost offensive. Don't be worried about saying, "NO...I am NOT going to sell that for .10."
4. Lots of change. Make sure you have some 5's and 10's too. There's always that bozo that wants to buy a $1 thing but only has a $20. Also, don't take bills over $20. You don't want to take a $50 or $100 bill and it turns out to be counterfit.
5. If you have kids bake some cookies and get some box drinks and let them sell too. I always buy from little kids, even if the cookie is gross. :)
6. You are in Texas so I am going to assume your weather is nice. If not, make sure you have tarps. In fact, maybe a tarp or two would be nice if it's TOO sunny. (Here in WA that never happens! lol)
L.

I have two words of advice for you.

Early Birds.

Whatever time you think you're starting, whatever time you've advertised, whatever time you've told the neighbors. Forget it. They will show up - 6am, 7am on THEIR schedule.

But they have money and they're ready to buy.

For a better turnout post the garage sale details (address, start time, end time, cash only) on Craigslist. You can specifically state 'no early birds' and most people will respect that. I would also put that phrase on your signs and on signs right at the house - NO EARLY BIRDS. Have things sorted by price and/or type if possible. Some people will buy all like items so the sorting helps. Expect major haggling since people want something for nothing especially at garage sales which have the preception of cheap, cheap, cheap. Have plenty of change (specifically small denominations - coins and dollars). Keep in mind you are having the sale to get rid of things. Do not allow yourself to get annoyed with the low price of a sale. It's potentially either sell it now OR deal with carting it off later. Think about what your final price is on any given item. In other words you would rather give something away than sell it for that low. Think about what you are going to do with those things that don't sell. Keep half an eye out for shoplifters. Good luck.

Dad hit it... Have the Early Bird sale. DONT BE THE STINGY. Let em come and welcome them with open arms. SURE they will take the BEST Stuff right away, but then its less stuff to move with! Some people even do a Pre-sale day, where they charge a dollar for those to come and look and buy the day before. I dont do those cause I am a cheap butt

Make sure you have lots of signs to get to your house. If it is too hard to find people will just go to another garage sale. Also keep things organized. If you have clothing, keep each size separate and label what is what. Make sure things have a price tag on them or the table has a price for all items ($1 each). I have to admit, I don't have the patience to have a garage sale. I would rather donate items to the Salvation Army. Good luck.

Find out for the city where you are allowed to put signs and if you have to have spacific signs. If you can do your own signs make the on Neon green poster board and if you can have any number draw arrows and have them lead to your sale. We did that over spring break and everyone said we had the best signs and that they could even see them the night before in the dark. My other advise is no matter how hot it is wear sun screan!!!!!!!!!! It was cool and over cast when we did ours and I was SO burnt it was not even funny.
If you can price all the stuff do it. If not which we didn't make sure you know ahead of time how much you want for stuff and what you are willing to go down on. If you can get tables get some tables to put stuff on and if you have to put stuff out on the ground have something there for the stuff to sit on. We didn't have enough tables so our stuffed animals were on the ground but we put comforters under them. Also we did not do anything for under a quarter that way we didn't have to have dimes, nickles and pennis. Make sure ahead of time you have plenty of change. If you are needing to keep track of who's money is who's have a sheet of paper and a pin near where you have the money. We barrowed a cash box from a friend. That helped a lot. And we had some stuff that was ours and some was my mom's so I had to keep track of what was hers.

Hope that helps!!! Good luck and God Bless!