My Garage Sale: A Small Affair

As you can see, I haven't posted in three whole months. I think I was a bit tired after my listing challenge in February, and then in mid-March I got a full-time job! I'm a scientist for an agricultural branch of a large company. Crazy! My thrifting adventures have decreased, and so has my free time in general. I still have lots of fun inventory, so I am still enjoying listing things in my Etsy shop here and there.

I also moved a week ago. Because of this I decided early in May that I would have a garage sale. I set out some boxes and started filling them up with things that I had around for awhile that I didn't want to move if I didn't have to.

 My husband put an ad in the local paper for me, and I made some signs and set up the sale. This was the second garage sale I've ever had. The first I put together for my family a couple years back. So this was the first garage sale that was all my own stuff. It was a pretty small sale, but I still was able to sell quite a few things. Most of the remaining items I just took to the local Goodwill. It felt good to unload some excess!

It was supposed to lightly rain for part of the day so I set up everything in the garage with a few boxes sitting out on the drive way. 

I don't really have much furniture or extra tables for displaying items, so my husband borrowed a table from someone and the rest of the items I put on boxes or shelves. 

I read up on some garage sale advice online and from other blogs. I wasn't able to take advantage of all the advice, but I did the best I could with the time/resources I had. Here is the advice I followed:

• Price everything. (Personally I get annoyed when nothing is priced and I have to ask about lots of things.)
• Use painter's tape for price tags. (It isn't pretty, but it comes off items easily and it is good if you don't have much time to make price tags. I didn't put it on older paper items like book dust jackets. I put those in plastic bags and put the tape on the bag.)
• Make simple signs with big letters and a big arrow for direction. (Who doesn't hate tiny signs that are illegible?)
• Don't use a money box - keep your change in a purse or pack on you at all times. (Probably not a big concern in small towns haha, but better safe than sorry.)
• Stay firm on prices early in the day. Be flexible near closing time if your goal is to move things out. At the very end I told people that everything was half-price. Stuff that was too expensive at 50 cents is suddenly affordable! lol (I didn't have many big ticket items - most things were $1.00). 
• Greet people as they arrive and always thank them for stopping by. :)