How We Planned a Garage Sale in Just Five Days

When Nate and I listed our house for rent so we could move, we were completely unprepared for how quickly our home would rent. They signed the lease at the beginning of December while I was in Las Vegas for a conference. Even though I flew home early, it still left us with only one weekend to host our garage sale, and only five days to throw it together. PANIC.

Though we did not yet have an apartment, we knew that we would be significantly downsizing. I had nightmares about the movers dropping off our boxes and there literally being no room for us! (This was almost the case when we moved in. My fears were NOT UNFOUNDED). We had not started to get rid of furniture, because we had listed the house being furnished as an option. I thought I would use this post to share some of the INVALUABLE things I learned about putting on a garage sale!

GET STARTED: First and foremost, when you make the decision to move, have a general idea of what you want to take with you. Make a spreadsheet of each room and identify the furniture. Photograph the pieces you plan to sell. I also recommend putting together bins of items for the sale. I started making ziploc bags of jewelry and started pulling clothes.

You may need to repair or cleanup some of your stuff. Make sure you have given yourself time for that. Please dust and vacuum. If selling rugs, measure them and take a photo. Label the measurements on a tag when you roll them. I advise pre-rolling them, so no one walks on them and you don’t have to take time to roll once sold.

PRICING: I ordered colored stickers and some pre-printed stickers. I wrote the prices on every sticker. You can try to do the whole color key system, but everyone will drive you nuts with pricing q’s. Just write the price on the sticker. I bought a tagging gun and some price tags and placed the stickers on the price tags. Let’s be very transparent. People WILL try to rip you off. I had a lady switch the price tags on five or six different clothing items. I mean, seriously lady, I’m the one who priced them!! Put yourself in the best position possible to avoid that. Regarding setting the prices? You’ll likely get more from online consignment, or listing things in advance. No one is coming to your garage sale that doesn’t want a bargain. Know in advance how low you are willing to go, and don’t over mark things up.

PRO-TIP: I know .99 or .50 looks good. It’s a nightmare to add up. Try wherever you can to do increments of $5. Try to avoid any price ending in $6. You’ll want to cry counting out the singles.

FYI, they came with the backwards $. I didn’t print them that way. Lol.

DISPLAYING: We have a four bedroom, four level townhouse. We decided to use our two bottom levels for the garage sale. Originally, we were going to leave the living room furniture that was not for sale, but a last minute instinct told me to move it out. We put our two arm chairs and the couch in my bedroom. Thank God. Major lesson. If it is not for sale, MOVE IT SOMEWHERE OUT OF SIGHT. People saw some photos of the chairs and couch and got VERY aggressive with us when we mentioned that they were not for sale. Some even tried to head upstairs to see them. We finally told them they were sold. I shudder to think what people would have done if we’d had them out! Another lesson? Try to only take photos without the not for sale items. It will save you a LOT of headache.

We were selling the poofs (we ended up keeping them after they didn’t sell) and the rug. This photo caused people to turn into aggressive psychos. Thank God we hid the chairs and couch upstairs. People got RUTHLESS and mean. Don’t make the same mistake.

Everyone thought I was psychotic for moving the couch upstairs… but PHEW. Thank goodness we did! It meant the last few weeks were terribly crowded, but we made it work.

You should be prepared to purchase some displays. We bought two card tables and clothing racks. Thank heavens for Target. The dining room table sold. The bookcases sold. We had to quickly move things! If you put it on the floor, people do not like to squat down. If you put things on items for sale, it created a lot of logistical scramble. Invest in your sale, then craigslist them afterwards.

Thank goodness for clothing racks.

MARKETING: DO NOT GIVE OUT YOUR ADDRESS. If you are going to allow strangers into your home, at least attempt some kind of tracking control. We posted to craigslist and facebook marketplace. We included an email address and told people to email us for the address. Post on your personal facebooks and instagrams. Try to post in advance. We obviously only had 5 days, lol, so more is definitely better!!!


STAFF: Get yourself some help. Please don’t do this alone. You need a dedicated payment person. You need at least one person per room to make sure people aren’t stealing. And you need to be available to answer questions and greet people. Call in favors. Ask family and friends to help. My parents came down and we could not have done it without them. If you have a bi-lingual friend it will help tremendously. Fortunately for us, Nate speaks Spanish semi decently. Amazing what you retain from HS. We had a lot of Spanish speaking customers, and Nate was able to secure sales and answer questions.

I was the official Lord of the Garage Sale. All price adjustments go through me. Hear me roar in my Persifor and flip flops.

PAYMENTS: If someone wants to come back for something, take their payment up front, and flip the price tag to SOLD. Do not let them tell you they’ll pay when they come back. They won’t. If they want to come back to pick up, EXCHANGE CONTACT INFO. GET THEIR INFO. This is so important.

Regarding payments, we took out $500 for our cash box.

$1: $75

$5: $125

$10: $160

$20: $140

If parking nearby is metered, get some rolls of quarters to make change.

PRO-TIP: taped photos of my Venmo code and account name to the wall. This allows people to pay via credit card. I also suggest including your Zelle info.

SANITY: If you have pets, get a dog sitter for a few days. Try to pre-make a big breakfast that won’t leave dishes lying around for cleanup. “LUNCH BREAKS” are basically non existent. Have pre-made sandwiches or granola bars stashed.

The saddest dog in the entire world… Minerva pretty much flopped about into overly dramatic sad positions with big sad eyes, much like the Helper Dog in Hyperbole and a Half.

Sheriff Mickey overseeing the rug rolling. He wasn’t having it, and physically tried to impede us several times.

EXPECTATIONS: Keep them reasonable. You likely won’t make a ton of money. This is to clear your house and get some cash as a bonus. You probably won’t sell everything so be ready to list on Craigslist, etc. afterwards. Invite your friends and family to come over and shop your sale afterwards! Mya (More Than Your Average) and Kelly (The Low Low Style) came by and helped clear my racks! You can even find some of my pieces on More Than Your Average! We sold a third of our stuff online after the sale. I suppose you could say we extended the sale by a week, and made it by appointment only.

THE FINAL AFTERMATH: If you are planning to move after the garage sale, I suggest lining up a donation drop off list. You need to make advance notice for this… so don’t leave it until the last minute. Try not to be like us and need services RIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, lol. We ended up donating books, DVD’s, clothing and records. I sent some of the nicer clothes off to consignment, but the rest were divided between Look Again (a charity shop benefitting the Society for the Prevention of Blindness in Old Town) Goodwill, Dress for Success, and a program called Friends of Guest House (a halfway house and program that provides housing and assistance for women who were incarcerated to get back on their feet). We donated a gigantic bin of travel shampoos and toiletries to a local shelter. Some of the items that didn’t sell were packed up and came with us to the new apartment. Some went to our storage unit. Somehow, it all came together.

If you ever plan to have a garage sale, I wish you the very best of luck!!! I hope this helps you in the future!

Xoxo, Mary