Everything's Coming Up Green

Posts Tagged ‘Garage Sales’

Last week my mom and I loaded the girls up, packed plenty of snacks and water and headed out with a list of potential garage and rummage sales to tackle. I will admit that I was not quite as prepared as I would have liked. I didn’t have our route mapped out; I didn’t get our lunch packed (I did pack Emma’s though), and I didn’t get up quite as early as I would have liked though we left only 15 minutes later than I had planned. If there is one thing about West Omaha that I reeeally dislike it’s that the housing areas are severely screwed up! It seems like every other street is a circle or a dead end. We did finally find the first house. And I walked away with a sack full of items. It was mostly filled with 4-five wick Citronelle candles that I scored for $.50 a piece! I found a few fun things for Emma as well.

Next stop was the rummage sale. It.was.the.jackpot! I scored tones of stuff. Unfortunately when I was taking pictures of my spoils I forgot to separate out the items by specific stops. Oh well I guess it doesn’t matter that much. It certainly isn’t life changing for you or me.

The next one was a bust. It was one of those that when you walk up you can smell everything and it is not good. It smells like nothing is ever cleaned and everything smells the same. The mother was very nice and her kids were very sweet, but, um no. Not going there. I hopped back in the car and we were off to the next one. There I got a box full of balls for $2.50 and a sweet frame that I am going to refinish. I laughed at the price of the frame because it was only the second day of the garage sale (it was going for four days) and it had already been reduce twice. Why you ask. Because they started the price at a whopping $15! It’s a cool frame don’t get me wrong but not in the best of shape. I paid $3 and that was good for me.

Home décor and craft stuff

Kids stuff

Scarves

Pink necklace and earring set $2

2 mesh bed rails $2

All those tiles for $5!

The blue necklace I scored for $1

So I won’t list everything but I will hit the highlights.

Adjustable Booster seat $1

White stool $.50

Bag of scarves $1

Fall figurines $2 for pair

New bag of Raffia $.50

NWT Children’s Place Swimmer shoes $2 (for E for Vacation next year)

There was a ton more but it is late and my brain is fried. You can see it all in the pictures. It was good but it is definitely difficult garage sale shopping with two small children. The problem is in the Omaha area Thursday and Friday are the big days to garage sale (which means hubby is at work and can’t watch the kids) and you need to start early. My girls are not early risers (thank you Jesus!) so this poses a problem on that one. I love, love, love it though! And I will be doing it again.

Have you scored any hidden treasures at a garage or rummage sale recently? Join in and brag away!

 

   Just a few weekends ago I experienced my first garage sale. I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in my friends’ mother-in-laws garage sale in Lincoln, about an hour away from my home. That may seem like a lot of work and time, but it was well worth it. I gleaned invaluable experience during those two days. I thought I would take a little time and share with you all what I learned as well as my overall experience.

  First, what I learned:

   Location. Location. Location. Where you have your garage sale is key. If you don’t live near a busy street, find a friend who is and ask is they would be willing to host a garage sale. We had so much traffic it was unbelievable. On that same idea, it is also important that people can clearly and easily find your house. If they can’t find you they can’t buy from you. The idea is the more people you have looking at your stuff, the higher your chances are of selling them. Be sure to have visible clearly legible signs directing people to your location.

  Don’t Go at it Alone. There are two major reasons for this. First it is much harder to run a sale when you are going at it alone because you have to answer questions, take money, and heaven forbid you have to use the bathroom. It is so much nicer to have someone to share the load and converse with during the lulls in foot traffic. Secondly, the more stuff you have out the higher the probability of people stopping to look at what you got. I don’t know how many times I have driven right past a garage sale because there was barely anything sitting out and I didn’t deem it worth my time to get out of the car and walk over there. Make it an event. The only thing more fun than making money together is eating together.  You may want to have each person bring a dish to share so that you aren’t feeding hungry people by yourself. If each person brings something to share then it is understood that lunch is taken care of and no one will have to make a fast food run and waste their precious garage sale earnings.

  Get Organized. For the most part everything was organized by like items. This helps those shopping for something specific to easily find what they are looking for. It also helps you if someone asks if you have a certain item to direct them to the area it might be. Also, be sure and clearly label each item with the seller’s identification, whatever that might be. You may want to do initials, colors or shapes. This helps to speed up the check out process.  Also don’t wait until the night before to start pricing everything. Start a week before, or better yet, price it as you put it in the box. Be sure and get a good idea of how much stuff your friends are bringing so that if you need to borrow additional tables you can do that before everyone shows up.

 Think Ahead. The gal hosting the garage sale as well as myself sold items we had gotten for free with rebates and/or coupons. She had been doing Menards’ rebate items all year and had a nice section of tools and manly items to attract the guys. I had several motion censored air fresheners, candles and Crystal Light To-Go’s that I had recently purchased with the garage sale in mind. Those that I didn’t sell I will use as gifts or sell at the next garage sale. Also be going through your house throughout the year evaluating what you have and what you no longer need. Place the unwanted items in a box and set aside for your next sale. Before you know you will have a nice size sale and will be ready to go.

  Price to Sell. This can be a difficult one since you have to balance between marking it low enough to grab attention and getting the price you want. I had several higher priced items (by higher I mean $8) that I knew people would want to haggle on the price. I really wanted about $5 for each item so I marked it up three dollars to $8. That way the person purchasing it felt like they got a good deal and I got the price I wanted. You may think this is deceptive but what they got for $5 was a steal. I didn’t want to go any lower than $5 and haggling is the nature of garage sales so really it is a win/win situation. My husband hates haggling. He thinks you should just mark it at what you want and if it is more than a person wants to pay then oh well. This unfortunately is the mentality of most Americans when it comes to anything but garage sales. If you go to any other country haggling over the price is a way of life. Not to say I do this in the checkout line but if something is more than you want to pay, say a bed, and you can pay cash, why not offer what you think it is worth. The worst they can say is no.

 

  Overall I had a great experience. For my first garage sale I would deem it a complete success. I don’t know how often I want to trek an hour and a half to sell my goods, but I am certainly inspired to find a location closer to home and give it a go. I made off with $90 minus $25 in gas making it a $65 profit for 2 ½ days worth of work. That way not seem like very much but I was hoping for $50 minus gas for my first try at a garage sale so I was thrilled. Imagine how much better it would have been if I had held a sale in town.

    I am also inspired to get out and check out other garage sales. You never know what you will find! I always seem to forget about garage sales. Not anymore!

Do you have any garage sale tips or great finds!

   I don’t get out to garage sales very often like I want to. But a few weekends ago while my family was in Nebraska City enjoying the Applejack Festivities we drove by a garage sale and a second stage car seat. I had my mom pull a u-ey and headed back to the sale. Hubby and I hopped out and took a quick look-see. Sure enough they had a basic Eddie Bauer for $30. Now that sounds like a great deal but it was pretty dirty, and well, I can get a new one for the same price. Then the gal who was selling the car seat comes over and was apparently very eager to get rid of the thing because she offered to sell it for just $20. That sealed the deal for me. I can easily clean a car seat with a little elbow grease. We rearranged everything in order to fit it in (did I mention we had 6 adults, a baby in a car seat, a cooler and multiple bags and backpacks squished into a minivan). I was soo excited to find the car seat because we really needed it. Emma is to here weight limit on her current seat and I was dreading the thought of spending that much extra money on a car seat. But God provides just at the right time.