Monday, November 1, 2010

Go to Garage Sales on a Saturday morning


I had to change a couple of things on the list so Body Jam Class has become Sh’Bam and Go to Armageddon to Garage Sales.

I have always wanted to go to a whole heap of Garage Sales on a Saturday morning. On Friday night I actually looked through the Western Leader and there were HEAPS! So I circled quite a few with the first being one that started at 6am in the morning.

I was so excited and woke up really early and Mark decided to come with me as he did not want me traipsing around stranger’s garages on my own.

We got to the first Garage Sale just after 7am….needless to say it was pretty disappointing. The next one was much better and we came out with 2 x books and a quiche dish for $3.5o. What a bargain. The next few were pretty disappointing as well and the best bargain of the day was a pail of Lego Duplo that we got for $1.00.

We then went to the Henderson car-boot sale and managed to get another book and a whole load of beautiful plants from this lovely man.

A few people were much more organised and one house was completely disorganised. Do people not understand that you have to get everything ready the night before when you are holding a garage sale, as the first hour is normally the busiest? Also, some of the stuff people were trying to sell was absolute junk and really should have been tossed. I was surprised by the junk as we have held garage sales in the past and have had quite cool stuff. I also organised a massive charity garage sale a few years ago and people gave us a mix of junk and really good stuff.

We probably managed to go to about 7 garage sales. Mark and I still had fun and we would probably do it again.

Suggestions for holding a successful garage sale:
- Get everything ready the night before so it can be put out easily (if you don’t have a garage)
- Have an idea of prices and be prepared for people to bargain
- Get rid of anything that is really just rubbish
- Display “like” things together
- Have a float with plenty of change
- Use good, clear signage in the streets around your house and on main roads
- Advertise in your local paper, on community notice boards etc.
- Have extra people helping during the first hour or so when it’s busy
- Consider involving a few families as the more that is on offer; the better