5 Tips To Organise A Garage/Yard Sale Before Moving

Moving to a new house is a great feeling but it also causes stress when you look at the piles of things you no longer need and are just adding more weight to your moving boxes.

The best way to get rid of the clutter and to put some extra bucks in your pocket is by hosting a pre-move garage sale.

If you plan on working with long distance moving companies for the house move, clearing out excess items can have a significant impact on your moving bill, as well.

However, a garage sale takes a bit more effort than just displaying your household items and sticking up a price tag on them.

Learn a few tips to organise a successful garage sale before your big move:

Table of Contents

1. Decide a location

Choose whether you want to host a sale in your open backyard or garage.

If the climate is in your favour, set up the event in your backyard.

Doing so will help you to:

make your sale more noticeable
attract more people
market your items easily
make room for people to move and look around

If you’re expecting rain or snowfall, choose your garage to host the sale.

Pro tip: Before organising an event, check your city’s website to know if it is mandatory to have a permit to hold the garage sale.

2. Choose the day and time

People often get confused while deciding the best day to host the garage sale.

However, choose the weekend as most people are free and are eager to be outside.

There are no pre-set rules to decide the time but prefer early hours of the morning so that you can have the full day to make the sale a grand success.

Pro tip: Avoid hosting the garage sale during the festive season.

3. Price your items reasonably

One of the main intentions to host the pre-move sale is to earn some extra cash.

However, if you price your items too high, you’re not going to attract customers.

Some of the pricing tips to follow are:

Provide your customers with some good bargaining deals
Avoid underpricing well maintained and expensive items
Clearly mark items with large and visible price tags
Be ready to lower the price for those who want to buy
Offer discounts

Before deciding the price, research to see how other people price similar items in the local market. Cheap deals would do great.

4. Advertise a moving sale

There is no fun in keeping valuable items on sale unless a good number of people come to buy them.

So, it is better to craft an advertising strategy to market your garage sale and make some extra cash without stepping out of the home

Some of the marketing ways are:

WOM(Word-of-mouth)marketing: Inform and invite your friends, relatives and neighbours to the upcoming event.

Social media: Promote your moving sale on various social platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

Local newspapers: A notice in the newspaper will bring fruitful results.

Posters: Put bright and eye-catching sale posters in the neighbourhood areas a few days before the sale.

Pro tip

: Clearly mention the day, time, and address of the event.

5. Arrange food and drinks

Even a small amount of extra effort can bring in a lot of customers.

Boost your event attendance by arranging drinks or snacks along with items.

This will create a friendly atmosphere for people and will also make them feel comfortable.

Bonus tips

Display and sell household items that are in good shape
Classify items by category
Place a trash can to keep the area clean
Keep some batteries handy to test electronic devices, toys, etc.
Arrange plastic bags, paper bags, or boxes for people to carry purchased products.
Keep some old newspapers or packing paper to wrap fragile items