Day Before Garage Sale Preparation

Now that you’ve read about how much work goes into planning and advertising a garage sale, I’m sure you have decided to become self-proclaimed hoarders and never get rid of your things.  If you are crazy, like me and tons of other people in this country, you are drooling waiting for more.  Well I’m here to give it to you!  Today I will share the preparation that needs to be prepared close to the first day of the sale.  If you’re like me and you did everything ahead of time, this is the one time you can procrastinate until the day before.

Here is what needs to be done:

• Head to the bank and get some change – How horrible would it be if people started showing up to your sale and you had forgotten to get any change?  You’re going to need plenty, especially in the beginning when people staring out for the day haven’t purchased anything with their bigger bills.  I’d suggest a slew of fives, ones, quarters, nickels, and dimes with maybe a dollar’s worth of pennies.  We decided not to price anything with anything but multiples of fives (no 5.67 or .53 here), so we really shouldn’t need pennies, but it’s good to have them just in case.  Make sure someone is handy to run and get more change if you get low.  Ask people if they have smaller bills when trying to buy 50 cent items with a 20 dollar bill.
• Make and post signs – I wrote in more detail about that here.  I would recommend posting them the night before (after dark) so that you don’t have to worry about them in the morning.
• Sort everything so you can easily set up in the morning – If you have space in your home or garage, set everything in groups and get all boxes full of grouped items ready as you will display them at the sale.  The more you can do the night before, the better.  It means you can sleep in a little longer!  We will not have that luxury, so we will be getting up very early.
• Get tables ready – Get all your tables ready to go as well as any blankets, tarps, or tents you will be using to display things on or under.  Searching for these things the morning of the sale will set you way back in time and make your life more chaotic.  The more organized your sale is at the beginning, the happier you will be and the more sales you will make with your positive attitude!
• Check weather – plan course of action (should be done a few days before if possible) – It’s been so rainy here lately.  Minnesota was filled with deadly storms last night with tornadoes that ripped through a few towns.  Luckily, there is no rain predicted for the first day of our sale, but the second day there is.  We have a tent ready to be set up as well as many tarps to use in case of bad weather.  Wind may be a problem which you should plan for, but luckily there are lots of windbreaks (i.e. houses) close by to keep a lot of our stuff from flying away (we hope!).
• Get your food for the day – It’s going to be a long day, so make sure you have some sort of breakfast, lunch, and dinner close by in case you become too busy to head inside and make anything or drive for fast food.  You don’t want to get crabby on an empty stomach!
• Go to bed early! – Although I’ve never had a garage sale before, I have read a lot about them and have been to a lot.  From what I’ve read and seen, they are hard work.  You’re going to want to get as much sleep as possible, especially if your are starting your sale early in the morning.  We are starting ours at 9am and will try to start setting up by 7am or earlier.  I want to get to bed early so we have plenty of time to set up and tend to any unexpected pitfalls that will arise.

If you do all of this the day (or a few days) before the sale, you will be basically set in the morning.  Just get your money ready, your tables set up, and all your items displayed neatly and you should be good to go!

I will post more about the actual sale process next week after I have experienced it.  I hope to have some what to do’s as well as what not to do’s.  Stay tuned.  Again, if you have any other suggestions, shout them out in the comments! 

Wish me luck!  I have a feeling I don’t know what I’m getting myself in to!