Wash Wednesday: Getting Ready for a Garage Sale!

Yesterday, my son Judah and I got ready for our upcoming neighborhood garage sale this weekend. Since January, we have been going around the house cleaning and sorting closets, drawers, and buckets in storage to declutter our house. At last, garage sale week is upon us and we have been busy getting these collected items ready for it.

In fact if you were to stop by yesterday, you would have found us buried in items with price stickers all over us. Judah thought the stickers were neat and of course he had to stick the ones I already wrote all over himself. Oh well. Just make sure you have plenty of stickers.

Yes, we had things strewn all over the floor, sorting them according to categories: clothes, accessories, linens, electronics, and so on. Starting with one category, we neatly folded, taped, or bagged each item for display. From there we placed initialed price tags on each item or wrote prices directly on the bag. We then packed them away according to categories for simple set-up in the garage on Friday.

As I go through this process, I have learned to have a few things on hand to make this process smooth and efficient. These tools came in handy for pricing garage sale items allowing for a nice, neat display. And I carried this pile of tools around with me while I worked (out of Judah's reach).

• Masking tape
• Scotch tape
• Permanent marker
• Safety pins
• Small plastic bags
• Price tags
• Writing pen
• Old wire hangers
• Scissors
• Garbage bags
• Buckets

I had a garbage bag opened for donations as I sorted items. The small plastic bags came in handy for keeping small trinkets. I used beat-up hangers to hang clothes and safety pins to keep sets together. With the masking tape, I was able to tape around the linens to keep sets of table cloths together with the napkins. All the while, I had my permanent marker to write prices and my scissors to cut things if needed.

I also learned that it is not so bad to start pricing early. I cannot imagine if I had waited to the end of the week to start gathering up things. When I have a free moment, I am able to take one pile (category of items) to price without a huge mess for Judah to access.

This sounds like a lot of work, I know. I think being prepared though will help alleviate any confusion with customers. Everything will be clearly labeled and marked and ready to go.