9 Garage Sale Tips for the Most Successful Garage Sale EVER

Let’s be real: HOSTING GARAGE SALES ARE A PAIN IN THE BUTT.

There’s nothing worse than pouring your precious time and energy into collecting all your stuff, carefully organizing it, pricing it reasonably, cleaning out your nasty garage, borrowing folding tables from every person you know, and spending an entire precious weekend sitting in your garage only to make $100. NOT WORTH IT.

After making that mistake myself once, which was one more time than necessary, I came up with my new method for holding garage sales and I will never be going back. 

I held a One Day Only Garage Sale last spring and I can’t believe how successful it was. OK, I guess I can believe it because I put in a LOT of work organizing. But, it was WAY more successful than the previous 3-day sale that I had done a few years before. Keep reading to hear my garage sale tips and exactly how much I made in one day…

I did a lot of research before the sale and relied on my own instincts to come up with a foolproof game plan that resulted in a highly successful One Day Only Garage Sale. I will never do a garage sale any other way again, it’s THAT GOOD.

If you’re contemplating holding your own garage/yard sale (and thinking it has to be 3-4 days, it doesn’t!), here are my tried and true garage sale tips for a massively successful One Day Only Garage Sale:

Make Super Eye Catching Signs

I started noticing other garage sale signs around town and thought, “Hey, I think I saw that idea on Pinterest.”

And then I realized, I actually read that sign instead of glossing over it. No matter who came up with the eye-catching sign idea that you choose to use, an eye catching sign is KEY. What makes a sign eye-catching?

• Bright, bold colors
• Contrast (hence the white eyes I used to contrast with the pink sign)
• A bit of humor
• Easy to read, not too much writing

UPDATE: Since publishing this post, I came across my very own garage sale sign design out in the wild IN MY OWN HOMETOWN! These signs work, people. Just be sure to tell people where you came up with the design when I make you rich from all your garage sale traffic 😉

Advertise in local Facebook garage sale groups

This one was HUGE for me. I started advertising my sale the night before with special “pre-sale” invites for people to come and shop before the sale.

I only had 2 people make the pre-sale time, but it created buzz around the sale. People were commenting about how they were sad they missed the pre-sale and that they would be by first thing in the morning! I also used these groups to promo my sale on the day it happened.

Do a One Day Only Sale

This is the epitome of all garage sale tips, if you ask my educated opinion. I’ve only held 3 garage sales in my life, but in that time I’ve learned what works for me.

1. I really despise holding garage sales. Any more than spending one day sitting in my garage selling my junk, and I go crazy.
2. People are drawn to the scarcity of one day sales. There is a reason why scarcity is a known sales tactic.

Price to Sell

There are plenty of garage sale tips and pricing guides out there, but I like to refer to my own penny pinching instincts. If I would be willing to pay a certain price, the price went on the item. The goal here was to sell as much stuff as possible and make as much cash as I could in just one day. Whatever was left over after the sale I was either willing to hold on to for the next sale (whenever that might be) or donate.

Offer 50% off

During the last hour of the sale, I posted in the FB groups that I was running 50% off any item $10+ for the last hour of the sale if they mentioned they had seen the post on Facebook. I didn’t have to give a deal to everyone who happened to shop during the last hour, and I was able to snag a few last minute sales!

One person came back and bought a small patio umbrella from us because she spotted the post after she had already bought a few other items full price. Bonus sale!

Use What You’ve Got

I own ZERO folding tables. I was somehow able to scrounge up 3 small tables from my mom and sister, but beyond that we had nothing to lay our stuff out on.

What I did have was plywood, sawhorses, tv trays, and bed sheets. I used the pieces of plywood to create makeshift tables between the tv trays and sawhorses, and the bed sheets on top finished it off so it looked presentable.

Pool Your Efforts

Bigger sales draw bigger crowds. If you don’t have enough junk to draw people in yourself, collaborate with a friend who also has stuff to sell. Plus, having a friend to chat with all day during the sale is a bonus 🙂 My sister happens to live in town, so we decided to pool our junk for a massive one day sale.

RELATED: ruthlessly declutter your home with my 7 Mantras for the Wannabe Minimalist

Plan According to Season/Day

I know from a lifetime of experience that end of May/early June is a very popular time of year for garage sales in our area. I planned to hold mine during that time to ensure the biggest crowd. Do some research for your area when deciding when you should have a sale. Organizing and planning in advance is a must for success!

There was one garage sale tip that I tried that totally flopped. I had stumbled upon a tip to sell cold bottled water at the sale. I remember garage sale-ing in the heat as a kid, so I thought this tip was a great way to make some extra bucks. I bought a case of bottled water at Costco, put it on ice in a cooler, and sold… one. One bottle for $1.

To be fair, we didn’t have the best weather the day of our sale. It rained about half of the day and it was actually quite chilly. This makes it all the more impressive how well our sale did! But it didn’t make for a very successful water bottle selling day. Oh well.

All in all, I sold a grand total of $411.

In one day. And that doesn’t even include my sister’s profits. After my first 3-day garage sale, I said NEVER AGAIN. After my second one-day sale, I would totally do it again.

UPDATE: …and I did! My 2nd one day garage sale brought in a total of $383!

If you’re still looking for more advice on organizing your garage sale for success, this video hit on a few areas that I missed (like moving more of your big ticket items to the end of your driveway!)

I’ve taken all of the guess-work and stress out of planning a super successful one-day garage or yard sale for you! Download my FREE One-Day Garage Sale Planning and Organizing Printable Checklist below…