PART 3 OF 3 SERIES: Did you know staging your garage sale will make you more money? It works, just like (properly) staging your home to sell on the market. I am a Certified Professional Home Stager, and I will show you how to apply those same principles to staging a garage sale for success in this last article of my 3-part series on garage sales.
SOURCE: Organized Apartment
BLOG POST BY:
Carla Gentle with Design Realign, Inc.
If you haven’t read my first two posts in this series on garage sales, I highly suggest you do, as they all tie together and focus on the following:
POST 1 OF 3: The ‘All This Totaled Under $10’ article covers the huge savings I experienced recently at garage and rummage sales. I share tips and include pictures of those purchased items incorporated into my home.
POST 2 OF 3: The ‘Hold Your Garage Sale During Fall’ article discusses the benefits of holding your garage sale during the fall versus summer. This article also includes tips.
APPLY THE SAME CONCEPTS AS STAGING HOMES AND DEPARTMENT STORES
ABOVE LEFT: A Design Realign Staged Home ABOVE RIGHT: A Staged Storefront Window
SOURCE ABOVE RIGHT: Windows Wear
People love to window shop at department stores. Why is that? It’s because the windows are staged, and they are visually appealing to look at. Many times, it’s those staged windows that lure people into the store to make a purchase. Department stores rely on staging to help their products stand out and sell. That same concept applies to garage sales.
As a Certified Professional HOME Stager since 2010, I know firsthand the importance of—and the role staging plays in—selling a home faster and for top dollar. My success in staging occurred years before the housing boom in 2020. My staging testimonies (below) speak for themselves. It works, and it is no different when setting up your own garage sale.
ABOVE: Sample home staging testimonial of Carla (McConkey) Gentle (operating through Design Realign) where the same concepts can be applied to garage sales.
ABOVE: Sample home staging testimonial of Carla (McConkey) Gentle (operating through Design Realign) where the same concepts can be applied to garage sales.
IF YOU FOLLOW THESE SUGGESTIONS, YOU WILL SUCCEED
Wouldn’t it be nice if your next garage sale was your best sale ever? Don’t worry if you don’t know how to stage. If you follow these suggestions, it will be hard to fail.
THINK ABOUT THIS: Staging your items so they stand out and look their best is what can help you achieve more sales, which is the whole point of having a garage sale, right? So, why wouldn’t you stage your garage sale? Consider these tips for staging so you can create a visually pleasing display that will bring you the best results:
MARKETING YOUR GARAGE SALE
I would fail in this post if I didn’t mention to you the importance of marketing your garage sale. You want as many people as possible to show up to your sale, right? Well, you need to market it. You can do this for free by placing ads through garage sale websites like www.garagesalefinder.com and Facebook, for example.
SOURCE: www.garagesalefinder.com
ADEQUATE AND EFFECTIVE SIGNAGE
Not everyone is going to see your garage sale ad, so you always want to display an adequate number of signs around the area. You don’t just want to post one sign on your street. It is important to display multiple signs with arrows and your address, starting with a busy street to pull more people.
I suggest including balloons on your signage that are along the more traveled streets to pull a larger crowd. When I was a Realtor and held open houses, I included balloons on every single sign I posted. It was a pain because I typically posted 3-5 signs for each open house, but it was worth it.
You may even want to go so far as to create a fun or funny handmade sign (to display IN YOUR YARD ONLY) that shows your personality and makes you automatically likeable. An example of such a sign is: “Hey! My husband is making me sell all this stuff!”
SET THE TONE
Offer lemonade during summer sales or hot cider during fall sales. Also, have nice music playing in the background. The nicer the experience you create for others, the longer some people will want to stay, strike up a conversation, and ‘hang out’, which usually means more sales.
CREATE CLEAR PRICE TAGS & PRICE ITEMS WELL
If you don’t price your items, shoppers may leave without buying. It is best to price all items with large, clear price tags. Remember to not overprice your items, so be reasonable; but you are also wanting to make some money, so have an understanding of garage sales before you hold your own!
DISPLAY HOT-TICKET AND LARGE ITEMS IN YOUR DRIVEWAY
Just like a department store decorates their street windows to entice buyers to come inside, you want to ‘decorate’ the area closest to your road to entice people to stop by. Prevent drive-bys by creating ‘teasers’ by placing large and eye-catching pieces near the end of the drive. Putting the most prominent items out front will quickly catch shoppers’ attention.
ORGANIZE THE CLOTHING
No one wants to dig through bags of clothing or crouch down and dig through boxes. For clothing, display it on tables or hangers according to gender and size. This way people can easily find what they are looking for and skip the need to rummage. Display matching clothing pieces together or even pair pieces up with accessories to give shoppers more ideas and buying options.
SOURCE (LEFT): Kevin Winter on Getty Images SOURCE (RIGHT): Unknown
STAGE DÉCOR
Arrange items neatly and add some pops of color with accessories. Stage home décor items as though you are decorating your home. You want to give shoppers an idea of how these things look when displayed in their space. Place knick knacks on a shelf, place vases and sculptures on end tables, drape any blankets or throw pillows on furniture pieces, and hang pictures, if possible.
VARY HEIGHTS OF ITEMS
You want to catch the shopper’s attention by placing items at varying heights on the table. Don’t have several items together that are all the same level because there is no visual interest in that type of set up. You also want to create a ‘layering’ effect by placing taller items behind smaller items.
Avoid putting too much on the ground, as most people don’t look down or bend over. You also don’t want to place items so high that people can’t easily reach them.
ARRANGE BY ‘DEPARTMENTS’
Keep items separated by ‘department’ or like items so people can easily find what they might be looking for. Organize tables by subjects such as glassware. Then, within the glassware section, keep all your kitchenware together, your vases together, and so forth. Another example is putting all your holiday decorations together, but separated by holidays or seasons, such as Christmas or fall. Organize all your items this way and your guests will not only appreciate it, but they will be impressed. It will leave them with the impression that you take good care of your belongings.
IN CONCLUSION
Whether or not you have held a garage sale before, be sure to stage it for success. Apply the suggestions mentioned above in this article and you will not fail (unless you are selling a bunch of junk!). Don’t forget about marketing your garage sale beforehand (it’s free), as well as displaying several garage sales signs. I would love to hear YOUR success stories!
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