Garage Sales Aren't for Whimps

A few years ago I learned a very valuable lesson about myself. I do not like to host garage sales, but I love the money that comes from getting rid of my “junk.” Yep! You heard me say it, “JUNK!” By definition junk means to me: used stuff, in good condition, that one person no longer wants but another person has been looking for at a good price.

I’ve always been an avid believer in donating my junk to a charitable establishment that could put the money to good use. And since I had gotten my fair use out of the objects, I saw no reason to sell them in hopes of reclaiming some of the money I spent. It was easy, convenient, and indirectly helped our environment. A great idea if you ask me!

So when a friend asked me to host a multi-family garage sale with her I very strongly said, “No thank you. It’s not worth my time.”

“Your husband is unemployed and you are traveling across four states to start a new life and gain him employment. You need every bit of cash you can muster up!” she replied.

Still I wouldn’t cave! I was bound to stand firm. Then two weeks later, as I was once again explaining how my junk was going to help a needy family somewhere my two children turned to me and said, “Mom, right now we’re needy. Daddy needs a job and we need the money to help us move.”

“Okay, Okay,” I reluctantly said. “We’ll have a garage sale. But I don’t have to like it.”

We scoured the house for large ticket items that we didn’t want to lug to our new home. We scoured the house for items that we “just had to have” but never put to use. And we scoured the house for items that we used so much we couldn’t stand to look at them again. Five car loads later we were having our very first Wisconsin garage sale.

And you know what happened? Nothing! I priced the items, pulled up a chair next to my junk, and people watched. Four hours later, I hadn’t sold one single thing.

That’s when my friend came up to me and said, “You’re scaring the customers. Notice how I keep busy pricing and organizing? Notice how I don’t watch the customers but am available to answer questions and take money? You need to move your chairs over there and stop staring at them as they walk in the yard.”

“I’m so not cut out for this,” I thought to myself. But I did as she requested and two hours later I sold a few big ticketed items. After eight hours we still had lots of stuff left so we decided to host another garage sale the following week. Except this time, we would hold it on Wisconsin’s busiest garage sale day—Thursday.

We put up signs at every bulletin board in town, we posted signs on surrounding street corners, and we placed an ad in the local paper. We even bribed the kids. We would give them a $5 commission on each big ticket item sold at ticketed price!

You know what happened? Eight hours later we sold all our big ticketed items and donated the small ticketed items to charity. When I counted the money, I ecstatically said to my husband, “We made $160 today!” To which he replied, “So what’s that? Less than 1/8 of what we paid for the stuff?” I just had to chuckle because I knew he was right.