The opening hours of your garage sale, are the most important, and often the busiest of the whole day. How many hours, depends solely on the weather, your area, and the day of the week you choose. How can you make the most out of that very first hour of your garage sale?
First, be sure to plan ahead. If you are holding the sale in your garage, have everything set up the night before, so when opening time comes, you only have to pop the garage door up and get started.
If you plan to host the garage sale on your driveway, using tables that can be slid out onto the driveway, and set up before hand and stored in the garage, is your best bet.
As more people who have had multiple garage sales know, there are always early birds, so be prepared. When I mention that first hour of your sale, I am also including some of the set up time, with those early birds milling about.
Be firm with early birds. If you don’t want them there, ask them to leave. Sure, you might lose a sale or two, but chances are, it won’t hurt you at all. If you advertised well, and your prices are competitive, you will probably do great even turning away the early birds. However, don’t be rude. Often, the early birds will come back when asked to leave, especially if they see something they might be interested in, and you were friendly and nice.
While setting up in that first half hour to hour period, keep a watchful eye on everything. It can be difficult, with people milling around and you still locked into setting up. This is why getting help with your garage sale, is so important.
The best advice I was ever given was simply to be prepared and stay calm. Focus on setting up, get it done as quickly as possible and then begin slowly to relax. Keep your mind alert and be helpful and friendly, but don’t get in anyones way. There is nothing worse than being followed around a sale, and hearing stories about every item you touch. More on that in another article.
Check out the Garage Sale section for more great advice. Watch the frugal living blog for more great money saving articles.