Why We Say NO to Garage Sales

You want to declutter and have decided it’s time to get rid of un-needed items at home; awesome! But you’re likely deciding it’s time to get rid of things because you have no room to keep them OR you’re out of room to bring new items into your home. (Sound familiar?) Well, with a garage sale you’ll have to find a place to store all your unwanted items until sale day. Inevitably, this creates a bigger mess than you started with. Whether you lose your dining room to a mountain of “soon to sell” items or a corner of the garage becomes the “for the sale” pile…you HAVE to find space to store items when planning a garage sale. This defeats the purpose of decluttering and removing items from your home in the first place. We all know it often “gets worse before it gets better”, but a garage sale takes a LOT of room.

For a garage sale to be successful, you need plenty of space and plenty of buyers. Not everyone lives in central parts of town or in highly populated areas. If your home or the location of your sale is not on a main road or is in a hard-to-find location, it probably won’t be worth your while to even attempt a sale because buyers will be harder to come by. Another aspect to consider is parking. If the location of your sale lacks space for parking or is smaller and could become easily crowded, people are more likely to decide against stopping. A lack of space will have buyers turning around and leaving because browsing isn’t worth the hassle. As a final but important note on location: don’t forget about HOA rules! Some HOA’s restrict garage sales which makes finding a location to host your sale even harder (and even more work) if you’re unable to do it at your home.

Let’s face it: even the most well-organized people can’t control EVERYTHING. Weather is one of those things! With how unpredictable weather is, it’s common for garage sales to be completely ruined by rain that wasn’t in the forecast, extreme heat, or even perfect weather that has potential buyers off enjoying their day in more leisurely ways. Imagine spending weeks preparing for and setting up a sale, only to then sit alone sweating in your driveway for hours. If the weather isn’t favorable on the days you happen to have planned your sale it will limit the amount of foot traffic. Less foot traffic results in tons of leftover items and an unsuccessful sale. Bad weather can hinder foot traffic, or can force you to reschedule a garage sale altogether. If rain prevents you from having your sale on the pre-planned date not only do you have to plan it for another time, but you’re now stuck redoing advertisements and continuing to live with the clutter stashed somewhere in your home until a good day arrives.

Garage sale frequent flyers are bargain hunters; this is no secret. If you choose to have a garage sale you will likely fall victim to sale shoppers and come out behind on the worth of your items (and time!) For expensive, larger, or antique items you hope to part with: you are more likely to have a better return working with a consignment/antique shop, or, selling online. Removing a large item from your home may feel good, but only if you also feel good about the price you sold it for. At garage sales, even if you have already priced the item at a very low rate, people are more likely to haggle you for a lower price. This is the nature of garage sales and is unavoidable. Clothing is the hardest to display and sell at a garage sale and sale shoppers typically pass right over those items without even looking. If you’re trying to part with any clothes or accessories, you won’t make nearly as much money as you would taking them to a local consignment shop.

Probably the biggest reason we don’t believe a garage sale is worth your time and effort is… it takes FAR too much time and effort! Summer is not typically the idealistic eight weeks of doing nothing but relaxing in the sun. Many of us are VERY busy in the summer with work, vacations, kids’ camps/sports/activities, etc. School just barely got out for summer break and I know my calendar for June and July is already jam-packed! Decluttering and finding items to sell will take time, but then to also make time to set up and actually run the sale? Your time is worth more than that! Not to mention everything you must do in between decluttering and sale weekend: preparing and posting advertising, the stop at the bank to get cash for change, pricing your items, clearing the garage/driveway, gathering tables and supplies, etc. Garage sales are a lot of hard work and a true commitment.

Let’s say you DO have many quality items that could make a good return in a garage sale. If you choose to sell those same items online, or to a consignment shop, you get the same result, but for less work put in. To sell items online you never even need to leave the house. At most, you will need to take some photos and write an item description. Once you upload the item to your desired sale site the only thing left to do is ship it off (or meet up with the buyer) once the item sells. Local neighborhood sale sites are another great way to quickly sell larger items and often require nothing more than a quick post!

Consignment shops are also more convenient than a garage sale. Not only does it put the work in someone else’s hands, but they also have a lot more foot traffic and more serious buyers than garage sales. To consign, the only effort it takes is finding time to drop off your items. With most consignment shops you can, of course, choose to pick up any remaining items that don’t sell after a certain amount of time. But many will even offer to donate what they don’t sell. This means finding time to make a second trip to the shop may not even be necessary!

As much as we hate to believe it, some items we have simply aren’t worth selling. Garage sales are often chalk-full of items that are outdated, slightly damaged/stained, missing pieces, or just unpopular. Donating these items takes far less effort and gets them out of your space the quickest. If you have enough items to donate, you can find a local charity who will provide free pick-up. (Always make sure to check beforehand) but this is easily the most convenient way to declutter items with little worth. You can also take a tax deduction on charitable donations! Call ahead of time to see if the items you have to donate are tax deductible, but most donation centers will provide a donation receipt for you to file with your other tax documents when the time comes. It may not be a huge monetary return but getting useless (to you) items out of your home and in the hands of someone that has a need for them is a mental profit.

We understand why the idea of a garage sale sounds appealing, but there are ultimately much more efficient ways to declutter your space this summer. If you read this and think, “hmmm, so not a garage sale; but how can I best take care of all this….stuff”, reach out! Our inbox at info@sortedout.com is always open and we’d be happy to help you find the best way to clear out items you no longer need.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Tonia