There is nothing better than a yard sale. People come from miles around to see what treasures you have. One rule of thumb in the garage sale world is that bigger sales entice larger crowds. While having lots of stuff is appealing to the average buyer, it is a nightmare to organize from a financial standpoint. This is because most yard sales have multiple people or families contributing. Alas, you can have your large sale and still stay organized. After all, you want to make sure you get every last cent of your hard-earned money. Here are some tips to make your sale a success.

Start Organizing Early

The key to making sure that everything goes well is organization. Don’t wait till the day or even a week before the sale to start getting prepared. Don’t rush yourself, and make sure that you have plenty of time to get things ready.

Price To Sell

Remember that a garage sale is used items being sold to people looking for bargains. Pricing items too high is almost always a recipe for failure. You need to walk the fine line of making sure that your prices are good enough to move the items without selling yourself short.

Have Plenty of Tables

It always seems that these sales never have enough tables. Have you ever seen someone have a blanket spread on the ground with stuff on it? Make sure you have plenty of tables to display your products. Many buyers cannot get down on the ground to look for things. You may cut your profits if things are not properly displayed.

Hang Up Clothes

Oh yeah, it is a total pain to hang up clothes. However, if you pile all the clothes in a massive heap on a table, then many people are not going to dig through them. Rather, put your clothes on a rack that can be gone through with ease.

Be Ready To Negotiate

Another thing about prices is that they must be negotiable. If you are not willing to negotiate, then you shouldn’t be having a yard sale. People want to feel like they are getting a good deal for their money. Make sure to price items with wiggle room in mind. Even if you only come down ten cents, make sure people feel like they are doing good on their yard sale adventure. Remember, everyone wants something for nothing.

Have Proper Signage

One thing that will make or break your yard sale is signage. Advertising is an important part of a home based sale. You want to appeal to those driving by. If your sign has things like “6-Family Garage Sale,” then it will attract people. Diehard fans of these types of events won’t be able to pass up a good looking sign so take your time and make some attractive signage.

Ensure You Have Enough Petty Cash

Depending on who you ask there are a million different answers about how much petty cash you need to have. A fairly safe bet would be to keep around $50 on hand. Grab a roll of quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies as well as having enough bills to make change. Make sure to account for that money in your final tallies.

Keep Your Cash In a Secure Spot

We recommending using nail aprons like these on Amazon.  They allow you to be mobile and keep the cash close to your body.

Each Family Should Use A Specific Sticker Color
It is going to be confusing to have many people with various items trying to check out. If every family uses a specific sticker color to designate their items, then it can make the checkout process much easier. Yard sale stickers come in all sorts of colors. Pick and color and stick with it. You must have coordination for your multi-family garage sale.

The TallySheet App is another great way to help keep tabs on multi-family sales, as anyone with a smart phone can act as a cash register and assign sales to any of the participating families. This streamlines the process of reconciling cash and makes sure everyone gets paid for what they’ve sold.

Use Technology…Like The TallySheet App

 Forget the pens and papers and trying to write everything down. Using a garage sale cash register like the TallySheet App can help to ensure that you have things under control. Using your phone, you can add other users and track sales for each participating family’s items as you check out customers. Rather than fumbling through piles of cash and trying to reconcile who gets how much, TallySheet helps to make sure everyone gets paid for their items and that your totals align with what’s in the cash box.

Assign Tasks Ahead of Time

There is going to be so much to do on the big day that it may be pure chaos. Try assigning tasks ahead of time. Plan each phase from the initial setup to who is going to drop things off at a donation center afterward. If you take the time and do things right, then your garage sale will be a smashing success.

Putting together such a big event is never easy and running a multi-family garage sale is a lot of work. However, with some effort and a bit of your time, you can make a ton of money. Remember, your trash will be someone else’s treasure.

Download TallySheet for Apple products. Download TallySheet for Android products.