How I turned clutter into $500 cash with my first garage sale

At 7:30 a.m. on a recent Saturday, my driveway was filled with tables. We had kids’ clothes, baby gear and long-forgotten household items — each item priced to sell.

I set a goal of $500 in sales. That would make it all “worth it” for me after spending roughly 12 hours prepping (more on that later) and about $24 in supplies.

I knew that to be successful, we were going to have to do some work in advance. In our case, we spent about 12 hours sorting, organizing, pricing and advertising in the week leading up to the sale.

We cleared out nearly every corner of our house — from the basement and playroom to the random closet under the stairs we’d been avoiding for months.

We’re out of the baby phase, so the crib sheets, baby gates, high chair, baby monitors — it all had to go. We kept a few favorites (just in case we become grandparents one day) and set the rest aside to sell.

Closets were less sentimental. Then came the cabinets: platters, vases, picture frames, curtains — relics from when we combined our lives together more than 10 years ago.

As we decluttered, I staged our stuff in the garage, grouping similar things together to make pricing easier.

I used $1.25 pre-made price tags from Dollar Tree and priced items in batches whenever I had a few spare minutes. Most things were between $1 and $5, but for bigger ticket items I checked Facebook Marketplace for the local going rate, then undercut those prices by $10-$20. It is a yard sale, after all.

For anything I wasn’t sure about – like an old jewelry box that played music – I added a “make me an offer” sticker — and people did. (That jewelry box went for 50 cents, by the way.)

I was worried people might not show, so I got my phone out.

I posted in neighborhood and community Facebook groups, sharing not just the time and date, but also pictures and descriptions of what we were selling.

We also put up signs at the entrance to our neighborhood and added balloons to make them easier to spot.

Timing helped, too. We chose a spring weekend — before the Southern heat kicks in and before summer travel season.

The early birds showed up quickly on sale day. By mid-morning, we were in a lull that had me panicking. We still had a lot of stuff to sell.

To save time, I used Facebook’s AI feature to help write product descriptions. I was impressed by the accuracy (I cross-checked the dimensions with the product website to make sure they were correct).

Within minutes, I had interest from buyers and felt more hopeful about meeting our sales goal.

What made these decisions easier was having shared financial goals.

“Higher gas prices are straining Americans’ wallets, which means every bit of extra cash helps right now,” says Kimberly Palmer, personal finance expert at NerdWallet. “Side-hustles can help bridge the gap between spending and income.”

Also, we were sick and tired of all the stuff.

We packed up around 3:30 in the afternoon, once traffic slowed, and we counted the results.

🏷️ $497 earned from the combined garage sale and Facebook Marketplace sales. We took cash but also gave shoppers QR codes for digital payments like Venmo and Zelle.

♻️ $31 earned from selling higher-quality items at a kids’ consignment shop.

That’s more than $500 in value from items we no longer use — plus a potential tax break.

After reflecting on my first garage sale, here’s what surprised me most:

A garage sale takes real work. You have to plan, price and probably give up a weekend day. It helps to have a clear financial goal ahead of time to keep you motivated. Every dollar you earn goes toward making that goal a reality — and that will hopefully motivate you to see it through.

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