Moving Sale and Yard Sale Tips
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Reasons to have a Moving Sale when Planning a move?
A moving sale is a great way to sort through all your stuff and get rid of things you no longer use, have outgrown or could easily replace when you get to your new place. You can easily make the decision to keep or get rid of each thing as it passes through your hands while you pack for your move. Ask yourself if it is actually worth taking with you or could you live without it. You’ll be able to reduce the weight of your shipping, save on moving costs and make additional money on the things you sell at your moving sale.
When To Have A Moving Sale?
Decide on a date and time as soon as you can. The best days for sales seem to be Fridays and Saturdays. Sundays aren’t bad but weekend holidays tend to not be too good for sales because people have holiday preparations and events to attend or they leave town.
Choose a starting and closing time for your sale. Something like 9am to 4pm, 10am to 5pm or even earlier works well since many people like coming really early to get a lead on finding their favorite treasures.
Where To have your Moving Sale?
You could hold your sale in your garage, driveway and yard or basement, but if you are moving out of an apartment, you may not have these options. The best choice in that case might be in a friends yard or at a local flea market.
Consider parking space for your buyers. You may need to park your own vehicles somewhere else the day of the sale to make room for your stuff and make room for shoppers to park.
Letting your neighbors know about your sale is always a good idea. They may want to have a sale too, or could at least be prepared for the increased traffic and parking during the sale.
How to Advertise your Moving Sale?
The more people who know, the more that will come and the more you could sell. So it is very important to get the word out about your sale.
There are a few places you can promote your moving sale:
- Local Newspaper Classified Ad
- Public Bulletin Board
- Word of Mouth
- Local Access Community TV Public Notices
- Signs Pointing The Way
Newspaper Ads
Many of the little free weekly neighborhood newspapers do not charge for listing moving sales or garage sale announcements. The major daily newspapers do charge.
Call them up to find out:
- How do they determine cost — by “X” inches? number of lines? number of words?
- What is the cost to run the ad Friday and Saturday vs. Saturday only?
- What is the additional cost for a bold headline?
- How soon should you send or call in the ad?
Be sure to promote the most popular items in your ad to attract people to your moving sale: furniture, appliances, tools, electronics, etc.
Public Bulletin Boards
Grocery stores, libraries and laundry mats usually have bulletin boards people can post fliers announcing all the details of a Moving Sale. Be sure to make it easy to read, mentioning date, times, place and popular items you’ll be selling.
Tell People You Know
Word of mouth spreads the word well. Your friends, family neighbors and co-workers may be interested in what you have to sell and they can tell those they know about it too.
Big Signs Pointing the Way to your Moving Sale
You’ll want to make some great big signs with arrows to put in high-traffic areas around your neighborhood directing people to your sale. Make sure you put the date and times, and make the lettering big enough to read by people driving pass them.
Getting Ready for your Moving Sale
- Put price marks on each of your items for sale. Color coded stickers or tags can identify who gets the money, if more than one family member is selling their stuff.
- Have a collection of bags and boxes ready for your customers to carry away things they buy.
- Have stacks of newspapers handy to wrap up fragile things.
- Set your items for sale together away from anything not for sale.
- Put parts of a set all together, mark prices sold as set or individual.
- Put same types of stuff in same area, all the kitchen stuff together, all the gardening things together, all the clothes, toys, tools …etc. near items of same type.
- Hang clothes on clothesline or on rack if possible.
- Set up a cashier area with calculator, scissors, tape, string, markers, tags, stickers and a secure cash box with lots of small bills to make change.