Do you have a lot of junk? You know it may someone else’s treasure! The economy has quite a few people cleaning out their homes and selling their stuff to strangers in their own yards. Depending on where you live it may be called ‘Yard Sale, Tag Sale, Garage Sale’ etc… I am such a perfectionist that I want to share what I did for my tag sale prep.
I have done my fair share of these things and I really hate putting them together. It is such a pain to try and find space for the stuff, clean the stuff, organize the stuff and tag the stuff with your asking price! The last time I did this I finally figured out an easier way to prepare for one. Do you want to know how to make it less daunting unless, of course, you like doing these things?
You definitely need to have a designated area for your stuff to be placed as you haul it from all areas of your home. The space does not need to be really big but a space just for your stuff.
Things you need to have in your designated area are:
- furniture polish
- a cleaning solution
- paper towels
- a lined note pad
- a pencil
Clean your stuff as you go, write down what you just cleaned and find a category for it. You will be so happy you did later! Remember it may be junk to you at this point, but someone out there is looking for it. Make it pretty and new looking just the way you’d like to buy something. It will pay off!!
Sorting things by category:
- size
- type of item
- for a man
- for a woman
- for a child
- kitchen
- linens
- household
Once you have all your stuff in this great place and everything is smooshed together based on category it is time to figure out how much you want to ask for your junk.
Go sit down and look at what items you listed on your pad. Grab a glass of wine or your favorite beverage and start pricing your stuff. I know that this sounds like a huge pain but it will serve two purposes:
1) You will have a complete listing of everything you want to sell and can assign a price on paper.
2) File this document away some place safe when you are all done. Why? If you decide down the road to go find that ‘thing’ and you cannot find that ‘thing’ go to the list. The list is your key to knowing you have not lost your mind and it will tell you if you sold that ‘thing’. If you sold it, then you can stop hunting for it! Hopefully you won’t be saying dammet why did I sell that ‘thing’?
Ok, now that you have your list complete it is time to go to the store and buy a large poster board, preferably white, and a package or two of plain colored stickers or plain colored dots. When you get home you will be sticking colored stickers or dots on your items. For example:
Green dots = 5 cents
Red dots= 10 cents
Blue dots = 15 cents etc….
While I was preparing for the last tag sale I found I had more items than stickers! Easy fix, cut them in half! Your pricing chart will now looking like this
Half Green dot = 5 cents
Full Green dot = 10 cents
Half Red dot = 15 cents
Full Red dot = 20 cents and so on.
Once you have completed all your color coding of stickers it is time to prepare your poster board. Draw your half circles or full circles rather then spell out ‘half green dot or full green dot’. Make it as visual and easy to read as possible. Color the half circles and full circles to match the color of the stickers/dots. Write your asking price in black on your poster board so it stands out.
The size of your writing will depend on how many colors you have. The day of your sale, make sure that your pricing board is visible for all your customers. People are impatient. They want to look up see your price to buy it or just move on.
Place all the items together by color if you can; all the full circle green dots together, all the red dots together and so on. This will make it easier for you and the customer. Get a piece of paper and draw your circles, color them and tape them to your tables to identify by price which makes it even easier. This is all part of being a perfectionist at tag sale prep stuff!
As people buy your junk, remember to cross it off your list. That will mean you sold it and if you go looking for that ‘thing’ and need to reference your list later, the line will tell you it was sold!
When I did this I had a lot of comments like ‘Wow, this is really cool!’ ‘I love this, I am going to do this next time I have one!’ ‘This made it so easy!’ It was easy for me since I did not have to write prices on every little stinkin sticker then stick them all on my junk.
It takes a little time to get this system down, but in the end you will be so organized and complete that you will wonder how you ever survived a tag sale in the past by not doing this method. It works, it is effective and it is easy! Becoming a perfectionist at tag sale prep stuff is easy and I know you can do it, too! Good luck in your adventures to sell your junk!
One important note: If something you own is of real value, do not put it out at your sale. List it on eBay, donate it to the Red Cross, a Women’s Shelter etc…and take the write off for your taxes. People are always looking for a deal but if your ‘thing’ has real value I recommend you go this route!
