Summer was too short. Let me know if you agree! And now school is about to start and for some students, school is already in session. I work also in the summer and the only vacation I have had so far this year was a weekend in Detroit for my family reunion. With planning for that, work, and my child’s arts foundation program schedule, we have been quite busy. But now as we near the end of summer, it is time to declutter, busy or not.

It is so easy to let work papers and other important documents pile up, clothes sit without purpose in the closet, and more clutter challenge your space and peace. I hate clutter and although I love things to be neat and in order, I too can easily collect clutter–either by email, stuff in the home, files, etc. And in order to have a fresh start in a new season, we have to part with the old sometimes, declutter, and make room for the new or just create space to stretch out and be free and light. And we should also declutter mentally and spiritually for the same reasons. Especially to make room for God first and then our loved ones, and ourselves.

So back to decluttering physically: to declutter physically is a process and you have to take one thing at a time. You need to remember to have a throw-away pile, a keep-pile, and a donation-pile. And for some who have the entrepreneurial mindset or the desire to just earn some needed cash, you need a sell-pile.

This brings me to the title of this post: Decluttering Idea Before Back To School. If you want to declutter and earn some much needed cash, give a garage sale.

A garage sale is a good way to declutter and make room. It is also a good way to meet your neighbors or get to know them a little better as I was able to.

I believe this is our second time doing a garage sale. And this time around, it went well. We didn’t make a lot of money and we had to haul a lot of stuff back into the garage after the two days of our garage sale. However, we did sell several items and made a little over a hundred dollars.

I think this time around I noticed some things I did that made this garage sale successful. And yes, although we only earned about $140, we still did well. We got to conversate with a few neighbors, provide new homes to some old favorite clothing, some memorable books, and some household goods. We also got to build our skills with selling, pricing, and advertising.

Tips For A Successful Garage Sale:

• Have a variety of things. And think of what people may need. We had used, barely used and new stuff for sale. We even did a free pile.
• Include some snacks or candy for sale. That is always a plus.
• Try doing a garage sale for more than one day. We were even asked if were going to give a garage sale again the following weekend.
• Have stuff visible and organized. Presentation and visibility matters.
• And when you set things out, make sure things are clean, sanitized, good condition, and if not in such good condition then still usable and/or able to be easily restored.
• Advertise. Put up garage sale signs in front of your house but also on a busy street or at the corner of the block. You can also put a flyer in your local grocery store. I didn’t do that this time due to time and schedule.
• Word of mouth. Get the word out that you are having a garage sale. Invite friends, family, colleagues if you want, church, family, etc. Someone is bound to come.
• Take an account of the weather. It drizzled twice the first day and was a little chilly the second day. And stuff kept blowing and falling, lol, but all still went well.
• Have reasonable prices. And if some stuff you know is of greater quality and valuable, don’t be afraid to sell for a bit more. I had a $1 box, $3 bag and then some stuff we priced $5, $10 or even $15. We had a variety of things and a variety of prices. And be willing to negotiate the cost.
• Have fun!

Have you ever gave a garage sale? What tips do you have to have a successful one?

See some pictures below of our garage sale.