So you're ready to set up for your rummage sale - how exciting! This can be an overwhelming task, but with some planning, your garage sale set-up can go smoothly. Today we are offering eight of our top rummage sale set-up strategies that we've developed along the way in our decades of experience with having huge multi-family yard sales.

This is an overview for general rummage sale set-up strategies. We will have other specific category tips and ideas for you in other posts here: Rummage Sales

Tip 1: Clear out your garage and set up tables days or weeks ahead of time. (This only applies to you if you have a garage to use for the sale.)  I generally put tables around the perimeter of my garage walls (inside, of course), then I add in a middle section of tables that are back-to-back in the center of the garage, all the way up to the door. Make sure there will be plenty of space for people to walk around comfortably, and consider mobility accessibility as well. You want to be welcoming to all of your potential customers, so make sure they can get to everything they'd like to see when they're shopping at your sale. (If you have to set something up high or out of reach, make sure there is someone available "on staff" to safely get it down for a potential buyer.)

Tip 2: Maximize your space. If you have a lot of families participating in your sale (known as a multi-family sale), or if you just have a lot of stuff to display, make sure you have ways to fit more things. For example, add bookshelves to your tables. Or stack and secure boxes to use in place of bookshelves (shown in the photo above). Think outside of the box, so to speak, and try to spread things out vertically besides horizontally. It's okay to just use table surfaces, but you can fit more things when you have multiple layers of surfaces.

Tip 3: Also about maximizing your space - stuff many similar things in boxes that you display on tables. If you have a lot of small items, use boxes or bins for people to sort through. Just make sure everything is clearly priced. If it is valuable, make sure it will be placed close to your check-out table so you can keep an eye on things (and people).

Tip 4: Use tablecloths on all of your tables. There are two reasons why we do this! First of all, people comment on how nicely things are displayed at our garage sales. Of course, people make a mess as they rummage through things, and some things easily get out of place (which we constantly are reorganizing throughout the sale). But customers seem to overlook the rummaging chaos when the overall appearance is nice and tidy with the tablecloths drawing attention away from the overload of things being moved around by other customers. Secondly, we store our empty boxes under the tables, as well as extra hangers and bags, etc. People cannot see that there are boxes under our tables, so they are not trying to look in those boxes and causing the tables to overturn. We hide our extra supplies under the tables, hidden by the tablecloths.

Tip 5: Big items should go to your driveway or yard during the sale. Keep the big things in the house until the day of the sale. You don't want furniture or exercise equipment in your way while you are setting up your garage tables and items. Furniture and bigger things are usually what attract people to stop at yard sales. Make those items the most visible for people driving by, and they will probably decide to stop and see what you have for sale.

Tip 6: Use your yard to draw attention to your sale. On the day(s) of the sale, make sure you get plenty of eye-catching things in your yard or driveway. Other than the furniture we already mentioned, have a variety of things visible from the road. As a customer, when I go past a garage sale that is contained to a garage, I don't know what they have to offer and it must not be much, so I rarely want to put in the effort to see what they have (that I probably don't need). But if I see a great variety of items that are visible from my view in the road, I usually think the sale is worth stopping at since they already got my attention. Yes, this means that you will have to carry things out to your yard or driveway in the morning. And you'll have to carry things back in at night. But you will sell more when you attract more customers who will want to stop and look. It is worth the extra effort you'll put it.

Tip 7: Organize everything into categories. People LOVE it when you make it easy for them to shop. A lot of customers have a certain category they are usually shopping for. Some will want to browse through your books. Others will need things for their home. Maybe they love to purchase craft supplies. Or they need to find clothes for their growing children. Whatever it is, make sure it is easy for them to find that category of like-items at your sale. FOR EXAMPLE: We always do well with selling clothes, so we invested in rolling clothing racks that we wheel out to the driveway each day of the sale. A specific size is dedicated to each rack, clearly labeled, so customers can easily find what they are looking for. If you don't have many clothing items, you may display them in the garage. Racks tend to hold more clothes than having piles folded on the tables. Just do whatever works best for you, according to what display options you have available.

Tip 8: Make sure you reserve a small area in your garage to use as a check-out station. We usually set up a card table in the garage that is near the door where we can enter and exit the house. We keep our outer doors locked so customers do not go into our house. We (the people running the sale) can enter the house through the garage, but we are the only ones who can access that door. Our check-out table blocks the general public from entering our home. We also recruit extra help to reorganize things as it gets sorted through and moved around during the rummage. They condense things as needed, refold or rehang clothing, and have a friendly personality to greet customers. Those people also keep an eye on everything happening outside of the garage and in the yard. Plus, they assist people in taking larger purchases to their cars.

Thank you for reading our suggestions to prepare you for a successful rummage sale. We hope you have the best sale ever!

How do I get all of these things priced for my rummage sale?

Let us help you out by sharing our proven pricing strategies for rummage sales!

It may seem overwhelming at first, but once you adapt some of these methods for pricing, you will find it gets easier and it can even be a fun task!

Our family has hosted many multi-family rummage sales for over 20 years. We happen to live on a very busy street with a high volume of traffic, which is ideal for setting up a rummage sale that is highly visible. During the hours of the busiest traffic, I've counted an average of forty cars going past our house every minute. In a city of around 65,000 residents, it's a perfect location for a yard sale. Actually, the location is probably what's kept us living in this house for this long. And because of so many potential customers driving past daily, most of our friends and family wish to be included in the sales we have. It helps everyone clear out stuff they no longer need, which is the ultimate goal.

As part of our RUMMAGE SALE blog series, today we are sharing our methods for pricing things to get ready for a garage sale. We will give you some great tips, along with detailed explanations of things that have worked well for us!

Only focus on one category, pile, or box of things at once. For example, take one pile of unwanted clothes to an uncluttered part of your home and start with that. Turn on some music or the TV for background noise if it helps you, just don't let it become a distraction from getting your pricing done. You will price that one pile or box of stuff, then set the priced items in a designated area of ready-to-sell things.

You may have a corner in your basement or a section of your garage to use as a temporary storage area as you prepare for your upcoming sale. Priced things should always be taken to this spot once you finish pricing it. This helps reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed by stuff. You WILL be getting rid of it, so it's worth taking these steps of preparation.

Use pricing stickers, not masking tape. Pricing stickers are easier to remove and are not prone to leaving an adhesive residue on things like masking tape can. You may choose to use the pre-printed pricing stickers, but I've found that I use way more 25c and 50c stickers than are in those packs, plus those often include prices I don't really use much, like 10c or $7.50 - and I don't need so many extras of those. So for me, I prefer to write out my own prices, but you do what works best for you!

If you are having a multi-family rummage sale where other people will also be selling stuff, you will want to assign initials to be used on each person's tags. For example, Anne could write A and Jim could write J. But if Bill Davis and Ben Jones (two B names) are both selling things at your sale, they should label their tags with BD and BJ (respectively). This prevents confusion when collecting this information as items sell.

Have pricing rules established and let everyone who will be contributing to the sale know what you've decided. Here is my explanation for this. You'll want pricing to be pretty consistent among all of the products. If you'll be selling paperback books for 50c and hardcover books for $1, other people selling books at your sale should have similar prices. If they don't, people will be trying to get you to reduce a $2 book because others are $1 just like it. Honestly, these questions from customers can get annoying.

Prices should be firm (as marked), especially for the first day(s) of your sale. Give your things a chance to sell at what you think they should. People might ask for a deal, and you CAN say no, not on our first day of the sale. Some people will think you'll give them an item priced at $10 for $1. And you just opened. There's a good chance that the item will still sell for $10. So, saying no doesn't mean you won't be able to sell it. Some people will hear the NO and still buy it, but for what you had it fairly priced for. Or, if they set down the item because you didn't make a deal with them, it's OKAY! So many times, someone else grabs the item to buy at your marked price as soon as the person sets it back down. This happens a lot, so you don't have to give-in to people rudely thinking they are deserving of getting something of value for hardly anything. It's your sale, so you are in charge of the rules and the prices.

Figure out your magic number. This is the term I use to describe a common price I put on many of my things. For me, $3 is my magic number. Almost anything will sell for me at $3. It may be different in your region, so just think about what price seems to attract you to make a purchase when you stop at a garage sale. I have always done really well with selling anything with a $3 price sticker on it. Clothing, household items, bags of miscellaneous things - $3 is the price that people seem to love paying for things around here. So, my standard price is $3 for anything. If it seems less valuable, it will usually get a $1, 50c or 25c tag depending on what I feel is fair. Anything that clearly has a greater value than $3 (like furniture) will be priced to sell accordingly, at a higher price. Compare your pricing to other sales in your area to make sure you are on the right track. I tend to price slightly lower than a thrift store, since I want it to sell at my sale. You could also see what range of prices other people are asking when they offer items for sale on your local area's marketplace listings.

Make pricing easier by selling things in 25c increments or in dollars. I never price things at 10c or 5c. It's so much easier to only deal with dollars and quarters. Trust me on this. Make it easy for yourself.

If you have a lot of small things that are similar (like things from your junk drawer, or desk drawer), consider making grab bags. We have always done super well with selling grab bags. I take zip-baggies and fill them with similar things (like sewing notions being grouped together in a bag) and then price the whole bag. Almost all of my grab bags are priced at $3. I use packaging tape to secure the bag-closure after I zip it closed. Also, I have my price sticker covered by the packaging tape. My reasoning for adding packaging tape of the tag is so the tag cannot be easily tampered with, and prices cannot be easily switched (by customers). Plus, by taping each grab bag closed, you prevent people from opening the bags, taking things out, dropping things, switching things, or anything else that people sometimes rudely do. Simply put, eliminate customer issues by with preventative measures, such as tape!

I also tape my rummage tags to clothing tags. I was getting tired of people being able to easily switch tags, so I do my best to prevent tampering. On jeans, I place packaging tape over the rummage tag and wrap it around a belt loop. On shirts I tape my price sticker onto the brand tag. I also include sizes on the tag, along with my initial. If it is a medium sized shirt, I will write Medium $3 A on the tag. If it is a more expensive brand, I will also include the brand on the tag, so I can easily see if it has been switched. You are able to refuse the sale if you can tell the price tag was switched. (To be clear, there will be so many more awesome customers than sketchy ones, so don't worry too much about it.)

If you are selling electronics, have an extra outlet available so people can test things out. Also have extra batteries available to test things. As far as pricing these items, write WORKS on the tag if it does work. Write AS-IS if there is an issue with it. But do not put things for sale that are unusable or should be trash.

If you have a whole box of similar things you want to sell individually, you may just label the box with a sign - All toy cars are 50 cents each. But if someone else will also be selling the same type of item at your sale, just price them individually with the appropriate initials. Then you can easily tell who gets the money when the items sell. The other option is to make grab bags that are priced with your initials.

If you decide to color code your price stickers (instead of writing initials), do that if it works best for you. You could assign a color to each person participating, but still have the prices written out. Color coding is not my preference, but it may be yours.

I've also been to some sales where there's a sign to interpret tag colors. A blue tag might be on 50c items, a red tag on $1 items, a yellow tag on $5 items, etc. But from my experience, customers prefer not having to check charts. They'd much rather have items clearly marked.

Also, please do price everything. If I ever go to a sale where nothing is marked, and they expect me to ask about prices... I'm not going to do it. Introverts in general will just leave because they don't want to feel pressured to buy things they'd have to ask about for price information. So please be aware that you are more likely to lose potential sales if you don't already have things priced for your sale. It's just not a good idea to skip over the pricing aspect of having a rummage sale, in my opinion.

We hope those tips are helpful. We will have additional posts about rummage sales in the near future, so check back with us again soon!

Are you tired of having too much stuff? Are you ready to declutter your home? Maybe you have more things than you need and would like to sell your extra things? This blog post includes a free printable resource that will help you determine where to start, what to organize and sort, and tracks your progress until completion.

Here's a little bit of background information first, about our personal experience, and how we've found success in this method we'll introduce to you today. We have been involved in massive rummage sale planning and implementation for decades! We have become experts in converting unwanted items into cash through many years of successful multi-family rummage sales, also referred to as garage sales or yard sales. Our sales have drawn customers from hours away, even from other states. Our free advertising for a local sale went viral and became the "talk" of social media groups interested in our sales. We get so many repeat customers who tell us they watch for our sale every year because it is their favorite. People from near and far want to get involved because they've never seen anything like it. We never really expected to become consultants for rummage sales, but it's turned into that! This only happened through lots of learning, hard work, and determination to get really good at this! And we'd like to share our proven methods with you so you can have the rummage sale everyone wants to go to and buy from.

We are beginning an entire blog series of resources for having a successful rummage sale, and the first step is to sort through everything in your home to determine what is no longer needed. Future posts will highlight detailed steps of having a rummage sale that people will want to come to, purchase lots of things from, and become loyal, repeat customers. We'll also give you tips on rummage set-up, pricing, running the sale, advertising, and what to do with leftover items. So come back often to see the other rummage sale tips we will provide in future posts.

Today we are offering a free printable Decluttering Checklist worksheet to help you develop a clear and concise strategy for sorting through all of the things you own and keep in your home. It will guide you through the areas of your home, some that you may not normally think of organizing. You will write out the details specific to your personal living space. Then work on sorting and checking off an area daily or weekly until you are finished.

The checklist includes:

• Closets
• Drawers
• Storage
• Surfaces
• Files
• Furniture
• Other

We have also included a sample checklist below, under the printable file. Our sample form shows ideas of how to use the checklist, but you will write your home-specific checklist details according to your own personal space. For example, if you have three bedrooms, you may have three clothes closets to list. Or if you have an office or playroom, those will be specific areas you will want to include.

After you print and fill out the form, you will begin in one area of your home, focusing on only that specific space until it is finished. Check off your accomplished tasks as they are completed. Then move onto the next one. You get to choose the order that makes the most sense to you.

Decluttering - Step 1 - is all about going through every single item you own. It may seem like a huge task, and it is - but it is doable if you take it one step at a time. These small daily wins can be achieved and used as motivation to keep making progress.

This may be done at any time of the year, but I usually recommend starting this sorting in January or February. With this method, every item in every closet or drawer is seen, and a decision is made for each thing. I keep a box available for each category and find a spot in my basement or garage to store clearly marked boxes of the items I will resell at a rummage sale. My yearly rummage sale will take place once I'm ready and that is usually in the late Spring or early Summer.

As I'm sorting, I have specific boxes I categorize items into:

• Keep (put it back where it goes once that area is completely sorted)
• Sell (put it in a box designated for your rummage sale)
• Donate (if it's usable but you don't want to hold onto it for a sale)
• Give Away (to a relative or free at the curb to anyone)
• Trash/Recycle (toss things that don't have value or a use)

This decluttering method is great for beginners, and it can become a good habit that you keep up with year-round. I prefer to keep rummage sale collection boxes available throughout the year and add items to them as I decide they are no longer useful to me. This helps save me time going through everything early in the year. A lot of things have already been assigned to the next yard sale, and it helps me not feel so overwhelmed to prepare for the sale.

Print out the checklist from the file above. Then use the sample form below as a guide to help you know what each listed category in the checklist is for, then write your own home-specific checklist on the form you printed out.

You can do this, and you can do it well. I'm proud of you for trying. Just take it one step at a time and you'll get through it.

The most frequently requested items people have contacted us about lately are Lalaloopsy dolls. If you haven't heard of them, they are really cute dolls that are highly sought after, hot collector items right now. This is especially true with some of the earliest manufactured dolls, which may be hard to find still new in their original boxes.

Lalaloopsy is a brand of doll toys made by MGA Entertainment, and the characters are rag doll style figures appearing to have button eyes, yarn hair, and a stitched mouth (only they are actually molded plastic toys). Apparently, they were originally released in 2010 having the name Bitty Buttons, with the brand name quickly being changed to Lalaloopsy. The dolls seemed to have grown in popularity right from the start, and through the years there have been video games and TV specials based on the Lalaloopsy characters.

If you are currently searching for full-size Lalaloopsy dolls, you have come to the right place! We are resellers of various collectible items, and we are happy to have found some of these special dolls to add to our inventory. These seem to be a perfect addition to our resale theme, since this brand of "rag dolls" promotes things being repurposed and nothing going to waste; emphasizing the idea that everything deserves a second life, which encompasses the entire concept of thrifting and resale that we specialize in.

We have several options available right now, but they may not be here for long since they are highly sought after among collectors. You may want to act fast if you see something here that you want, because we don't know how often we'll find more of these special dolls to offer. We already sold several of the Lalaloopsy dolls when we first got them, and now we have added the rest to our website. So, we know they don't stick around too long once they are offered for sale.

The links to these dolls, shown below, should be active as long as they are still available. We will try to add more of them if/as they become available, but this is our current inventory of Lalaloopsy.

Happy shopping, and we hope you have found what you are looking for today!

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