As much as we all like to buy & sell on eBay, sometimes we just need to have a good clean out of useless stuff that you may have hanging around your garage/shed or home. Has it been there far too long? You may have items that you no longer use or things you just don't like anymore. Children grow out of clothes & toys so quickly and if you are like me, you open your kitchen cupboards & see things you haven't used in 5 years.

Wardrobes hold so many money making articles, hand bags, good quality shoes, clothes, all are a source of some extra cash in your pocket. The list is endless all you need is the will to part with things. This can be hard if you are a collector of everything like me. However, I always think that if I have a good clean out I can make room for more stuff and for that short while that I am clutter free, it is a lovely feeling of being 'cleansed' - its short lived but nice while it lasts.

A garage sale is the perfect opportunity to clear the decks and earn some extra cash at the same time. The secret to a successful garage sale is to be organised, here are a few tips I put together after having a few sales of my own over the years.

Start preparing at least 2 to 3  weeks before the day of the sale. Go through every room in your house, speak to your teenagers, grandparents or anyone else who lives with you and ask them to also clear out their unwanted items. This cleansing process can become addictive once someone sets the ball rolling, others usually find it easy to drag out their unwanted stuff, especially if there is the possibility of earning some extra cash. Ask neighbours if they would like to have a garage sale on the same day, this way you can split the cost of advertising in the local paper. Maybe they would like to bring a few of their unwanted items to your sale for you to sell for them if they cannot justify their own sale.

Be sure to advertise in your local newspaper, make the call at least 10 days before your sale date to ensure that your Ad will appear in the same week as the sale. Sounds silly and an obvious thing to say but some deadlines are earlier than you imagine. It is important to have the good copy in your Ad and there are some important key words if attracting dealers & buyers alike, if you have the following items mention them - Tools, White goods, Toys, Books, Records, Bric a Brac, Collectables, Antiques, Furniture outdoor or indoor, good quality clothing.  If there are 20 sales on in your area on the same day, you want to attract as many people by giving as much detail as you can to attract the buyers.

The time of the sale can be advertised too, bear in mind that though you advertise a start time as 8am that doesn't mean that is when people will start arriving. If there are many sales in your area on that day, dealers & private buyers like to get to as many as possible as early as possible to grab the best bargains. Don't think they are being rude, it really is because time is important, the majority of your selling will be done very early in the morning. At my last sale I advertised the starting time at 7am, I had 2 callers 2 days before the sale and on the day buyers arrived from 6am. I didn't mind  being inconvenienced like this for one day of the year. If it really is not acceptable for you to have early bird callers, when placing your Ad don't give the house number, just the street and the suburb (but keep all the good keywords.) On the morning of the sale put balloons and signs up at the front of your house and around the local neighbourhood. If you do place signs on poles & lamp posts please remember to remove them afterwards. Great free signs can be downloaded from some American garage sale websites.

In Australia we also have some wonderful websites for advertising your sale for free. Go to a search engine and type in Garage Sales Australia. It is also a good idea to design and print off some flyers to be delivered into local letterboxes in the area. This is a great job for the kids to take on.

Because you will more than likely have a very early start on the day of your sale, you should try and be prepared the night before, ideally all that should need doing on the morning of the sale is to open the garage doors and place any items on the driveway that need to go out. It is so much easier if you and the buyer if everything is priced. I use sticky labels on most goods but remember not to use a sticky label on paper goods or items that can be damaged by the sticky residue that gets left behind when the label is removed. A tie on label will do better for these items or for books lay them out on a table like in a library with a large sign eg. Hard Backs $1, Paper Backs 50c.

Keep your prices fair and remember it is a Garage Sale not an antique store or Myers. If you are unsure what is a fair price to ask, eBay is a great way of sourcing prices achieved on line. Do a search on completed items. Remember that dealers will want to pay less than that if possible, they have to resell and make a profit too. It is your decision though on what you are prepared to accept.

Try to display your items neatly and to their best advantage. This give the buyer the impression that your goods have been cared for. It will also cut down on the amount of silly offers that will be made price wise. If your goods appear like you don't care, you will receive very low offers and this can be annoying. Also, don't throw a heap of similiar stuff in a box on the floor and hope that people will go through it. They probably will go through it and it will end up strewn everywhere, things will get damaged and could also cause someone to trip over something. You don't want a Lawsuit do you? Try to keep a clear walking track around your display tables.

Have plenty of bags and boxes available for buyers. There is nothing worse than hearing the smash of something on your driveway because your buyer was juggling to much on the way back to their car.

Prepare a float with plenty of 50c, $1 & $2 coins, if selling items for under 50c, include smaller value coins too. Have $5, $10 & $20 notes, your first buyer could well have a $50 note - it happens!  Don't keep your float in a tin, when you are head down & bum up the tin could easily disappear. A bum bag is perfect. Another important security tip is to make sure your home is locked up so that no one can access it whilst you are busy. As sad as it is, there could be shoplifters at your sale, keep an eye out and have plenty of helpers to do this too.

If your neighbours have left goods for you to sell on their behalf, write down immediately what you may have sold for them and the price paid, this will help so much at the end of the day when sorting out who's money is who's. 

So the day arrives and hopefully the weather is perfect and things will go smoothly. Garage sales can be a great way to meet up with local residents and make new friends too. Its amazing how you see familiar faces around but are unable to put a name to them, this is a lovely opportunity to get to know them better.

If you do find that people are making silly offers on your goods, don't be offended, it is the nature of the beast. Keep smiling, say No and usually a reasonable price can be negotiated so sharpen up your bartering skills. For the most part people are happy to pay the ticketed price if it is reasonable of course. If a dealer does start to build up a big pile of items in your garage, make sure you know exactly what is in the pile, don't be intimidated and negotiate a price accordingly.

Towards the end of the day, the decision can be made as to whether you want to carry any left over item back into the house. I usually box any left overs up and  donate to a charity, some charities will actually come and collect from you. You could also consider reducing prices even more just to get rid of the items or maybe even try selling them on eBay too.

Most importantly is to have fun and enjoy making some extra cash. It will be a tiring day but hopefully a financially beneficial one too.

Good Luck