Well, we did it! We had a two-day adoption fundraiser garage sale and the grand total was......
$1250!!!!!!
We just can't believe it! It was truly humbling and exciting to count the money on Saturday to see what God had given us. We are applying all of it to our adoption costs. It won't be much longer until Liam is here!!
I've had a few people ask for garage sale tips. I am NO expert, but I learned a lot in the process! Here are my thoughts:
-SET A DATE. Determine when you'll have the sale. Make sure there are no major community events going on that would detract from your sale. For instance, we have a huge Memorial Day rummage sale in town, and it would've been less successful to do it then. Obviously make sure there are no family conflicts.
-START EARLY. If you're doing this as a fund raiser, ask everywhere you can think of for donations. My church contributed most of the items in our sale. Shop your house and make ruthless decisions about what you're really using and what you can sell. Since we recently moved here, we didn't have a lot of clutter or extra items (we cleared out as we moved). However, Kurt and I both sold clothing and shoes. Your sale will have more traffic if you have a wide variety of items like furniture, clothing (of many sizes), BABY ITEMS, books, etc. If you're doing this sale for personal profit (not a fundraiser), you can still ask other families to contribute, but if they want their profits, they'll need to label their items (more on that later). You'll also need to keep track of it all at checkout. I started gathering and sorting about 2-3 weeks before the sale and did most of the hard work the entire week leading up to the sale.
-SORT. Once you have your donations, sort everything into categories. Sort clothes only by type (men's, women's, children's and baby). Sort toys together, household together, etc. This makes pricing a lot easier! We parked our cars outside the week before the sale and I worked out of the garage.
-PRICE. Okay, this is what I knew nothing about! Here's a pricing guide:
Toys - $.50-$1.00 for average sized toys, according to condition.
Baby gear - $5 or so for nice items like Exersaucers, bouncy seats. Varies according to what it is. We priced a very nice white crib/toddler bed that had all hardware for $50, because retail for that crib is $200+.
Household - $.50-$2.00 depending on condition and size of item. Lamps were $2-$4 depending on size. Decorative pillows were $1 each.
Clothes - This is the biggie. Save yourself a ton of time and headache by doing general pricing. Put up a sign that says "All clothing $1.00 unless otherwise marked." Only price the items that are name brand (Limited, Ann Taylor, etc.) and even then, only price them $2. I'm telling you from experience, you will not sell clothing for over $2 unless it's a rare circumstance. Men's big and tall items might go for $3. But you're saving yourself time by not putting tags on every item of clothing. If this isn't a fundraiser and different people want their totals tallied, everyone needs to put a sticker with their initials on EVERY item that is theirs.
-SET UP. Borrow tables from your church or rent them. Put everything out and keep like items together. Keep everything in your garage until the day of the sale. If the weather is nice on sale day, you can pull big and popular items out into your driveway. Fold clothing on tables, except for the nicer, trendy items. Put those on hangers and hang from a makeshift rack (you can use just about anything).
-ADVERTISE. Call the paper about two days ahead and place your ad. List your dates, starting time, address, and most importantly--your key items. Tell the ad person to use all caps on important words. Make signs to put on posts near your house and one for your mailbox. If this is a fundraiser, make a sign telling about the adoption. Make the words ADOPTION FUNDRAISER in huge lettering. My sister made our sign with Liam's picture and a Bible verse. We hung it on the check-out table so everyone could clearly see it.
-EXTRAS. We had a little girl from church who wanted to sell concessions for Liam. She made a sign as well and sold drinks for $.50-$1.00. Every little bit helps!
-SALE DAY. Make sure you have a safe system for money. Start with about $75 in $1's and $40-$50 in $5's. Have about $20 in change. Rope off your driveway if you don't want early birds. We had people show up at 6:30 AM, and they just stood behind the masking tape line, watching us set up things outside. Have SEVERAL PEOPLE working with you on the sale. Have at least one person at the money table at all times, and one person in the garage watching the tables and the door into the house. As people check out, have grocery and trash bags on hand to bag their items.
Whew! That's about all I can think of right now. If there are any questions, just leave a comment!
To God be the glory!
