by Beks
My grandparents moved from Arkansas to California to live with my parents a few months ago. Since my parents live in a rural area and I live in the city, mom thought it would be a good idea to have a garage sale of her and my grandmother’s duplicated items at my house.
My mother flew in my sister, the family garage sale expert, from Kansas to help her assemble the wares. Yes, it was a pretty transparent excuse to get my sister to visit, but we didn’t mention it.
I haven’t hosted a garage sale at my home before and wasn’t sure if she would get the traffic she needed.
Judging from the stack of cash she had sitting on the kitchen counter…
My area is very garage sale friendly. Mom earned just over $1,000, my brother made $150, and I made $10.
Clearly, I didn’t keep a good eye on mom’s bookkeeping.
It was a learning experience and if I had anything to sell, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
Beks is a full-time government employee who enjoys blogging late into the night after her four kids have gone to sleep. She’s been married to Chris, her college sweetheart, for 15 years. In 2017, after 3 long years working the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps, they paid off more than $70K and became debt free. When she’s not working or blogging, she’s exploring the great outdoors.
After you factor in the transportation costs (esp from Arkansas!) it’s hard to believe anyone made any money, but decluttering alone is often worth it.
Often the goal in garage saling is to get rid of unwanted items, which can help to declutter your home or to help you save on moving costs. It sounds like you had an enjoyable experience, and that your garage sale was a success even if you didn’t come out with thousands of dollars.
Glad the garage sale was a success. Maybe Mom needed to cover that plane ticket, lol.
I had one years ago and netted over $500 in 4 hours; it was mostly baby stuff which tends to sell fast. (I chose to only work 4 hours-didn’t want to waste a whole Saturday, lol). I had one after that and then decided it wasn’t worth my time or effort to save stuff, price it, etc. Now, I simply donate my items (Goodwill or organizations to help special needs adults/children)or sell them on Craigslist.