Many times when decluttering a home, it’s easy to think, “I need to store this in the garage and have a garage sale in a couple of months.”
And it’s a tempting thought.
Possible Benefits of a Garage Sale or Yard Sale
Here are a few situations where you might find it useful to have a garage sale.
1. Moving sale
A moving sale is a bit different from a garage sale–typically, you’ve already removed the stuff you’re taking with you to your next home, so all that’s left is the discarded clutter.
A moving sale opens your whole home up as a shopping center for people to peruse and make offers on the spot.
No planning, no organizing, no change, and no pricing. And there are fewer things to haul off as trash, because someone might grab it for a couple bucks.
I’d suggest you have a few friends over to help you run the sale–make a whole party of it with snacks, drinks, music. Let your friends know if you have any particular items that you have a hard minimum on, then let it roll.
2. For expensive items
If you have a huge collection of expensive items that would take way too long to list on eBay, maybe a garage sale makes sense for you. This works best for large, valuable pieces. As soon as you’re sorting tiny things into 50 cent and 75 cent boxes, a garage sale isn’t worth it.
3. Learning opportunity for kids
If you have the time, energy, and emotional capacity to host a garage sale and bring your kids along the way, it could be a great teaching moment! They could learn how to organize, use a pricing gun, make change and handle cash, learn the value of a dollar, emotionally process watching their toys leave, etc.
Not many of us are in the position to have both children and free time, but I’m sure someone is! There’s also the possibility that you just truly enjoy the process of preparing for and hosting a garage sale. If so, rock on with your socks on!
But let me give you some reasons why you shouldn’t have a garage sale.
Why Not To Have a Garage Sale
This list will be a bit longer.
1. You still own the stuff
Having a garage sale means all the clutter you’ve been working to get rid of isn’t actually gone.
It’s stored.
Which means it can still make you feel guilty! Guilty for still having it, guilty for not having a garage sale yet. Guilty for STILL taking up so much space.
You do all the work of decluttering without the satisfaction afterward–you’ve just converted the type of stress you get from it.
2. Your time is more valuable somewhere else
The amount of time and ENERGY that goes into preparing for and hosting a garage sale could be spent doing ANYTHING else. Spending quality time with your loved ones, focusing on hobbies, finishing that book you’ve been meaning to read–or decluttering the rest of your house!
3. Garage sales take more work than they pay
The last time I had a garage sale, this is how it went down…
- Decluttering–the only thing I ACTUALLY needed to do. I could have been done here.
- Take boxes to the garage where they will take up space for six months.
- Advertise for the sale and hope people will show up.
- Make signs.
- Get change from the bank.
- Set up tables and canopies.
- Organize everything.
- Price it all.
- Work the sale–stressing about people stealing, kids wrecking the displays I’d worked so hard on, while people try to haggle unfair prices that make the effort even LESS worth it.
- Pack everything up and donate what’s left… Which is usually about 70% of what you started with.
Time spent: 3 full days! Not even counting the decluttering.
Money earned: $120
My income: $5/hour
By the end of the day I was so exhausted we ordered pizza.
So is five bucks an hour followed by a subpar dinner worth it? For most of us, no. It’s not.
And this was just my experience–I have friends who take weeks, months, or even more between the time they’ve “decluttered” to the time they actually host a garage sale. They’re probably not even making 5 cents per hour.
After a declutter, you’ve already worked through all the emotions of letting things go. Why put yourself through that again when you set the sale up?
And again when someone buys the item?
Or when no one buys it and you have to box it up for donation anyway?
That’s dealing with decluttering stress three times more than necessary.
Instead, just let it go. Let it go the first time. Make a practice of taking your decluttered items directly to the car and dropping them off at a donation site next time you are running errands.
Alternatives to garage sales.
If you’re in the space where you don’t want to have a yard sale, but you also don’t feel good dumping everything at a thrift store chain, here are a few ideas.
1. Consignment
Bring nice clothes to somewhere like Plato’s Closet to sell on consignment. Let someone else do the work for you, and get a little coinage in the process.
2. Donate mindfully
Donating your usable items is a great way to declutter and do a little good for your community. Instead of dropping it all at one Goodwill or Salvation Army, consider non-chain charities.
Homeless shelters have a big need for clothes.
Domestic abuse shelters can use furniture and other items that would help someone start a new life from scratch.
When I decluttered my bathroom closet, I had a lot of unopened and sample size products that I brought to my neighborhood pantry, where anyone can leave or take items. I was telling myself I’d eventually use them, but the likelihood of that happening before they soured on the shelf was low, so I’m much happier that one of our homeless neighbors can utilize those things.
3. Sell items individually
For bigger value items, you might sell them individually or in bundles (for example, all of your decluttered pots and pans for one flat payment) somewhere like Facebook Marketplace.
I recommend getting this done QUICKLY, and setting a cut-off date for yourself. If it isn’t sold by X amount of time, donate it.
Garage Sale VS Donate
Here are the strengths of each.
Reasons to have a garage sale
- you might make a couple dollars, and if you have lots of time on your hands and a financial goal, any little bit can help!
- if you find it fun
Reasons to donate everything
- get it all out of the way immediately
- significantly less stress
- bigger feeling of accomplishment post declutter
- passing on some good to your community
- you won’t lose your declutter momentum!
How you dispose of your unwanted items is ultimately up to you, of course, but if your main goal is to declutter your home and simplify your existence, a garage sale is NOT a step in that direction.
What do you think? Do you feel garage sales are worth the effort? Leave a comment below and let me know!
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All of these reasons seem to only apply to lazy people. No offence. There are plenty of reasons why garage sales are so worth having. I will give you one big one. It is an excellent opporrunitg to network, socialise, and get to lnow your neighbours and members of your community. Stop being lazy and unorganized.
I agree
Perhaps Ryan, you haven’t been around people who have a house full of stuff and are paralyzed when they think about the work it will take to get rid of it.
Most of it does have value, often antiques or vintage items. But because they know it has value, they just set it aside to sell, but are too busy to put time into selling the items.
Often, too busy trying to organize it so they can live in their space.
Sadly, all the “valuable” items will be there crowding them out of their home for the rest of their lives and then their children will have to face the immense job of getting rid of it.
These “valuable” items will have stolen most of their parent’s time away.
There is no monetary value worth that.
When someone has that much stuff, having a garage sale will only hinder them getting rid of anything.
Well said!
Exactly Rachel. Thank you for saying what I feel about even joining a neighborhood yard sale. Paralyzing and overwhelmed. Not an easy task.
Agreed; it would also be wasteful to just throw away items others may need or want simply because it’s “too much effort.” Even donating it would be better. If something is truly trash, however, it should be discarded immediately. But If I could make an extra couple hundred dollars in a single afternoon selling junk I didn’t want, I’d be thrilled. And I agree that it’s a nice way to socialize with your neughbors and teach kids about money.
How is it wasteful if you donate the unwanted items to a thrift store? That way, the items still go to people who need them, someone else does the selling for you, and the money goes to whatever cause the thrift store sells for! Where is the “waste” issue with that?
Stop being judgmental.
If it is a great way for you to socialize, go for it. Of course you could socialize at he charities to which you donate your unwanted items.
I have to disagree I don’t think it is being lazy for me and others in my community it is a safety issue- I never see yard sales here in Chicago anymore as it was a way criminals used to case peoples homes and evaluate the level/price point of goods inside the home (ie- I am selling some Burberry scarfs probably have lots of high end items). Many people were burglarized after these sales. I am not sure what the situation in the suburbs or other communities is like as I live in downtown Chicago but that is my two cents and why I never have one and haven’t seen any here in over a decade.
I take my high end items to consignment or eBay and donate everything else.
If all my days were spent twiddling my thumbs and binge-watching TV with nothing else to do, I might agree with the laziness view especially when I am physically capable of doing the work. But with a VERY busy schedule of family and volunteer activities almost every weekend, I truly don’t have the spare time to plan and organize a garage sale. I had 2 sales several years ago and they were fun, but I remember thinking “never again!” when they ended. For the past few months I had 2 full bags of my clothes and purses sitting on the dining room floor while I pondered having a garage sale. Yesterday, I finally came to my senses and took them to Goodwill while running other errands. I was tempted to peek in the bags to see if there might be something to keep, but I resisted. After donating them I feel free with no regrets. There comes a time!
Gimme a break. I am neither lazy or unorganized. I simply want to live a simpler life in my golden years. And, by the way, your post WAS offensive. And….learn to spell.
I agree
I agree with this article. Not because I’m lazy. I’m the kind of person who would actually enjoy the work and organization that comes with a garage sale. But I’m also a minimalist and when something stops being wanted in my home, it’s gone. So much less stressful that way.
all of the above and if you don’t end up selling everything, you still have crap left over to get rid of anyways.
Yes, when you have a lot of stuff. Like when you are moving. Lots of kids clothes will pull in a lot of money too. I price mine to sell. The last thing I want to do is move it. If you dont have enough stuff then no, I dont think it is worth it.
I used to save stuff for garage sales and then never ended up having garage sales. We ended up doing something even weirder: a local church would rent parking spaces once a month for a big community garage sale for $5 a piece. We did that for 4 months, hauling stuff back and forth with very little to show for it. I finally decided that I’ll take some plum pieces and put them on ebay or craigslist and the rest gets donated or thrown out. It makes more money and more sense.
While the idea of a garage sale is nice, I agree that it usually isn’t worth the effort – and I DON’T agree about having one to help with a debt snowball; unless you are getting rid of really nice stuff and live in a nice area, you won’t make enough to be worth it.
I agree with other posters: put nice stuff on Craigslist, eBay, etc and toss/ donate the rest. While donating is a nice idea, often it isn’t worth the hassle of separating which items can be donated to which place and getting them there while the places are open – to me, its usually easier to toss it once I’ve decided to get rid of it.
Although I agree with you on most of your points, I don’t agree with tossing things in the trash. Many of times the people who work at the donation places are recovering addicts, and they find it therapeutic to go through items and decide what to keep and what to toss. Also, it helps create a job too! Unless it is obvious trash, I usually drop it off at a donation center. Just my two bits.
I mostly agree…unless you have children. We had our first garage sale last summer, and our kids loved it. It was a great way to get them to purge stuff while learning about sales/marketing/finances. It also provided a way to interact with a diversity of people, as well as meet others in our neighborhood. We ended up giving stuff away to some very low income families who came, so it was a good opportunity to practice compassion and giving. We had a refreshment stand, so that brought in a cooking and serving angle – baking cookies, making Italian sodas (which required taking customers’ orders).
I disagree. Last year I made $1300 in about a week and a half selling clothes, home decor and small appliances between garage sale and resale places. I did this all by being a bit strategic after spring cleaning. We have been minimizing for about two years.. So we had stuff that needed to go. After we put the junk on the burm for city recycling/pick up – I used the rest of my evening collecting and organizing everything I would sell furniture/appliance wise in a few hours. I have two growing kids so every few months as I wash clothes, I sort stained to small clothes out of the non stained clothes and donate the stained, keep the non- stained to small. They are clean, folded, sorted. I do the same with my husband/my clothes. After spring cleaning (usually May) I wait for the first forecasted nice weekend to schedule my sale. In the week leading up I drop the kids clothes off at a resale place, our clothes off at another resale place. They sort, fold and buy what they need. This is where I made a good portion of my money. They call when it’s ready, I picked it up right from them on the day of my sale and put it right out on tables. I priced as I went. Really simple either 50 cents or a dollar on most things. Priced accordingly on small appliances/furniture. No 75 cents, no quarters. Keep the math simple. I sold a lot of appliances/furniture and made another large portion of my money in those sales. We sold for all Saturday and Sunday morning. After the church crowds (my house is within a block of two churches) and lunch – we wrapped up and anything unsold went right to Easter Seals Good Will. Now this type of income is not to be expected but the year before when I only sold baby/kids clothes I made $300 – and I used only the same effort I would for spring cleaning/laundry folding and sorting up till the week of. This year I will do it again. I have substantially less to sell do to our process of minimizing but I still have plenty of kids clothes from my kids that don’t stop growing. Having a good plan and keeping it simple – makes it doable. And I agree I loved chatting w my neighbors and the little old ladies. Maybe as years pass it won’t seem worth the effort – but while we still have things to get rid of, I’ll continue on.
I enjoy having garage sales. I live in a great area and always gets lots of traffic. I also invite friends to bring their things over, making a better sale and getting to spend time with them, too. However, I usually make about 3x the amount you quoted and we are working on our debt snowball 🙂
I find that it is not worth the time and effort to have a yard sale – but I have not had big ticketed items either. I rarely brought in $100, and rarely did I really meet and connect with people. Our neighborhood would have a community yard sale, so all of the neighbors were either selling their stuff or not interested in going to one. I don’t think that it is lazy to pack up your things and donate it to those in need. It takes less time and blesses those that cannot afford the items that you might have. Donating frees up my time so that I can continue to declutter and I can take a tax credit which usually gave me more back then I would make at my yard sale.
I have been reading your blog, getting motivated to clean out my garage. I asked a friend over last Saturday and was ruthless. We had so much stuff to get rid of in the drive-way that instead of moving it, I decided very last minute to do a garage sale. The only advertising I did was on craigslist, an email to the local mom’s group and to my neighbors at 10PM the night before. I decided to throw a tarp over everything in the drive way and not to price anything (too much work). I simply woke up, staged the items a bit (on tables) and was open for business. I went in with the mind set that if someone is looking at it to give them a price they couldn’t refuse. I gave a lot of stuff for well under what I could have gotten just because I wanted it gone. I didn’t want to move it back into the garage or lug it to the donation center. I sold 80% of what I put out (because of that mentality) in 6 hours, with no prep and made $997. I made $166 an hour. I can’t think of many jobs were I could make that- not any clean ones anyway. So yes, if done with minimal effort with the intention to get rid of stuff and not trying to get the most for everything you sale, I say it is well worth it! My husband can now park the car in the garage. I thank you for the motivation!!!!
Wow Deborah- that worked out great! I’m sure your outlook helped tremendously!
I recently had a garage sale and teamed up with a friend as I knew I didn’t have a lot of stuff to attract big crowds (I normally purge as I go)
I made a whooping $68. The reason? When someone said, how much? I said, $2! Just to get it out. The higher ticket items were priced and didn’t sell. I donated the crap then put the stuff I thought I could make a bigger buck off of, back in the garage so I could sell it online. Yep, still sitting there and the garage sale was six weeks ago. Not worth it. No one wants my crap either!
If you enjoy the sport of a garage sale, it can help and energize you to get rid of stuff. If I think I can make a little money from my clutter, I get rid of it quicker. It is hard work, but the reward of the $$ made has pretty much always been worth it. I donate plenty and I give away a lot, so I don’t feel bad selling a little bit of it.
I totally agree – most people either plan to have a garage sale but never get around to it, or only make pennies when they do. As I’m decluttering or organizing around the house, if I find something that needs to go, it immediately goes into a bag in my trunk so I can drop it off at the thrift store the next time I’m in the area. Or it goes into the trash – thrift stores don’t want junk any more than anyone else does
Thinking you’ll have a garage sale (and then not following up) can build up tremendous guilt – guilt over how much you paid for something or that you never use the ugly sweater that your aunt gave you. It’s much more freeing to get rid of it quickly and let go of those guilty feelings.
Thanks for a nice perspective on decluttering!
I would rather give it to our thrift store that supports our local homeless shelter. They sell it for less than Salvation Army which gives low income people dignity that they can afford to bbuy from this store. The work involved for having a yard sale was fine when I had kds home to help, but now I just hurt my back hauling it around. I would rather just haul it once to the car! If you really want to make some money…post it on FB groups. Our church has one.
I agree with the article. My mom has been saving ‘stuff’ for a yard sale that she’s been planning since I was 10. I’m 36. She sees value/money to be made in EVERYTHING. As a result, her house is full of junk. She gets frustrated and overwhelmed, wanting a clean house, but she’s unwilling to part with her crap. Having to live in that (for the 8 years I did), and even visiting now when I have to turn sideways to get through the front door or move clusters of junk to have a spot on the buried sofa, makes me very willing to donate or throw away anything that doesn’t yield utter happiness when I see or use it. Now instead of a yard sale, my mother needs a dumpster… And an intervention.
When my uncle passed, it took 13 dumpsters to empty the clutter!
I’ve promised myself that I won’t do that to my daughter when I go. I live so bare and it’s liberating. That line of thinking came from helping my mother clean up two acres of stuff my father colleted,then a six bedroom house when my sister passed away suddenly. I vowed afterwards not to saddle my daughter with that much work
I would never have a garage sale if I only expected to make a couple of hundred dollars. Yes, for a “profit” (not really) of $120.00 a garage sale makes no sense. But for a large amount of items with the anticipation of making $1,000.00 or more it is totally worth it. Good advertising coupled with good weather and decent stuff and one can make very big $$$.
Well the $1,000 I made at my last garage sale was definitely worth it….
There are some very good reasons why not to have this sale. I’m definitely showing your post to my sister, who wants to organize my garage sale. I’m moving in a month and I just want to donate everything I don’t need and to finish with all that. I think it’s much better than trying to sell my items to some people who’ll come to look at them, make a face and pass by. It’ much better to give everything to people who will really need it. Thank you for sharing your experience. Greets!
I always donate items to the local thrift store. I cleaned out a closet – to the thrift store it goes. I purged the entire basement – to the thrift store it goes. That way it is done no matter how small or large the donation.
this is only letting me type in all caps. I apologize if it posts that way . . .
For those of us who have a hard time parting with things, this hit the nail on the head about garage sales:
“You’ve already worked through all the emotions of letting things go. Why put yourself through emotionally going through it again when you set the sale up? And again when someone buys the item?”
GARAGE SALES WERE JUST MY WAY OF MAKING IT FEEL BETTER TO GET RID OF STUFF I DIDN’T LOVE, WANT, OR COULD USE. SOMETIMES I MADE MONEY, SOMETIMES I DIDN’t. YOU REALLY ONLY MAKE MONEY IF YOU HAVE LARGE ITEMS TO SELL (WHICH IS WHAT MANY OF YOU SAYING YOU MADE $$ DID). OTHERWISE PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO PAY ANYTHING AT A GARAGE SALE. NOW I give things away, DO CONSIGNMENT stores, CRAIGSLIST FOR THINGS THAT CONSIGNMENT WON’T take AND DONATE THE REST. I WANT MY NICE ITEMS TO GET USE BY SOMEONE ELSE, BUT I DON’T NEED TO PUT MYSELF THROUGH THE EMOTIONS 3X OF DECIDING TO GET RID OF IT BY HAVING A GARAGE SALE. thanks for that insight!
As to Ryan’s comments, that’s not laziness. That’s understanding your limits. And I get to know my neighbors/community by hanging out with them when the kids are out playing, going to coffee, organizing bar-b-ques and other get togethers on our block, attending/serving in my local church, volunteering at my kid’s school. There are myriad ways to do that. Garage sales are but one.
Excellent! Thanks Amy!
I loved your post. I really found myself in it. I just want to donate and be done with it. My husband on the other side, wants to put stuff online for sale, and it takes months for it to be sold. Yes, we make little money out of it, but the satisfaction when we give it for free is priceless. I’m not rich, but I feel happy when I give a good used item to a needed home. Sometimes though, after I give it away to families who claim they need an item, they post it “for sale” and ask for money. That breaks my heart.
Well, I just hosted my first garage sale. We sold one item, beach umbrella, for $5. Talked to 4 people. One woman was interested in a necklace from a bag of jewelry. When she asked how much, I told her I’d give her the entire bag for $5 and she didn’t take it. No counter or anything!
Eventually, we got tired of roasting outside (I’m pregnant and my husband was sick) and just donated everything.
I wouldn’t bother doing it again. I marketed the heck out of it, too :/
I never had a garage sale BUT have been collecting items in the garage for the big sale slowly booting my cars to the drive way. Honestly, I don’t like them it’s just that I had a period of buying things good things (well to me) then would buy the next best thing for example I bought a Ninja the high end one then saw the vitamix got that … bye Ninja… bought a soda stream then bought a fridge with a built in soda stream… bye soda stream … carpet cleaner for the better cleaner… list goes on. So now I’m sitting here with a bunch of crap piled in my garage for the infamous garage sale for the past 6 yrs. I waited so long that I finally went out to garage and rodents got into the garage and some of these “prized possession” are now pooped on even found two dead rats (oh my bejeezus)z. This all ended my so called early spring cleaning and visions of “The Big Sale”. So I’m really like to heck with the garage sale and donating I never seen a rodent that close to my living quarters but if I would have just had the same when I decided mAny moons ago I would have had clutter free garage instead of envying my neighbors who have immaculate garages. I think my lesson learned is if the energy and time really out weight what you can bring in trash it or donate. I was thinking I could have made at least 2k but I had stop kidding myself especially when you see something you were going to sell at the thrift store going for $19 and you were thinking maaaybe $35 but paid $145+. I have since stopped buying items like that and just purge.
I have had many garage sales. I have made money with some, but not with others. The last one I had gave me severe anxiety because of how many hours of pricing and organizing the stuff in the garage that I had to put in. If you find garage sales fun, and you don’t mind putting in all of the hours, then have a garage sale. However, time is more valuable to me than money. I already have a full time job, so I donate my things to local thrift stores.
I NEEDED THIS 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 THANK YOU FOR HELPING ME REGAIN MY PEACE! Very well said. I am so ready to move on!
Dear People, who seem to be angered by the line. It’s a tag line meant to get your attention not an attack on your personhood. It’s a story for those struggling with deciding what is the best way to accomplish within time and value’s what we can do. Replaying with our own stories on how we made our choices and the outcome is providing insight and support. Retorting may bring personal satisfaction. However is it really helpful?
Whether it is worth it depends on how much stuff you have to sell and where you are located. When I lived in a more upscale neighborhood I would periodically have a garage sale with quality items and on average made $600 in a weekend. Once for a combined youth camp fundraiser sale we made $1200 which paid for the camp bus. However, now that I live in a city with questionable safety issues I would never try to have one and also likely would not have customers willing to pay more than a dollar an item.
My husband loves to shop yard sales and bring home “prized possessions” from the dump. Meanwhile, this pack-ratted stuff takes up valuable real estate. So every few years he holds a garage sale, makes diddly-squat, wastes the whole day, and then pays to take the items back to the dump. I helped him once; that was it for me. I can’t stand people peering into the yard, wrinkling their nose, and then driving off empty-handed. I don’t understand the attraction to either purchase nor sell crapola.
No! I do not think garage sales are worth it. I just helped my grandpa run 3 or 4 of them. Mostly his stuff and it sucked! Hardly sold a thing most garage salers are just looking-loos. I am trying with my mothers help trying to convince him to donate a lot of his old stuff because my mother and I are both disabled and can’t drive and it’s in my grandfathers will for us to inherit his house and everything he owns! I don’t want any of it. He is 88 with failing kidneys so I know the grim reaper is just around the corner. So again, yes I agree. Not worth it.