How To Lose Debt

Garage sales are not really generating wealth. They are converting wealth from a physical item like a sweater to cash in your pocket. It is “income” in a sense, because you can use the new found cash to offset expenses and pay down debt. I have both attended and held garage sales. The key to an effective garage sale is advertising, and pricing the items visibly and cheaply.

People who know garage sales well will tell you that no matter what time you say the garage sale starts, you will have customers half to one hour before that. Do you know why? Because all of the good stuff sells first. By the time the afternoon rolls around and everything has been picked through by one hundred people, there is nothing really left to purchase of any value.

We had an old clawfoot table once. Some of the claws were partially missing and the entire table needed resurfacing. It was a mess. We posted it for $50, knowing full well that it was worth some money but required a significant amount of TLC. It sold half an hour before the start time for the garage sale, and was carted away minutes later, long before the first “legitimate” customer arrived.

It always surprises me what does sell. For example, we held a garage sale once with some nice beer signs, some fairly rare, marked $10. They didn’t sell, but at the last minute we threw a box of old clothes out there, a pile of clothes in a box marked $1.00 per item. That box was the hottest thing in the garage sale, people were picking through it at the same time fighting over who grabbed the item first. Who knew?

You might consider hosting a garage or yard sale at your house and inviting your neighbors to participate. In garage sale standards, the bigger the better and to advertise a multifamily garage sale will bring more customers. You can separate the income by having different color price stickers.

Anyway, garage and yard sales are a good way to bring in a little extra cash to offset expenses or pay down debt. There is an added bonus, too. You get to de-clutter. How many times have you bought something new because you couldn’t find the one you had?

Now what was it you were going to do with that extra cash? Pay down debt, now you are getting it!