After 11 years in our house in Cos Cob, Conn., my family has collected plenty of stuff we don’t need. Sick of storing it all, we decided a tag sale might be a good idea.
Unfortunately, our first sale, held on a Saturday in June as part of a streetwide tag-sale event, involved more hard labor than hard cash.
That night, we counted our earnings over pizza: $300. The gain wasn’t worth the amount of time we put into it. And it certainly wasn’t enough to fund the $1,200 sectional sofa I’d been eyeing for our den.
On top of that, we still had a garage full of items left unsold. Where had we gone wrong?
We decided to call in the big guns: tag-sale expert Angelica Ramirez, a professional organizer at Keep It Simple Services in Stamford, Conn.
“The last garage sale I had made a few thousand bucks,” Ramirez said.
We gave it a second shot earlier this month.
We prepped for two weeks, making signs, borrowing tables and bookshelves to display items — basically making everything as easy and alluring for the buyers as possible. We cleaned and sorted. We also added in some furniture, and per Ramirez, we listed some of the bigger-ticket items on Craigslist first, including two large pieces of furniture, which fetched $400 each, much more than they would have earned at a tag sale.
A few days before the sale, Ramirez came to our house and pulled all the tag-sale items out onto the driveway. She then reorganized everything inside our garage so it could still work if it rained on sale day. Last, we put bright pink tag-sale fliers on street signs, light poles, and on bulletin boards at local supermarkets, the library and the Y. We also placed ads on tag-sale Web sites, on Craigslist and in our local paper.
Ramirez arrived at 6 the morning of the sale and brought her assistant Nikki with her. They wasted no time pulling things out of the garage, grouping items on tables, folding shirts and sweaters and bundling curtains and placemats with pretty ribbons.
To really entice shoppers, she suggested we put out coffee and sell bottled water and homemade baked goods.
Our signs made a difference. The staging worked, too — stuff that hadn’t sold well before, like clothing and books, was suddenly selling like hot cakes.
At the end of the day, we’d netted $475, and combined with the things sold on Craigslist, our tally was $1,475. The fee for Ramirez, whose day rate is $700, came out of that amount, but it was well worth it.
This time around, thanks to her help, all we’re left with are profits to sink into that nice new couch.
HOW TO HOLD A TAG SALE LIKE A PRO:
★ Two to three weeks before: Collect all tag-sale items for sorting, organizing, dusting and pricing.
★ One week before: Prep supplies (boxes, bins, poster board for signs, markers, price tags, ribbon, scissors, plastic grocery bags for purchases, clothing racks, bookshelves and tables), pick a location and check with your town about permits and signage rules.
★ Three to four days before: Start advertising. Make and post signs and place ads in your local newspaper as well as on Craigslist, garagesalehunter.com and yardsalesearch.com.
★ The day before: Stage and price the tag sale and prep the bake sale: Group items for highest impact, hang or fold clothes, package small items such as craft supplies in clear zipper bags. Price everything, get change (about $20 in small bills and coins), prep the coffee station and bake the bake-sale items.
★ Sale day: Put on some nice music, make final adjustments to your staging and get ready for shoppers. By the end of the day, you will be ready to do some shopping of your own!