Preparing for a Garage Sale 101

We've never had our own garage sale, yard sale, moving sale, etc. but we're about to embark on a mission that isn't as easy as it sounds.

First of all, we've been accumulating "stuff" for months now - before the move it was small things that might be worth something and now it's anything worth selling. We have more worthless stuff than I could ever imagine - however, I will say, most of it is fixtures, blinds, handles, etc. that we have replaced.

Second, I can't just throw everything out into the driveway and expect people to buy it so I've been trying to organize it buy household, electronics, clothing, accessories, etc. And, I've been saving boxes to put things in so it doesn't have to sit on the ground but how much time should it really take to prepare for a garage sale?!

Third, we're going to start pricing everything tonight but I'm faced with a dilemma - should we price high and make a deal or just price a little more than what we want? And, I happen to be married to the world's biggest deal maker who likes to "be nice" when people want to buy something. For example, we had this great refridgerator we were selling because we got a new stainless steel one. It was almond colored and had a broken shelf but other than that it works (well) and it has an ice maker with the ice and water dispenser on the front. We talked about selling it for $100 and when someone asked how much we wanted my sweet husband replies "Oh, I don't know, $50 or $100." Well of course the guy says ok 50, sold. Then when I arranged the pick up and got the money Craig gets mad that we only got $50. Well sweetheart, maybe you should have thought about the big gap in between $50 and $100 when you made the offer. So, I think I need to price really high if my husband is going to be involved in any of the sales.

Fourth, people must spend $40 just on advertising their sales and I'm not doing that. We live on a fairly busy road so I'm going to put a two-sided sign in the front yard that says "Garage Sale This Saturday" and a sign on the end of our street but I'm not driving all over town to post pink posters on every telephone pole. I may post it on Craigslist too since that's free.

So wish us, I mean me, a good Saturday because this should be interesting!