Is that the floor of the garage I see?

Day 1

I've never personally hosted a garage sale. And I had no idea what to expect when Stef and I decided to host a garage sale to raise money for the 3-Day for the Cure.

We put out a call to friends and family, to see if they had "treasures" to donate to the "cause." And the response was great ...

But I didn't realize how great until we opened up on Friday. Unbelievable. We were busy from the time we opened the garage (8 a.m.) until we closed for the night (6:30 p.m.). I am so thankful that Keith's mom and dad insisted on coming over to help out for the day -- we would have been lost without them.

We more than tripled our expectations for the weekend. It was a wildly successful fundraiser for the 3-Day For The Cure, and we're so grateful.

I'll be honest though ... it was a TON of work. From the prep work (gathering stuff, cleaning it all, sorting it, pricing it) to the set up (hauling tables, lifting boxes) to the day-of work (on our feet for 12+ hours, dealing with the crazies ... "That's 50 cents" when the price tag clearly says $2.00). I was exhausted at the end of the weekend.

Some lessons learned:
1) Ask for donations. We heard a lot of "customers" comment about how much "good" stuff we had. We didn't have a lot of high-priced items, but we had nice stuff. That's because we asked our friends and family for their treasures. Some said they didn't have enough for a garage sale on their own; some said they didn't want to just give it away to an agency; others weeded through their home decor. No matter how it came in, it came in, and it was great stuff.

2) Look for all the promotions you can find. We advertised at work (free classified ads where I work), we put a listing on "gas station TV" (they do free charity listings: gstv.com), our city lists the sales online and distributes a weekly e-mail, we posted it on Facebook (thanks to all of you who reposted it!!) and the winner of the weekend: craigslist. I put photos of some of the things we had to sell on my blog and Stef put the link in the Craigslist posting. We got hundreds of hits. Unbelievable traffic.

3) Keep asking for donations. The sales on Friday were unbelievable, and we put out a call Friday night to see if anyone had anything they'd be willing to bring over. Thank you to those who responded ... it helped keep the sale "fresh" and your stuff sold!

4) Organize the sale by the traffic you expect. We learned that Friday is the "professional garage sale" day. We sold very few books, clothes and children's items. Saturday was "family day." We sold a TON of clothes, children's clothes and books. We caught on quickly and organized the garage and yard accordingly.

5) Price it to sell. Although we wanted to make money for the walk, we also wanted to get rid of all the stuff we had. We priced things appropriately, and didn't have trouble selling almost everything. Glassware: $0.25 a piece or 6 for $1.  Books: $0.50 a piece or 3 for $1. You get the idea.  We still had a lot of hagglers (more on Friday than Saturday), but it was all good.

Day 3

I know we were fortunate ... this was one of the first nice weekends of the spring, which made a big difference. We had a lot of people say this was the first garage sale of their season, so I think they were looking to buy.

So yes, it was a lot of work. A lot. But it was worth it.

If you're a walker, consider it, especially if you have friends and family you can call on for donations. If you're a supporter, consider donating to a walker -- although I'm loving that we can see the floor of the garage once again, I'll gladly cover it back up to store your "treasures" until the next time ....