Running a garage sale to clear a house

A garage sale looks like the answer to a full house: someone else carries the stuff away and hands you money for it. What it really does is move volume fast, if the sorting happens before the tables go up. Skip the sorting and you've spent a Saturday selling a lawn mower and still have a garage full of junk.

Sort first, price second

Everything on the tables should be clean, complete and working. Broken things go in the trash before anything is set out, not into a free box — a table of junk teaches people to dig and haggle and leave the good stuff alone. Do a hard pass through the garage and make three piles: sale, donation, trash. The trash leaves the property before the first table comes out.

Price by the box, not by the teacup

You are not running a shop. Put one price on a whole box of kitchen odds and ends, one on the coffee table, one on the tote of kids' clothes. Write it on masking tape so nobody has to ask. Have small bills and coins for change and a cash box you can carry. Expect every price to be talked down, and set it a little high so the talk-down feels like a win for them.

Layout does most of the selling

Big things go near the street, where people can see them from a slow-moving car and decide before they park. Small valuables go near the table where you're sitting. Nothing goes back inside the house — the moment something goes in that door, it's a decision you haven't made. A free box at the end of the driveway pulls people in and clears the last of the small stuff.

Check these before the date

• Whether your town requires a permit or limits sale days and signs
• Where signs are allowed — some places ticket them on utility poles
• Enough change and a lockable cash box
• A second person, so one of you can sit with the money
• A tarp or a rain date
• Donation drop-off hours for the same afternoon

The last hour is the whole point

Late in the day, everything left goes to half price, then to free. Say it out loud to the people still standing there. The goal isn't the last few bills, it's a driveway you can sweep. Load the donations the same day, before you sit down — a pile that sits in the garage becomes next year's sale.

Some things don't belong on a table

Mattresses, torn or smoke-smelling upholstery, old tube televisions, encyclopedias, pianos and anything with a frayed cord will not sell and will cost you a trip later. Don't put them out at all. Deal with each of those separately, before the sale, so they aren't sitting in the driveway at the end of the day.

The mistake is holding a sale to make money and then not being able to let go of what's left. If the garage has to be empty, price it to move and take the first reasonable offer. The money is a side effect; the empty room is the job.