Sorting tools in a garage or workshop

The garage is the last room most people clear, and it's the one full of stuff that looks like it's worth something. Tools are heavy, some are sharp, and half of them came from somebody's father. You can't sort them the way you sort clothes.

Clear the floor before you judge anything

You can't make decisions standing in a narrow path between piles. Pull it all out onto the driveway or the open floor and put it in rough groups: corded power tools, battery tools, hand tools, garden tools, paint and chemicals, and the mystery box.

That last group is real. Give it a limit — one box. Anything you can't identify after a quick look goes in, and you deal with the box last, when you've already made a hundred decisions and know what you actually care about.

Hand tools go as sets, not as singles

One rusty adjustable wrench isn't worth listing. Forty pounds of wrenches, sockets and screwdrivers in a box is a real item to somebody setting up a first shop. Sort like with like — pliers together, screwdrivers together, sockets together — and sell the groups.

Keep one of each thing you'll honestly use again. The third pair of vise grips isn't a spare, it's clutter with a handle.

What to check on a power tool before it goes in the sell pile

• Does the motor run without a burning smell or a grinding noise
• Is the cord intact, or taped, or missing a ground pin
• Does the switch click off crisply when you let go
• Are the guards, fence and miter gauge still with it
• Does the brand still make that battery

Why cordless tools lose their value first

Old cordless drills are the hardest thing in the garage to move, because the battery is dead and a replacement costs more than the tool. If the brand still makes that battery, say so in the listing. If it doesn't, sell it as a body for parts and price it that way.

Corded tools from the seventies and eighties often sell better than people expect — cast metal bodies, simple to repair, a brand name on the casting. Look up what they actually sold for, not what people are asking.

Paint, gas and chemicals are not garage sale items

Paint, thinner, pesticides, pool chemicals, and any gas can with fuel still in it go to a household hazardous waste drop-off. Your county or city runs them on set days, and they usually want things in their original containers with the label readable.

Don't pour anything down a drain, don't put it in the trash, and don't leave it on the curb with a free sign. Somebody's kid will find it.

The bench and the big iron

A heavy bench, a vise, a table saw, a jointer, a welder — these sell, but the buyer has to move them. Say the weight if you know it, how many steps there are, and whether a truck can back up to the door. Photograph the data plate with the model number on it.

Small parts are one lot, not forty listings. Nails, drill bits, sandpaper, half a box of deck screws: bag them, box them, sell the box, or hand it to whoever buys the bench.

Don't plug in a tool that sat in a damp garage for ten years just to see if it works. Cracked insulation and old wiring bite. Let the next owner take that risk, and tell them the history so they know what they're getting.