Holding a garage sale with friends
Often, one single household by itself doesn’t always have enough unwanted goods to really hold a worthwhile garage sale. In this case, clubbing together with another household to run a combined garage sale is often a good way to go about it. Two families means twice as many hands to actually run the garage sale – a real bonus.
However, you want to stay friends at the end of the sale, which means you’ll need to sort out a few things beforehand.
· How will the money be divided? If you both have contributed roughly equally (both effort and items), then split the proceeds of the garage sale 50-50.
· If both or one household contributes a large item (or several large items), make a list of all these, along with the prices of each one. This way, you can keep track of how much money the original owner should end up with. If the item sells for less than the marked price, then make a note of this (keep a notebook). Don’t sell a nearly-new exercise machine priced at $50 for $25 without asking the original owner if this is OK with them first.
· What will happen to any items left over? Will they go back to the original owners or will the whole lot go to the nearest charity store – or will the items get packed away for another garage sale at a later date?
· How will you take care of yourselves during the sale? Who will provide the food and drink? It can be a good idea for one family to host the sale and the other to take care of the edibles – the host family will be the ones having to set up at the crack of dawn, so this is fair.
· Will any children need to be taken to sports matches, playdates, etc.? Arrange a car pool between you, if needed.