If you are serious about purging, stuff can start to pile up all around you.  It’s stuff you don’t want, but how do you get rid of it in a reasonable fashion without filling up your trash bin?  I do 4 things with my unwanted stuff:

1.  Garage Sale it–Most of my items end up here *(See the star at the end of the post to find out why I don’t just donate it.)

2.  Donate it–this is for items that I can’t put in a garage sale or I might hurt someone’s feelings, or for what’s left after our sale

3.  Consign it–This is for clothing and accessory items that are name brand, like new, and still in high style.  (I don’t have a lot of these types of things, but I’d like to try to consign some of my newer maternity clothes this year.)

4.  List it online–I sell online in 4 different venues:

Craigslist–for furniture and other things too big to ship

 Ebay–For collectibles and high value merchandise that is shipable

 Homeschool Classifieds–curriculum or other teaching aids

Etsy–Sewing patterns, craft items, handmade items, and fabric and notions stash

When you are purging things, have 4 boxes labeled:  Garage Sale; Thrift Store; Consign; and Sell Online.  Then place each item in the appropriate box.  Before you place the items in the garage sale box, have price tags ready to go. 

Price the item before it hits the box, then stack the boxes labeled garage sale in a corner of the garage.  I don’t know about you, but garage sale set up day always sneaks up on me and I’m rarely ready with my items priced.  Now that I have neat boxes of ready priced items, the only garage sale prep. I have to do is to lay out the items on the tables.

Now mark on your calendar:  When is your garage sale?  What day will you devote to listing your items online?  When will you visit the consignment store?  When will you drop off your items at the thrift store?

My new favorite way to make a lot of price tags quickly is to print them on Avery style address labels.  You can make templates at Avery.com and save them as PDF files to your hard drive so printing another page is fast and easy. I print entire sheets of $.10, $.25, $.50, and $1 tags with my initials on them.  It’s always a great idea to include a 2 letter initial code on your address labels, because the most effective (and fun) way to have a sale is with a friend.  When your tags are labeled with your code, it’s easy to tell who earned the sale at check out time.

*We have several garage sales a year and I usually make around $400 at each one.  When the sale is over, I donate what’s left to the thrift store.  It’s a lot of work to have a sale, but the cost benefits are worth it for my family.  I also view having a sale as a ministry.  Thrift stores tend to mark prices up so high that a person in need can’t afford it.  I like to give people a chance to buy the things at a reasonable price, and still have plenty to donate when it’s all done.  Plus I get to meet lots of neighbors and build connections with people in our area.