Moving Out of Your Memphis Apartment, Have A Garage Sale! Part One
Feb 2nd, 2008 by Memphis Apartments
Moving into a new Memphis apartment has tons of great advantages. But if you’re downsizing and moving out of a large house into an Memphis apartment, chances are there won’t be enough space to store everything you’ve accumulated over the years, even with the ample storage areas available in many Memphis apartment buildings. So what’s a person supposed to do? Two words: Moving Sale. Clear out the clutter so you can lighten the load on moving day and make a couple bucks in the process, too.
Whether it takes place in the garage or on the lawn, here are some useful tips to hold a great moving sale.
Like any part of the moving process, it pays to be prepared well in advance. Don’t start rummaging through your closets and crawlspaces the day before you plan to have the sale – as soon as you know you’re going to move, keep your eye out for items you think you’ll want to get rid of as you go along your daily routine and put these items in a separate box. Before you know it, you’ll have several boxes full of stuff ready to go weeks before your sale even takes place.
Don’t be too picky when deciding what to put up for sale, either – people will buy just about anything. After all, as they say, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.
However, for larger items such pianos, aquariums and pieces of furniture, you might try selling online through eBay, Craigslist, Kijiji or other similar auction/classifieds sites. People will be more likely to buy these larger items over the web than they will be at your moving sale, where most people are only interested (and capable) of picking up small trinkets and articles of clothing.
If you want people to come to your sale, they have to know about it first. Your ads don’t need to be anything fancy – it can be as simple as attaching signs to telephone poles at high-traffic intersections around your community. Just make sure that your signs are big and bright enough to be seen, and construct the sign to prepare for the elements – use cardboard to prevent the sign from blowing away and write in crayon, as opposed to marker, to ensure the lettering doesn’t become illegible if it happens to rain. Remember to drive by your signs to make sure they are visible – because if you can’t read them, nobody else will be able to either.
So what sort of information will you want to include in your ad? It’s important to be specific and concise (as you won’t have room on the ad to include a lot of information and still have it be legible). Be sure to mention specific clothing sizes and brand names (especially for children’s clothes) and list any big-ticket crowd pleasers (like antiques and other rare items you might have). When you set a date for your sale, make sure you start at the advertised time. If you’re not ready when you say you will be, chances are people won’t come back later in the day to look at your stuff.
Part Two will look at dealing with customers and how having a good attitude with them will allow you to sell more products at your garage sale, and in turn bring in more money to help you in that move to a new Memphis apartment.