Garage sales are great, aren’t they? There’s something about perusing the offerings of someone who is trying to clean out their home that can fill you with a sense of possibility. When you go to a store, you usually know the kind of stuff you’ll find, but at a garage sale, it’s easy to be caught off guard and find a hidden gem.
Now what if you want to hold a garage sale of your own? Maybe you’re performing your annual spring cleaning, or you’re moving soon and have way too much stuff to bring with. Whatever the reason, you have stuff that needs to go now.
But if you live in an apartment or a condo, chances are you might not have a garage available. Are you simply out of luck?
Not quite. Your unwanted stuff might still find a new home if you have an online garage sale! If that’s a new idea for you, don’t worry, Central Self Storage is here to walk you through it. We’ve put together a helpful guide on how to hold an online garage sale, the best online garage sale apps on the market, and other useful information that will hopefully make your sale clean and easy.
Let’s get started.
What’s an Online Garage Sale App?
You are one smartphone away from your first steps towards an online garage sale. Two of the best online garage sale apps for getting started are OfferUp and VarageSale, the former allowing you to expedite the process by simply putting up pictures of items with descriptions, and the latter allowing you to list multiple items in quick succession, with just a price and short description to match. Both of these will connect you with prospective buyers looking to see what you’re selling.
If you’ve ever used Facebook Marketplace, you know it also has great potential for making a sale of just about anything, and it has a great algorithm for putting your items in front of the eyes of people who might want it.
It’s worth noting, before we continue, that if you ever need to meet up with someone through one of these apps for an exchange, tread carefully, meet in a well lit area surrounded by other people, and if necessary, bring a friend to accompany you. Your safety is worth more than the cash you’ll make selling a bookshelf.
Set Yourself Up For Success
Before you go gung ho on your Craigslist online garage sale, do the legwork of setting yourself up for the best returns on your belongings. Just because you don’t want them anymore, doesn’t mean they’re worth nothing.
Research Prices
Especially for novelty items like trading cards, old comics, and video games, take a quick detour to the internet to make sure you’re pricing all your belongings fairly. Too high, and you risk turning away even the most hardcore buyer, but too low and you stand to lose a lot of money that would otherwise go in your wallet. Make sure you know what your stuff is worth, and price accordingly.
Make Each Post Appealing
When selling online, you usually need an accompanying picture and description for each item. This doesn’t need to be a complicated process. For your pictures, make sure it’s well-lit and captures the entire item you’d like to sell. The description should be simple, but informative, outlining every meaningful detail. Don’t leave out any important information for the sake of securing a sale, you will feel it later if your online reputation is ruined through negative reviews and no future buyers want to make any purchases from you.
Let Central Self Storage Be Your Garage
You can have the best pictures and descriptions in the world, but without a place to neatly store your belongings, you may be stuck. Fortunately, Central Self Storage has an answer, especially for those planning a sale in California, Arizona, and Idaho.
A storage unit is an ideal alternative to a garage. Many of them have drive-up accessibility, plenty of space for all your belongings, around-the-clock security measures in place for your safety, and climate control options so your belongings aren’t subject to the elements while you’re away.
In lieu of not having a garage of your own, let us function as your garage. We don’t require any long-term commitments, so if you plan to be wrapped up with your online garage sale in a month, self storage could be a perfect solution. We’d be honored to help make this new process as painless as possible, so you can be well on your way to a decluttered life and home!
