Perhaps your neighborhood is planning a big garage sale before winter comes, or maybe you’re taking time to start gathering, cleaning, and pricing items for a big sale next spring. For parents, it can sometimes seem impossible to try and organize for a garage sale with kids underfoot. We all know how they suddenly are attached to that toy you were planning on selling–even though they haven’t noticed it’s been in storage for years.
Instead of trying to work when the kids are in bed, or finding ways to keep them “out of the way”, find ways to include them with Junction City Mini Storage. Depending on their age, it could be a time of working on money math and handwriting while pricing tags, finding things to fix and sell for a profit, and other entrepreneurial skills.
1. Let the kids plan a food and beverage stand
A great way to maximize the profit of a garage sale is to offer food and refreshments for sale during the morning. In the fall, we have had success with hot chocolate in a crock pot and cookies. Our favorite, quick recipe for garage sale sweets is these cake mix cookies–people love them! In the hotter spring and summer months, you can offer the ever-popular lemonade, or you can mix it up by offering things like iced tea and iced coffee. For treats, you can do bags of popcorn, fresh fruit, peanut butter sandwiches (for those parents who are trying to shop with hungry kids!), or brownies.
This is a great time for kids to learn things like greeting customers, working with money and fractions, and addition. To take it to the next level, let them grocery shop for supplies with you and reimburse you for the supplies’ cost.
2. Set up a “pet adoption”
Many younger childrens’ rooms are exploding in stuffed animals, so let kids set up a “pet adoption” center at your next garage sale. They can display their stuffed animals, and even include fun “extras” to encourage buyers, like beaded collars and “adoption certificates”. Make sure to price them reasonably, so that shopping parents won’t mind dropping a few bucks for the stuffed animals their kids just have to have.
3. Creating colorful and fun signs
Let the kids help create some really fun and colorful posters to attract customers to the garage sale! You can write the outlines of letters on the board, and let them color inside them. They can also find pictures of some of the items and foods they will be selling in magazines and paste them onto the board.
4. Offer incentives for sales they are able to make on their own
Give your older kids their own money box (if they are old enough to be responsible for it–which may be earlier than you’d think!) and offer an incentive to the kids to try and double or triple the amount of loose change you provide in the box.
This encouragement to pursue customers and wager deals may spark a flame in your kids, and they may find that they enjoy engaging customers, making a sale, or participating in bartering. All of these abilities will only serve them well as they prepare to enter into the adult world!
A garage sale is a great way to involve the whole family in a learning activity that also clears out the house and makes some extra money. Using these tips, your kids can learn the value of money, how to handle it, how to treat customers, and how to make a profit. We guarantee that this positive experience with money will be an important building block in your child’s healthy relationship with money.
At Self Assured Storage, a Junction City mini storage facility, we can come alongside you in preparing for the biggest and most stress-free garage sale experience you can imagine! Our professional and knowledgeable staff are ready to assist in storing extra belongings until the big day, freeing up space in your house and taking stress off your plate. Give us a call today to check out our storage spaces and find out how we can assist you!
