Garage sale or donate to charity?

[MedCruise07]

I would like to get rid of some of the clutter in the house and am weighing the pros and cons of a garage sale. I don't have a lot of big items, mostly children's clothes, books, toys, etc. A few pieces of furniture but not a lot. Garage sales around here actually don't attract a lot of people, unless you have furniture. On the other hand, getting something for the stuff is better than letting it collect dust in the house. My other option is to donate the stuff to charilty (such as the salvation army). Does anyone know how I would estimate how much of a tax benefit I might get?

 

[roselark]

Garage sales don't do well in our area. We only made $30 on our last one, so this year we are donating everything we want to get rid of, unless we really think we can sell it.

Here is a good list for determining value for tax purposes.
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/itax/edit/news/stories/news_20000107a.asp

 

[kowalchicky]

DONATE YOUR STUFF......I just sat out in 90 degree weather yesterday during our yard sale which we decided WE WOULD NEVER DO AGAIN....

 

[pakhowe]

Have you looked into resale shops in your area? If the clothes are in good shape they may buy them from you and resell them.

We just had a yardsale last weekend. Didn't do great, the kids made a couple of bucks for Disney (I told them whatever they donated to the sale I would give them the $ if it sold, helped clear out lots of old toys and junk ). Now that all our stuff is pulled out into one area it will be easier to pack it up to donate it. We only give the yardsale thing a one weekend try then donate it right away. Once I decide to get rid of stuff I don't want it hanging around.

Good luck.

 

[ah1126]

You could do Craigslist.com or Freecycle.

 

[CTdiznymom]

Did a tag sale once and that was one time too many! I now box up my stuff, load it in the car, drive a few miles and get a receipt from our local Goodwill so I can write it off the income tax. I even keep the box handy so eveyone knows to discard what they don't wear or need right in the box.

 

[Todd&Copper]

It all depends on your area and how well yard sales do there. My neighborhood had had a community-wide yard sale every year since we moved in in 2005 and it always looks so dismal (very few buyers). I wouldn't bother, given that no one comes to a yard sale in my comminuty. However, there are some people on here that claim to have made almost $1000 on a yard sale, so someone is making money off of them.

 

[TenThousandVolts]

I give it all to Purple Heart or Sal. Army. If there are a few nice things in the mix I either pass down to a friend or cousin or ebay or craigslist it.

I have never really done a yard sale that worked out well.

 

[Melrosgirl]

Donate it.

Just did a 2 hour garage sale over the weekend and because our house is in the back of the neighborhood (this was a neighborhood garage sale), I had very little traffic. Total waste of time. I made $15 and I was gonna donate the stuff anyway, but decided at the very last minute to sell it since I had no plans for the weekend. Waste of time.

 

[imsayin]

I actually enjoy having garage sales. It's fun for me to see all my junk leaving my house. I had a sale a few weeks ago, made $400. I don't do one every year, I wait until I have enough stuff, and I always do it with friends or family to make it fun.

 

[zoemurr]

I actually enjoy having garage sales. It's fun for me to see all my junk leaving my house. I had a sale a few weeks ago, made $400. I don't do one every year, I wait until I have enough stuff, and I always do it with friends or family to make it fun.

We have a blast too..my girlfriends and I do it every year. I usually make about $200, and then the rest is sorted and ready to go to Goodwill. (I usually save a few things for the sale again next year.) But where I live sales are HUGE. (I was at a neighborhood one last week where the police were called to direct traffic it was so crowded.) So I guess you just have to guage your area. I do mine at the beginning of the season so I have all those singles to go to more sales. Some of the good stuff that didn't sell I put on Craigslist and it sold quickly.

 

[overlyspoiled4sure]

We love to do garage sales. Unfortunately, they're hard work for very little return on your time.

We prefer to have things sorted by type & to hang as many clothing items as possible. We feel it's easier for customers to flip thru hanging clothes than digging in piles on tables or the ground. Besides, I HATE to dig when I go to a sale. A tip we discovered while going to sales was to drape ropes over the rafters in the garage & hang a pole between. Perfect clothes rod! Then we separate into girls/ladies/boys/mens clothing & if we have the time, we'll even separate each section by size.

DD even puts toys in plastic bags so parts stay together & kids shopping with their moms don't play with them.

At our local home repair store (like home depot/mennards) we purchased saw horses & plywood boards to use as tables. We store the boards on their sides by a wall in the & the sawhorses flatten so they don't take up that much space.

We save plastic grocery bags for our sale & a week or 2 ahead of time, we start putting aside change so we don't have to go to the bank.

Lots of work, but fun too, especially if you can get a few neighbors in on it. The more the merrier.

When your sale is over, everything's ready for SVP or GW to pick it up & haul it away. They're picky now though; they wouldn't take my typewriter with stand one year. Made me happy because I wasn't wanting to get rid of it!

So the gist of this post is to have a sale & donate when it's over! Have fun!

 

[imsayin]

DD even puts toys in plastic bags so parts stay together & kids shopping with their moms don't play with them./QUOTE]

I must say, this is my pet peeve. I know it comes with the territory, but little kids can mess up all your nicely organized tables.