Your Life. Organized.

10 Tips For A Successful Garage Sale

Spring is finally here and it’s a great time to de-clutter your life and home by having a garage sale either by yourself or with your neighbors. Even if you’ve never hosted a garage sale before, here are ten tips to make your event easy, fun and profitable!

1. Advertise online. Be sure to promote your sale online in advance. Sites such as GarageSales.com and Craigslist are great free resources to let people know about your event, as well as what kind of items you'll be selling. Got great tools, electronics or kids clothing? Say so!
   
   
2. Make good signs. Use bold color marker and make your print large enough so it can be seen from a distance as people travel by. Another tip about signage is to include the date on your sign so people know that it’s current and not an old leftover sign from last week.
   
   
3. Use as much space as possible. If you have a driveway use it to showcase items. Place a variety of mens', womens' and kids' items near the street and along the sides of your driveway leading buyers right up into your garage to see what other goodies you’re offering.
   
   
4. Merchandise by category. Make it easy for buyers to shop by grouping them into “departments” just like at a retail store. Arrange your items by clothing, books, power tools, games, toys and household items, for example. 
   
   
5. Sell cheap! Nobody cares that you bought that coffee maker for $35, all they care about is getting a deal today. Price items at a fraction of what you paid for them so they sell quickly. A good guide is to price items at 25% of the original cost.
   
   
6. Price by category or price by the entire lot. Rather than pricing every individual item, make things simple by hanging signs that say “All books $.50” or “All clothing $1.” Another way to simplify pricing is to sell small items as a “lot” such as an entire box of glassware, kitchen utensils, or toys for a single price.
   
   
7. Make price stickers visible. Help buyers out by putting your price stickers on TOP of your items instead of on the bottom. They’re easier to see and buyers won’t have to pick up each item to look on the bottom for a price.
   
   
8. Be safe with your money. Start with $100 in small bills to make change and be smart about handling your money. When things get busy and you’re distracted, it’s easy for the cash box to walk away, so instead of a cash box or drawer, wear a fanny pack. Alternatively, team up with a friend who can wear the fanny pack and act as your cashier while you engage your guests.
   
   
9. Have a donation plan. There will undoubtedly be items that don’t sell and you don’t want to be hauling them back into your house. Arrange in advance for your favorite charity to bring a truck on the last day of your sale to pick up leftover items in exchange for a donation receipt.
   
   
10. Take down your signs quickly. Don’t be an inconsiderate neighbor. Take your directional and promotional signs down immediately after your sale is over.

Bonus Tip #11: Have fun! Mingle with prospective buyers, chat people up, play music and sell cold bottles of water to make your garage the most fun one on your street!

 

PS: Follow me on Twitter and Facebook and if you like this information, share it by clicking the social bookmarking links above and below the post. Thanks for sharing!

Related articles

Week By Week Kitchen Organizing: Part I

6 Clever Uses For An Old Entertainment Center

My First Garage Sale

Quote: The Answers

"Remember, all the answers you need are inside of you; you only have to become quiet enough to hear them."

 

Debbie Ford 1955-2013,
Author of The Dark Side of the Light Chasers

 

 

 

PS: Follow me on Twitter and Facebook and if you like this information, share it by clicking the social bookmarking links above and below the post. Thanks for sharing!

Is Bigger Better?

When the 6:00 pm news anchor talks about a “pile-up” it’s typically not a good situation. What piles up in your life? Paper? Mail? Bills? Projects? How about laundry? If you’re not careful, repetitive “life maintenance” tasks can pile up quick! Keep your home (or office!) organized by thinking through a simple process to stay on top of your piles.

Let’s talk laundry piles, for example. Many people struggle stay caught up on their laundry. It piles up so high they NEVER want to do it, and really, can you blame them? I wouldn't want to either. Mount Laundry can feel like Mount Everest at times. At our house, we have a simple system that works for us. My husband and I do separate laundry! He has his hamper, I have mine, and never the twain shall meet. We like it that way because we have different laundry philosophies.

I believe smaller is better. He doesn’t. (He is a man, after all. Ha!)

I pre-sort my clothing into two bins (one for whites and one for colors) as it comes off my body. I also prefer to do my laundry in small frequent loads, rather than wait until I have a ton of it. He, on the other hand, throws all his dirty clothing into one bin and waits until he has a ton of it before doing laundry. Whatever your preference, here are nine tips to help you stay on top of Mount Laundry and keep your family in clean clothes every day.

1. Pre-sorting. Sort your clothing as you remove it from your body, rather than putting it all into one hamper. This means you never have to sort a big pile of clothes before washing. Provide each family member with two small laundry hampers to sort into lights and darks. Pre-sorting saves a ton of time on laundry day.

2. Keep a stash of hangers near the dryer so you can pull wrinkle-prone items out when they’re still damp and hang them immediately. This will save you time because they won't need ironing later. If you don't have anywhere to install a closet rod in the laundry area, just mount a few sturdy hooks on the wall or a valet rod on the back of a door for hanging items.

3. Don't run out of supplies. Always be sure to have a back-up of laundry detergent and any other supplies you regularly use. Getting into the habit of replenishing supplies early will ensure your laundry stays on schedule.

4. Teach young children laundry basics. You can enlist the help of kids as young as four years old, and approach laundry as a teaching opportunity. You can explain the difference between whites, colors and darks, let kids help put the clothing into the washer, show them how to measure detergent and also how to fold different pieces of clothing.

5. Designate days. If you have several kids, you may need to give the older ones their own day each week to use the washer and dryer. Putting them in charge of doing their own laundry gives them a sense of responsibility and also means you'll never be blamed for ruining their favorite sweater or turning their underwear pink.

6. Keep a stain stick or spray near the hamper. Pre-treat stains before clothing hits the hamper, so the product has days to work instead of just a few seconds before it hits the water.

7. Keep socks together by washing them in a mesh lingerie bag. They're ridiculously inexpensive. Give your kids and spouse each their own mesh bag and have them load their socks into it before they go into the wash. The bag keeps socks together in the washer and if the bag isn't too full, you can even dry them in the bag too.

8. Fold as you pull. I find myself highly unmotivated by a big basket full of laundry to fold, so I just stand in front of the dryer with the door open and pull one piece at a time and fold it as I go. In a matter of just a few minutes, I'm done and the clothing never sits for hours in a laundry basket getting wrinkled.

9. Put clothing away quickly. It's easier to stay organized when your clean clothing makes it back into your drawers and closets. But it's tough to put it all away if your dressers and closets are packed with stuff you never wear. Make it easy to put clothing away by culling your wardrobe frequently and donating anything you rarely wear.

What are your favorite tried and true tips for staying on top of your laundry?

Related articles

Oh Honey, That Ain't Vintage

Tips to Maximize Your Laundry Trips

Perfect Tough Love

Mothers are a blessing and I miss mine every day. She is so much the reason I am who I am today, and I will never forget the lessons she taught me, whether directly with her words, or indirectly by her actions...

What goes around comes around.
Don't take the last cookie in the jar.
Any job you have, do the best you can.
Don't walk across someone else's lawn.
Walk across the street, don't run.
Life isn't fair, and sometimes it's hard.
Respect the property of others.
The world doesn't owe you a living.
Do the right thing.
Tell the truth.
Because I said so.
Figure it out.
And my personal favorite... don't MAKE me pull this car over!

My mom wasn't a brownie-making, laundry-doing, lunch-packing, cry-on-my-shoulder kind of mom. She was a hard-working, no-nonsense single mother who didn't take no for an answer. Because she loved me, she instilled in me character, integrity and a work ethic that I'm thankful for. I'm grateful for every day I had with her.

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there and thank you for the difficult and important work you do.

PS: Follow me on Twitter and Facebook. And if you like my content, share it using the links below.

5 Tips To Make Moving In Easy

“Why is the slow cooker in the front of this cabinet?”

“Why do you keep your mugs and glassware in two spots?”

“Why are your towels in the hall closet while your foot spa is under the vanity?”

These are the kind of questions I’ve asked clients over the years and the answer is often the same: “It’s been that way since we moved in and we just never changed it.”

I’ve worked with clients who tolerated disorganized spaces for years before calling me. They moved into a new home and in the haste to get unpacked and settled, they put things away without too much thought. And that’s how they stayed. Today I want to share with you five tips so you can unpack your moving boxes and be organized from the day you move in.

 1. Lighten Your Load
The best way to ensure an easy UNpack is to give considerable thought to what you pack and bring with you from your old house. Several months before your move, systematically declutter each room of your home, donating and selling everything and anything you can possibly live without. There is no sense putting time, energy and money into moving things you don’t need anyway.

2. Organize Up Front
When packing your things, label each box in a way that will help you unpack easily. Write on the outside of the box the room it should go into (not where it came from), how many boxes you should have in there and what’s in each box. For example, MASTER BEDROOM / BOX 1 OF 6 / SOCKS & T-SHIRTS.

 

3. Outfit Your Storage In Advance
Most homes will require some customization to fit your lifestyle. If possible, arrange to outfit your closets and storage spaces with organizing tools before you move in so they’re as ready as they can be on moving day. Install your closet systems and kitchen Glide-Outs, purchase a wide selection of drawer dividers, shelf risers and clear containers so you have them all on hand in the moment you need them when unpacking.

 

4. Unpack One Room at a Time
Get each box and piece of furniture into the appropriate room first. Then, whether you’re solo or moving as a team, assign each person a room (beginning with the kitchen) to unpack completely before moving to the next one. There’s nothing more chaotic than having several rooms half-unpacked and nothing completed.


5. Unpack the Kitchen and Bedroom First
As mentioned above, focus on one room at a time and make the kitchen your first room. Next, set up your bed, put on bed linens and unpack your clothing and toiletry items. At the end of the first day no matter how much you did or didn’t accomplish, at least you’ll be able to eat, shower, sleep and get dressed in the morning with ease.

 

PS: Follow me on Twitter and Facebook and if you like this information, share it by clicking the social bookmarking links above and below the post. Thanks for sharing!

Related articles

How to Feel at Home in Your New Apartment Quickly

Quote: Change The World

"With one kind gesture you can change a life. One person at a time you can change the world."

 

Steve Maraboli
Author, Speaker and Radio Show Host

 

 

 

PS: Follow me on Twitter and Facebook and if you like this information, share it by clicking the social bookmarking links above and below the post. Thanks for sharing!

Related articles

Quote: Kindness

Quote: Plan Your Life

Haters gonna hate

Free Up Cabinet Space For Eight Bucks

Since I started my business in 1998, I've been helping people organize their homes and offices and in fifteen years, I've STILL never met anyone who said, "Wow I have too much space in my kitchen!"

Our home is small and so is our kitchen, so over the years I've had to be creative to help maximize the storage capacity of my cabinets. I've done things such as using the inside surface of the doors for storage, and using lazy susans and clear shoe boxes to corral small items to make them easier to access.

However, my favorite way to maximize the limited cabinet space in my small-ish kitchen is with these clear plastic stemware racks that attach to the bottom of my upper cabinets. They're ridiculously inexpensive (less than $8 each!) and by displaying all my stemware on the OUTSIDE of the cabinet, I freed up an entire interior shelf for other glassware. The space below the double cabinet shown is long enough to accommodate two racks side by side, and each rack holds between 9 and 12 glasses, depending on their size.

If clear plastic isn't your thing, you might opt instead for one in oak or chrome, each of which offers a higher end (but less invisible) look for a little extra money. Regardless which style you prefer, they install in minutes with just a few short screws and these do-it-yourself organizing products offer superior functionality and smart space-savings for very little money which makes them a fantastic value for any kitchen.

 

Related articles

Save Money By Organizing Your Pantry

Week By Week Kitchen Organizing: Part I

You're Never Going To *That* Many Picnics!

Quote: Life's Attitude

"Our attitude toward life determines life's attitude
towards us."

Earl Nightingale
1921-1989, Author of The Strangest Secret

 

 

 

 

PS: Follow me on Twitter and Facebook and if you like this information, share it by clicking the social bookmarking links above and below the post. Thanks for sharing!

Related articles

The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale

5 Things To Stop Doing Right Now

Have you ever heard someone use the expression, “He can’t get out of his own way?” I think most of us have. Today I’ll share five things you need to stop doing if you want to get out of your own way, boost your productivity, and end the day feeling great about what you accomplished.

1. Switch-Tasking
   Multi-tasking, switch-tasking, jump-tasking. Call it what you will, it surely isn’t serving you. It may feel as though you’re doing more in a shorter time, but scientific studies have proven that notion false. that multi-tasking actually hinders productivity because you’re constantly shifting your focus.
   
   
2. Procrastinating
   It’s no secret that putting off important things in favor of unimportant things is a recipe for failure. Yet we all do it to one degree or another. Get a handle on procrastination by getting an accountability partner, doing the easiest part of your task first or setting a timer for 15 minutes and just beginning the thing you’re resisting.
   
   
3. Having Squishy Boundaries
   When you can’t say no you end up spread too thin, harried, and stressed out. Establishing boundaries on your time just means creating a framework that allows enough time for activities, and then sticking to your schedule. If you don’t defend your time who will?
   
   
4. Constantly Checking Email
   I’m about to say those three little words that make you so happy you could burst. "You have mail." Squeeeee! So exciting! Seriously though, if your email is open and going ding ding ding all day long, you’re really in your own way. Can you imagine running out to your actual mailbox 36 times a day just to see if the postman came back with something new? Yeesh! Stop checking email all day long. It derails you, steals your focus and worst of all, makes it easy to fall down a rabbit hole for an hour or more. Shut down your email client while you work on other things.
   
   
5. Distracting Yourself
   I know, I know, Twitter is fun! (Oh believe me, I know!) Facebook is awesome and I can’t miss the newest installment of Grumpy Cat, now can I? My friends are all Instagramming their delicious lunches and I need some foodie inspiration. For Pete’s sake, social media is tempting, but you absolutely MUST resist it if you want to get anything done! Take 15 minutes each hour if you must to get your fix of email and social media and dedicate the remaining 45 minutes to actual work. You’ll be surprised what you accomplish!



PS: Follow me on Twitter and Facebook and if you like this information, share it by clicking the social bookmarking links above and below the post. Thanks for sharing!

Related articles

Organizing Myth #10: I'm Done!

5 Lies That Sabotage Your Organizing Success

How to Stop Procrastinating

Quote: What Do You Want?

Make sure you visualize what you really want, not what someone else wants for you.

 

Jerry Gillies
Author

 

 

 

 

PS: Follow me on Twitter and Facebook and if you like this information, share it by clicking the social bookmarking links above and below the post. Thanks for sharing!

Quote: Without Reward

"Extend to each person, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and understanding and love that you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again."


Og Mandino
1923-1996, Author

 

 

PS: Follow me on Twitter and Facebook and if you like this information, share it by clicking the social bookmarking links above and below the post. Thanks for sharing!

Related articles

Quote: Dead By Midnight

5 Crucial Life Skills To Teach Your Kids

Time does fly, doesn't it? I know this because I'm still 26. Until I check my mirror and my driver's license, that is. If you don't believe time flies, just ask anyone with kids if the little buggers grow up too fast. One day they're toddling around the house in diapers and the next they're applying to college. Ouch.

Truth is, you really don't have time to waste when it comes to preparing your kids for life, which is why it's important to teach your them important life skills as early as possible because they're gonna need 'em before you know it. And let's face it, the younger you begin, the less they'll fight you.

Here are five crucial skills you must teach your kids that will give them a big fat headstart when they eventually do fly the coop.

Time Management
There are several ways for your child to learn to manage his time. Getting your child out of bed with plenty of time to wash, brush teeth, dress and eat breakfast before it's time to leave for school is morning job one for parents. Yet at some point, you'll have to transition your child into taking responsibility for getting himself out of bed and running his own morning routine. Helping your child take charge of his morning routine teaches him about the hard-to-grasp concept of time and builds his confidence.

Sorting and Categorizing
Many of my clients have very young children and are sometimes reluctant to begin teaching them how to sort and organize when they're very young. I'm not sure if it's because they aren't aware the child's capabilities or if they feel guilty asking their children to do anything besides play all day. The big not-so-secret is that most young kids like to "help" and by asking them to do age-appropriate tasks you build their self-confidence and teach them important lessons at the same time.

Sorting is a crucial skill your child will use daily his entire life so best to begin teaching him very young. The ability to sort also helps children mentally organize the things they see and interact with every day. Putting toys away is one of the best ways your child can learn the skills of sorting. Children as young as two years can sort by color ("Let's put all the green things in this box and all the blue things in this box"), by item type ("Let's put trucks over here and animals over here") or by size ("Let's put big Legos in this box and small Legos in this box").

Responsibility for Their Possessions
"Mom! Where's my..."  What mom on planet Earth hasn't heard those words yelled across the house? My mom always answered, "It's wherever YOU put it!" (Smart lady.) When you take responsibility for keeping track of and caring for your child's things, she has no incentive to do it herself and you make her dependent on you. You also sign yourself up for a part-time job as stuff-tracker and that job comes with no pay and no benefits.

Conversely, when you adopt a more hands-off approach, your child learns that if she isn't paying attention to her own behavior and where she leaves her things, they become lost or broken. As a parent, it's your job to prepare her for the world and she needs to learn that you aren't her personal homing device.

 

Respect for Material Items
I love Suze Orman's mantra, "People first. Then money. Then things." It goes without saying that people are more important than things, however don't make the mistake of allowing your children to mistreat material goods in order to avoid hurting their feelings or stunting their "creativity."

I can't tell you how often I've seen children destroying furniture, tearing books apart, or stomping on their toys without being parentally corrected. I understand that kids -- especially very young ones -- are always learning and most of the destructive things they do are just experiments to see what happens. It's not their fault because they haven't yet been taught not to destroy things, but I believe it's a parent's job to step in and establish boundaries that teach appropriate behavior toward material items. You can encourage creativity without destruction. We don't write on walls and furniture, but we do write on tablets and coloring books. We don't tear up books, but we do tear up construction paper.

When you allow your children to mistreat their own toys, books, clothing and such, they don't learn to respect their things or the effort it took to acquire those things. In addition, allowing a child to mistreat his own possessions (or yours) teaches a lack of respect for the hard work and property of others. After all, how can he respect someone else's property if you don't teach him to care for and respect his own?

 

Sharing Space
One of the interesting things about modern houses becoming larger over the years is the advent of separate bathrooms. When I was a kid there were six people in my family and our home had one bathroom. It was at the end of the upstairs hall and all six of us shared it. I also never had my own bedroom until I was about ten because our house just wasn't large enough.

As inconvenient as sharing bedrooms and bathrooms sounds, I think it's actually a good way for kids to learn to share space with another person. It's good for kids to learn to keep a space neat for the benefit of someone else and it helps teach them to manage their time too. I'm sure many a brother quickly learned the value of getting up a few minutes early to nab the bathroom before someone else jumped in for her 20-minute shower!

What are your favorite ways to teach your kids life skills they may not even realize they're learning?

PS: Follow me on Twitter and Facebook and if you like this information, share it by clicking the social bookmarking links above and below the post. Thanks for sharing!

Related articles

Ways to Develop Your Child's Financial Literacy

5 Sanity Tips For Busy Parents

14 Years, 14 Lessons Learned

Mom Lessons

Quote: Lift Yourself

"We lift ourselves by our thought. We climb upon our vision of ourselves. If you want to enlarge your life, you must first enlarge your thought of it and of yourself. Hold the ideal of yourself as you long to be, always everywhere."

Orison Swett Marden
1850-1924, Inspirational Writer

 

 

 

PS: Follow me on Twitter and Facebook and if you like this information, share it by clicking the social bookmarking links above and below the post. Thanks for sharing!

Related articles

8 Tips for Success

What's Limiting You?

Quote: Happiness

"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, or worn. It is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude."

 

Denis Waitley Author and Speaker

 

 

 

PS: Follow me on Twitter and Facebook and if you like this information, share it by clicking the social bookmarking links above and below the post. Thanks for sharing!