Get Organized Pittsburgh

Welcome to May! With May comes many things but one in particular is Garage Sales! I was asked to talk to the crew from the KDKA Radio morning show early this morning about garage sales and I wanted to share a few more tips with you here, whether you’re shopping or selling, here are a few things to help you along the way.

If you are looking for sales in your neighborhood good places to start are the Pittsburgh Post Gazette classifieds, the Pennysaver newspaper, and Craigslist. You can also search sites such as Oodle which syndicates it’s garage sale listings with a handful of other social networking websites and newspapers, as well as Garage Sales Tracker’s Pittsburgh area garage sales section.

If you are already on the road than no need to worry since there are smartphone applications for finding a local sale.  A service called Garage Sale App is available for .99 cents. The app mines data from Craigslist to show you what local sales are in your area. If you want a free app than Garage Sales Tracker also has a free app you can use to map out which sales in the area you want to go to that day and route accordingly. Another fantastic app is iGarageSale where you can search sales for specific items! It’s available on both iPhone and Android smartphones.

Now that you know how to find all of the sales, here are some tips for holding your own garage sale:

• Determine when to have the sale. Summertime and Spring are naturally the best times and being an early bird pays off!
• If you have a lot of stuff you may want to break the sale down into 2 days.
• Advertising is very important. Utilize the resources mentioned above as well as signage that you can pick up at any local hardware store or you can design your own sign just make sure you put the address, arrows in the right direction, date of sale, and time.
• Supplies such as balloons on the mail box, proper change, tables, and tags for pricing.
• Placing the the person in charge of the cashbox in the back of the sale makes people walk through the whole sale and increases the chance that they may buy something else as they make their way through.
• Make price tags big and place them on the TOP of the items.

Most of all, Have FUN!

Reminder! Our very own Leslie McKee will be featured during Pittsburgh Today Live with Kristine Sorensen Monday, December 5th between 9 -10am. Leslie will be discussing over-shopping as it pertains to the holiday, how it effects you daily, and how to deal with it.

Look for tips on how to identify over-shopping habits and watch for information about how to gain control of your shopping habits.

WHY IS OVER-SHOPPING A PROBLEM?

• Our economic growth is dependent upon selling goods to people whose needs are already met!
• Studies show that the more we acquire after our basic needs are met, the less fulfilling those acquisitions are. Therefore the tendency is to buy more to get the same feeling.
• Studies show that the more someone believes material things bring true happiness, the more likely that person is to suffer from depression, stress and anxiety. College students report 70% feel being VERY wealthy will mean they will be happy. This sets the stage for widespread discontent.
• It is proven that too many choices leave us feeling befuddled and over stimulated yet- 5.8 % of US adults are over shoppers. That is 17 million people.
• 3 out of 5 Americans who carry credits cards carry credit card debt. One half owe more than 6,600 and 13% owe over 25k.
• Our country is reporting negative personal savings which happened in 1932,1933 during the great depression.

It’s nice and warm outside and you went to Kennyywood last weekend and want to find something different and fun to do this weekend?  Then why not join all the other frugalities and go on a bargain hunting expedition? Shopping at a yard sale can be a great way to find items that you wouldn’t be able to locate at a typical retail store like Target and the pricing is always rock bottom. This is because there is no tax and the goods are slightly used and if they don’t get sold at the sale than they will either be junked or donated to goodwill. There are always the stories of people finding rare artwork, jewelry, & silverware at a sale only to later discover that it’s worth 50 times what they purchased it for. The most famous being a Jackson Pollock purchased for $5.00 and after discovering its value was offered $9 million for the artwork. Knowing where to go in the Pittsburgh area for finding garage sales can be as easy as just hoping into your car and driving around neighborhoods early morning on Saturday and Sunday and finding the local bargains or you can save some money on gasoline and look through the Pittsburgh Post Gazette classifieds, the Pennysaver newspaper, and or you can go online to sites such as Oodle which syndicates it’s garage sale listings with a handful of other social networking websites and newspapers, as well as garage sales tracker’s Pittsburgh area garage sales section. If you are already on the road than no need to worry since there are iPhone applications for finding a local sale.  A service called EcoShop has created an app for .99 cents yard sale app that mines data from Craigslist to show you what local sales there are in your area. If you want a free app than garage sales tracker also has a free garage sale app in which you canplan  which sales in the area you want to go to that day and route accordingly. Now that you know how to find all of the sales here are some tips for holding a sale:

• Determine when to have the sale.  Summertime and Spring are naturally the best times and being an early bird pays off!  Winter is too cold but there are some indoor sales in the area just not a lot
• If you have a lot of stuff you may want to break the sale down into 2 days. Saturday and Sunday but if that’s too much than you can donate or give away everything after the first day   Arranging a charity to pick up the day after the sale will really help with clean up and make sure items just don’t get tossed in the trash.  You also get a receipt that will be helpful at tax time
• Advertising is very important utilizing the resources mentioned above as well as signage that you can pick up at any local hardware store or you can design your own sign just make sure that you put the address, arrows in the right direction, date of sale, time, and anything else that may seem enticing that you can fit onto the sign.
• Supplies such as balloons on the mail box, proper change, tables, tags for pricing, and cookies or brownies to get the children involved as well as enticing your visitors with a little something extra that another sale may not have.
• Placing the the parson in charge of the cashbox in the back of the sale makes people walk through the whole sale and increases the chance that they may buy something else as they make their way through.
• Make price tags big and place them on the top of the items.  You will be busy and the more obvious the price is, the less questions you will have to field.
• Have fun!

Rich of GarageSaleTracker.com

Today is my 20th Wedding Anniversary! I am thinking about commitment and how easy life can be when you focus on what is important. To me life is about doing, not having. Thinking over the past 20 years, the best memories are about people and place and things that we did and times that we shared. Family and friends. I see clients everyday who let stuff become a barrior to letting people even enter their space and it is an honor to be with someone while they face all of that and begin to see how to open up that space. I acknowledge their journey.

Twenty years is a milestone and I would like to take a minute to thank my husband Sandy for making the journey effortless, for always supporting me, for helping me smell the roses and for being a fantastic role model for my children! Happy Anniversary today and for a life time!

Today’s NAPO meeting was very informative. We hosted NAPO National Board Member Angela Wallace to give us updated information about the power that be at NAPO. Our industry is growing rapidly and I am glad that we began our business eight years ago. I am thinking of how to focus on new organizers to give them a great launch into organizing. This shortens their learning curve and helps them represent our industry well from the onset! As always I was so happy to be in that room of “like minded” wonderful people. I also got a few new resources to add to the website.