Spring Neighborhood Garage Sale
April 19th, 2006 by Grant in: Frugal Living
We just got a postcard in the mail listing the dates of the annual neighborhood garage sale. Usually, I don’t get too excited about this kind of stuff, but this year I’m going to make out like a bandit, guaranteed.
At last years sale, we sold about $200 worth of our stuff. It doesn’t sound like much, but it also doesn’t include the huge deduction we were able to account for on last years taxes by donating all the stuff we didn’t sell. All told, we had what amounted to $500 in deductions, just from the charitable donations in stuff we didn’t sell at our garage sale.
An even bigger effect of this years garage sale is that it will free up an entire room in our basement (read this MSN article about the cost of too much stuff). We’ve been sorting out stuff throughout the year and throwing it in a pile in one room, but now it’s time to reclaim the room.
Jonathan at MyMoneyBlog has a good post about being attached to stuff you don’t use. A garage sale is a good first step to the cure for the disease.
Just remember, to get the most out of your garage sale, you have to keep track of what you donate to charity (the IRS may want to see your documentation!). Check out the Charitable Contributions Publication from the IRS for details donations of your stuff. You can get values for the items at the website of your local charity, such as the Goodwill or Salvation Army.
Happy Spring cleaning!
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