Garage Sale or Donate?

Every year I have clients ask me if I can help them set up for a garage sale. They want to eliminate the clutter and sell all their unwanted items in a garage sale. The issue then becomes will their items bring in the money there are hoping? Most of us think our items are worth much more than someone else is willing to pay for them. If you are not willing to accept this, than a garage sale is clearly not for you. Take into account the amount of time you will spend preparing for the garage sale and the amount you will make. If the time you spend on preparing for the garage sale is more than the time you will be open for the garage sale, you might want to reconsider. If your garage sale has most of the items being priced under $10, then you will get far more as a tax write off then you would receive from buyers at a garage sale. When you donate to a charity, you can write off every item you donated on your taxes. The only requirement is to write down each item you are giving away. Now if you keep a bag in a closet for all your donations, you can write down the items being donated each time the bag becomes full. You then attach the receipt to the list and put it in your tax file. It adds up fast if you purge often. You must take into account the weather which you can never predict in time to advertise for the garage sale. That leaves you vulnerable if it turns out to be cold or rainy. If you only have a few large more valuable items and mostly under $5 or $10 items, consider putting the larger and more expensive items on Craigs List and donating the remainder. You will be much happier with the results and have much more time to do the things you really like or get more important things completed.