Easy Solutions for Making Money - Garage Sale

You know, like everything else in life, having a successful garage sale takes a bit of preparation, but it can be time well spent when you are counting money at the end of the day.

 Everyone seems to have extra 'stuff' they are willing to part with for a price. And, when times are tight, you might even part with more stuff to make some extra money.

How much am I talking about? Well, that all depends on what you have for sale, your neighborhood, if you do a bit of advertising, how you display your items, and whether or not you know your market. Lots to know to have a successful garage sale, huh?

Here are a couple of books about having a garage sale:

Everything You Need to Know...

Garage Sale Magic

And there is information available on the Internet:

About Garage Sales

Plus a whole lot more.  But please remember, just because it's on the internet it isn't always right.  Always evaluate what you are reading and the information you are receiving.

The Basics

Decide what you want to sell.

Decide when you want to sell it - weekends work best.

Post signage where it will be seen. don't be afraid to post signs on streets that get enough traffic so you will let people know you are having a sale. Post signs at least one day, and two days are better, before you have your sale.

If you have valuable items for sale, think about posting to Craigslist.com to let folks know about your garage sale (it's free) and putting flyers up where people will see them. The more people that know about your sale, the more people will come by.

Watch the weather as the day gets closer. If it gets bad, at least post a sign that the garage sale was postponed and let people know the re-scheduled date. That's just being courteous.

Decide the prices ahead of time. And, decide on a pricing strategy - what offers will you take? What if people buy several items - will you provide a discount?

Price items before you put them out - several days in advance of your sale. There will be enough to do just setting up your items - don't think you can set-up and price on the same morning.

Be set-up on time. Remember, it's your store and you posted hours of operation. Be ready to go on time which means everything is out and displayed.

Speaking of display. Take a bit of time to think about how you want to display your items. I have seen items neatly displayed - almost as if it were a display in a store. And, I have seen items that seemed to have been thrown out there in piles. Both methods can be successful depending on what you have for sale and who you attract as customers. If you have time, take a look at several garage sales and see how they are displaying items, hang around long enough to see if they are selling items, and talk with the people having the sale.

The Big Day

It's here. Your big sale day. The signs are out. You have even posted some flyers. You have some great stuff for sale. And, you are ready to make several hundred dollars, or more. Just do one thing - Show Up. It's kind of important that you are out to greet potential customers and are available to take their money. Don't laugh. I don't know how many garage sales I have driven by and seen a lot of stuff, but nobody around to take money. Show Up.

Be ready to sell. Know where you will deal and how you are going to deal to make sure you make money. Have a few dollars in your pocket for change - $1's, $5's and maybe a $10. If you can't make change, maybe you can offer something extra to sell you don't have to make change.

Have fun. Be kind. Smile. Don't bother people as they look. If an item has a story that might influence a sale, tell them the story, but keep it short.

Make money.

It might sound a bit more involved and take a bit extra planning, but that is the difference between a successful garage sale and just sitting in your driveway for an entire day and have nothing to show for it.

Good Luck and God Bless. Let me know how you do.

Easy Solution for Weight Loss #1

This is the first in a series of posts about easy solutions for weight loss.  They will appear about once a week - so come back and take a look.  The goal, as always, is to keep it easy and simple.

It seems as though a new 'diet' is introduced every week that guarantees you weight loss.  And, if you can't lose weight on a diet, get a bit of surgery done. Surgery has to be the definition of complex; there are always side effects. Plus, it's really expensive. 

I am never going to refer to being on a diet.  Being on a diet is by definition temporary.  Losing weight should be permanent.  You want to get rid of the pounds and keep them off, right?

So, the all time easiest way to lose weight...the most simple...wait for it...Decide you are going to lose weight.  That is so important it's worth repeating: Decide you are going to lose weight.  Once that decision is really made, you have started on your road to a new life.

I can hear you, "But I decided to go on a diet..." So, how did that work out for you?  Did you lose the weight?  How long did it take to come back?  For most of us, it comes back with a vengeance.  We drop ten and get 15 back.  Why does that happen?  We get tired of being on a restrictive food diet.  We want the ice cream, french fries, pie, etc.  Or, we want to eat until we feel full.  (By then you have over-eaten, but more about that in another entry.)

The decision I am writing about is the decision to lose weight - and to mean it.  And, it's the first step to real weight loss.

Three years ago I was about 60 pounds over-weight.  I don't know how I got to be that way; it just happened.  Okay, I know it happened because I ate a lot of food  Double and triple helpings of pasta, any bread I wanted, rice, I was a sucker for apple pie and cheese cake.  Over a 20 year period the weight kept coming on and on.  I didn't do anything to take it off.

One day I woke up and decided I was going to lose the weight.  And about 9 months later the weight was gone.  My BMI was 24.9, for those of you who follow BMI's.

BMI stands for Body Mass Index.  I found out that weight is not the measure any longer; it's your BMI.  You can figure out what your BMI is here. And you can learn a bit more about BMI here.  I do want to point out that the last link is for the Center for Disease Control website.  Obesity is huge (no pun intended) in the United States costing millions of dollars in health costs. It shortens lives and reduces the quality of life you have.  The list of diseases that are influenced by being even 10 or 15 pounds overweight is long from diabetes to high blood pressure to heart disease and on and on.

Please, don't cut your life short because you are overweight and discouraged.  Take the first step and decide you are going to lose weight.  Once you decide you are really going to lose weight, you have already decided to eat better food; eat a bit less - emphasis on a bit less.  Heck, you might even figure out exercise is a good thing - a few words on that later.

It's not complex.  Deciding to lose is easy and is the first step in a pretty easy process.  Really.

Easy Solution for Spot Cleaning

Like so many folks I have pets.  And when you have pets, or when life happens, spots and dirt on carpets, rugs and furniture happen.  It's just part of the life. 

I had to have tried just about every spot cleaner on the market and never found one I was happy with.  Of course, if I was even close to being pleased with how any of them worked, they were the more expensive ones.  I loved my pets and I loved having people over; I did not love the $7.00 I was spending on a cleaner.

That all ended when I found a simple recipe:

16 oz. of water
1 T. Tide powder
1 t. Vinegar

Combine them in a spray bottle.  Just put them in and shake the bottle. Then use.  It's so easy!

A few tips:

1. Spray the spot and let it work for a couple of minutes.
2. Use a soft bristle brush or rag like an old wash cloth.
3. Once you clean the spot, take a clean rag or a clean portion of the rag you used and blot the area picking up excess moisture.
4. If necessary, repeat.

The Tide cleans the spot.  The vinegar removes any scent or smell of the spot.

That's it.  From food to pet 'biologicals' it works.  It cleans almost all spots that happen.  And, talk about cheap to make!

Easy Extra Money

Need a little easy extra money?  Just a few more dollars a month, maybe?  You are not alone.

You know, unemployment is still up around 10 or 11% - probably higher since so many have become ineligible to collect benefits.  If you include 'under-employment' - those folks who are working but earning much less than they once did,or are working in a job for which they are way over qualified, and the number gets to be somewhere around 17% - at the low end.  Truthfully, nobody really knows how many are unemployed or under-employed.

From time to time I am going to offer easy ways to make the bit extra you need.  And, the great thing is that almost any idea I offer can be expanded into full-time.  Be your own boss.  Build your own business and you can never be laid-off.  Wow!

My oldest son has several dogs.  He might even be called a rancher.  And, while he loves his dogs; he does not love picking up after them.  Which means there's an opportunity for you!

There's gold in that poop!

Yep, you got it.  Picking up dog poop in someone's yard can mean real money.  Look, a lot of people are working 10 to 12 hours a day and really don't want to come home to clean-up after their dog, or dogs.  So,what do they do? They leave it until the weekend.  Just think of the job they are confronted with.  A week's worth of dog poop.  I just can't think of a thing I would rather be doing on a Saturday than cleaning-up after my dog.  Even little dogs can poop in prodigious amounts!

Do you like dogs?  Do you want to make folks' lives a little better?  Do you want to earn a little easy extra money?  Well, start a neighborhood poop patrol.

What will you need?  Gloves, scooper (obvious, huh?), bags for poop, and a keen eye.  Let your friends know what you are doing and put out flyers in your neighborhood - make sure you give it a chance and hand out several hundred.  More on flyers in some future blog - just keep them simple for now.  The service you offer. Your name. Contact information.

How much to charge for this service?  Find out what the national companies are charging.  (Yes, there are franchises available for this service so you have to know there is money in it.)  Charge less than they do.  In fact, give your first customers a real break in price - the are going to become your best advertisers if you serve them and their dog(s) well.

You want a little easy extra money?  This is as easy as...well, poop.

The First Post

As I was getting ready to write this first entry so many ideas went through my mind.  I had to choose carefully.  I had to let you know the easiest way to have a better life.  It had to be a biggie.  It had to be profound.  

And I came up with so many ideas - but none of them were simple enough.  This was really a case of the nerves!  

Then, at about 2:00 this morning it hit me.  The single most important easy solution for a better life is....is the suspense killing you?  A drum roll, if you please...The curtains part to reveal...

SMILE.

That’s it.  Just smile and be pleasant.  There’s no real trick to it.  Just turn the ends of your mouth up.  That’s all it takes.  Smile.

I began thinking about the successful people I know.  Now, I am not just counting those who have made a lot of money; I am counting those who are leading happy lives...or, are happy in their life.  And, you know what?  They all had one thing in common - they smile at others.  

It is so easy...so simple.  Just smile at others and your life will be better.

Oh, I can hear you, “But, Phil, you don’t know my life...You don’t know the bad things that have happened...the tragedies...”  And you know what?  You’re right, I don’t know what has happened to you.  But I do know you have a choice: either wallow in it or wake up and greet the day with a smile.  It’s really your choice.

Look, if you start smiling at others, you will brighten their day - that is just a fact since there aren’t many smilers out there.  

“But, I don’t care if I brighten their day.”  

Let me tell you about a bit of magic - yes, magic.  If you start to smile at others - at the person in Starbucks, the grocery store, McDonalds...wherever you are, you will find that your day will be better.  String together a few days, and pretty soon you are at a week.  Put together a few weeks and you are at a month.  And, wait for it, put together a few months of smiling and you will be at a year.

Now, I am not saying you have to smile at everyone.  That is only for experienced smilers and I would not expect that from folks who are just starting.  No, just start by smiling at three people; just three.  Don’t over do it on the first day.  Watch their reactions.  Most of them will smile right back at you.  It’s amazing.  Your one smile developed into two smiles.  If you really want to go big, smile at five people a day...but that can get to be too much smiling if you haven’t done much before.

I know, I kow.  I am sounding a bit corny, but you will find if you just smile at three people a day for a week, your life will be better.  It’s the easiest way to make your life better.

“If you are reading this...Congratulations, you’re alive. If that’s not something to smile about, then I don’t know what is.”  Chad Sugg, Monsters Under Your Head.

“You’ll find that life is still worthwhile, if you but smile.” Charlie Chaplin

Thank You

First, thank you for taking the time to read my blog.  There are so many things to read on the web, and I will always appreciate you spent a few minutes reading here.  I promise to always have a positive message or observation.

I am re-starting with Blogger so be a bit patient with me.  I have to learn how to make the page look a little better and add a few things here and there.  But, I thought it more important to begin to let you know easy solutions for your life, than to spend a lot of time figuring out how to make this look better.

So, come back often - I will be posting several times a week.