More Garage Sale Finds & Tips

I feel like I should have a weekly post on this at the rate we're going.  This past weekend we were back at it going to some garage sales. We went to another fantastic community (Windemere, where we got married on their golf course) to see if we could find any outdoor furniture, baby stuff and good deals.  I'll show you some bargains steals we found.

This lady was AWESOME. She sold us this table for $20 and the chairs for $1 a piece... seriously $26 total. The table got chipped when her husband moved it from the basement, but David glued it back together. We are thinking of sanding and re-staining (the bench is not part of this).

The table goes smaller and I'm thinking of putting it in our breakfast nook.  It actually fits really well there and makes our space look a lot bigger than our tall square table we have in there now.

I found these cute canvas wall art that I thought I could use for my t-shirt project but they were way bigger than I thought they were.  I got 3 of them and the 3 beautiful picture frames for $8 total.

One of the other big steals of the day was this outdoor couch set.  The cushions are a bit dirty, but other than that everything is in great condition. It came from the same lady as the table set from above.  She wanted $50 for it but David talked her down to $30!

We found this water table for Max for $5 that David wants to modify and add things to.

We also found some fabulous baby gates (I think I have a baby gate garage sale addiction) and David bought a box of door knobs (completely normal right?). Included are a really nice front door one just like we have and some interior ones that will be great for our basement remodel.

Garage Sale Tips-
-Go early. This is common sense maybe, but if the sale starts at 8am make sure you are fed and out the door by 7:30. You need to arrive about 15mins early to start scoping out.  Drive around to get a feel for where the sales are and the big items if that is what you are looking for. To us, we don't bother going to sales after 9:30am, it's pretty much over for us. Unless you are looking for small decorative pieces or baskets (there seems to always be baskets).
-Furniture and bigger items go FAST.  I can't tell you how many times we came up to a sale and people were walking away with beautiful rod iron lawn chairs and lawn mowers.
-Don't look like a million bucks. No one will make a deal with someone in a suit, David goes to the way opposite spectrum, but just a t-shirt and jeans are cool.
-Don't be afraid to ask for a lower price. If it says $25, just ask nicely would you take $20 for that instead? Most the time they will or leave a little more wiggle room to have them negotiate up.
-Always be polite when you go to a sale, say hello, how are you and when leaving (even with nothing) make sure you say thanks. You are rummaging through peoples personal belongings and this makes them feel more open and friendly towards you (Davids tip and it works great).