Free printable garage sale signs
Fill it in, print it, staple it to a post. Big enough to read from a moving car, with an arrow that points the right way and a code people can scan to see what you are selling.
GARAGE SALE
Making a sign people can actually read
A driver has about two seconds. That is room for one word, one arrow, and nothing else. That is why the sign puts your heading at the top in the largest type that fits and keeps the address small. Anything you add competes with the arrow.
Black on white or black on fluorescent card beats anything decorative. Print two or three per junction so the last one is the one they see as they slow down.
Where to put them
The turning before yours, the turning before that, and one at the end of your own street. Face them at the traffic rather than along the road, and put them low enough to read from a car window.
Sign rules are set by your city, and they differ. What is consistent is that anything in the public right-of-way gets taken down. That means utility poles, traffic posts and the verge, so put them on private property with the owner’s say-so. Check your own city’s ordinance before you staple anything to anything.
And take them down on Sunday evening. That is the difference between a neighbor who does not mind and one who does.
Want one that lasts?
Paper is fine for one weekend. If you hold sales often, or it is going to rain, any local print shop can make a proper one from the file the button above downloads.
Ask for corrugated plastic, which they may call coroplast, at 18 by 24 inches, printed double sided so it reads from both directions, with a wire H-stake to push into the ground. Around twenty to thirty dollars, usually same day or next. Search for sign printing in Kalamazoo or Portage and take them the download.
The code on the sign
If you have listed your sale on WhimSale, the code goes straight to your listing: photographs, prices and what is left. People decide to stop before they have parked, and the ones who do not want what you have carry on without blocking the driveway.
No listing yet? Photograph what you are selling . It is free, and we write the listings from the pictures. Or leave the code off entirely; the sign works without it.