Are you interested in joining a storage unit auction? If you are, you’ve come to the right place. The number of storage unit auctions being held around the country has increased tenfold over the last few years, and there is no better time than now to strike it rich using this adventurous business model.

If you have watched Storage Wars before, or even American Pickers, you know that there is a wide market out there for almost anything that you can find during an auction.

Whether you’ve stumbled upon baseball cards or antique furniture, someone, somewhere nearby is waiting for an offer to buy them. While the business process itself is not as easy as the reality TV shows depict, there is still real money to be made from storage unit auctions.

How it works 

When a storage unit renter fails to pay his monthly fees, his unit is foreclosed on by the company and auctioned off to willing buyers. During a live auction, the manager opens the storage unit and shows the contents to all of the bidders.

This allows the bidders to calculate whether or not a storage unit is profitable. After showing the unit to the bidders, the auctioneer then opens the auction with a baseline bid (usually $10 or more), and the formal bidding commences.

People just say how much they are bidding. Usually, it only takes a few minutes for a storage unit auction to end. Unless there are more than a handful of bidders involved, units get sold fast. If you’re competing against seasoned auction hunters, be prepared for bids as high as $4,000 for really profitable storage units.

Auction hunters make money from these storage units by having the items appraised before reselling them to specific niches or groups of people. Sometimes, auction hunters end up with a storage unit full of junk, but other times they end up with storage units filled to the brim with large appliances, barely-used furniture (that can easily be sold online), and a variety of other goods that can help the auction hunter recoup all of his investment.

If you are a beginner in ‘urban treasure hunting’, consider yourself extremely lucky if you were able to make $500 worth of profit from selling the goods that you’ve won. Other beginners aren’t so lucky – some beginning auction hunters pay hundreds of dollars for multiple storage units that barely have enough high-value items to help recoup the capital used.

If you don’t mind taking a risk with your hard-earned cash, and you can budget your capital well, you should definitely consider auction hunting. However, you should always keep in mind that storage unit auctions are not for people who want to get rich quick.

You need to have a lot of business sense too, so you can easily resell the contents of the storage unit/s you have won. Without good business sense, you stand to lose your profit margin or even your capital. So know your market and always keep an eye out for the auctions near the best areas in town!

Take a couple of weeks to go through your home to find everything you can for your garage sale. Chances are there’s more than you think, so give yourself some time to find it all. If possible, price things as you go to save time later on.

Start in the bedrooms, dressers and closets. Go through your closets first to find items that haven’t been worn in a year, aren’t absolutely loved or don’t fit anymore. If they’re in good shape they can be added to your garage sale stash. Don’t forget to look under the bed for shoes or purses. Check out the jewelry, too.

Head to the children’s rooms next. What have they outgrown that can’t be passed down to a sibling? Then start going through their toys. Find items which they haven’t played with in a long time. This might be an activity to do with your children but be prepared for the fact they may not be willing to part with much.

Step into the kitchen and see what you can part with there. Do you have more dishes than you need for the size of your family? What about the pots and pans? Have you recently gotten some new ones but the old ones are in good shape? Add them to your garage sale pile. You’ll also want to go through dish towels, silverware and glassware.

Ask each member of the family to contribute to the garage sale. Tools, sporting goods and baby items usually sell well. The more you can declutter from your home, the better the garage sale will be. Offer to let each person keep the money from the items they sell and they may be more willing to let go of some things.

Check with your neighbors and see if any of them are planning to have a garage sale in the near future. You might be able to get several neighbors to have sales on the same day. This will draw in more people and help each family in their effort to declutter and sell items. Find out which day their sale will be and plan yours for the same day.

Advertise your garage sale with signs, the local newspaper and flyers in areas you know people frequent. List what types of items you’ll have for sale. Don’t forget to add your address, date and time, however you choose to advertise. You’ll also want to specify that you will not begin selling items until the time listed.

Set up a rack for clothing, shelves and tables where necessary. Gather hangers for clothes, tables for smaller items and a box or two for free items. If you’re not pricing each item individually, be sure to have a poster which clearly indicates prices. You’ll also want to have ample change on hand and bags to in which to place items.

Hang your signs the night before. Set up a concession stand for the children to sell cold drinks. Then get a good night’s sleep. Chances are you’ll have someone who arrives early.

Your goal is to declutter your home and that means bargaining. Price the items so they’ll sell. Whatever doesn’t sell after organizing a spring garage sale you can donate to a local charity.

The next decision you need to make is the location for the birthday party. For young children, who are prone to being messy, you might want to have the party at a local fast-food restaurant or similar venue. This can have the effect of the kids having some fun, and you not having a large mess to clean up after the party has finished. Another good option is a local park if the weather in your area permits it. Just keep in mind the ages of all of the kids who will be attending.

If you dread the idea of spending hours with a pack of preschoolers on your weekend, you might choose to have the party in the evening or for just an hour or two on a Saturday afternoon. Preschoolers can only have a limited amount of fun before they become stressed out and start whining and crying. You can use this to your advantage by planning a relatively short but fun party.

If you will have more than a couple other children at the party you will need other adults to help you. Because preschoolers need lots of help and attention, you should have an adult for every three or four children in attendance. This will be a great help when children need help using the bathroom and other things as the party goes along.

When you are distributing invitations to your partiers, it is very important to remember that if you will be sending them to preschool to be passed out, you must invite each child in the class. To do otherwise is prohibited by most schools and just simply rude as well. Noting is more hurtful than a group of preschoolers all taunting another child for not being invited to a party.

For the day of the party you will want to have as much for your partiers to do as possible. While you do not want to overwhelm the children, it is important to keep them busy and occupied the entire time they are there with you. This will keep them out of trouble and having fun.

It is very important that you insist on good manners from your birthday party guests as well as your own birthday boy or girl. Everyone should use the words “please” and “thank you” as well as being courteous to others. In addition, you should go over how your child will handle opening presents and what is, and is not, appropriate to say to other people about gifts.

Check out the helpful birthday party planning tips at Toddler Birthday Party Ideas today.

Easy Leprechaun Paper Plate Craft Idea

We were inspired by our favorite Kid’s Crafts resource ‘Little Kid Crafts for All Seasons’ and have actually made several projects with our kids and grandkids using this cool ebook. You can get it yourself today and start having fun with your little kids too.

Having a good time is important, but keep in mind that little children should not be forced to compete or become would-be bullies with other children in order to win. Keep the party games light and simple with everyone enjoying themselves. Here are some toddler friendly party game ideas that require little setup or materials but provide lots of fun.

Pin the Tail On…

Practically anyone who has been to a child’s birthday party at some time in the last fifty years has played ‘pin the tail on the donkey’, however there is no reason to stick with the donkey theme. There are premade donkey game packages available in stores and party planning retail online stores. Use whatever the particular theme is and make your own game: buy a large poster board and draw one of the characters on it and color in with markers. One idea uses a red poster board cut into a large Elmo head and then the kids ‘Pin the Nose on Elmo’ with orange construction paper noses.

Hot Potato

Little kids love to play ‘Hot Potato’ and a toddler birthday party is a great time to play this fun game. It is not necessary to only use a potato of course. You can use a stuffed toy that goes along with the party theme, such as ‘Hot Elmo’ in place of the potato or ‘Hot Train’ with Thomas the Tank Engine. Arrange the kids in a cirlce on the floor and with fun toddler music playing, have the kiddos pass the ‘potato’ around until the music stops.

Musical Pillows

An old party game that everyone is probably familiar with is ‘Musical Chairs,’ and toddlers can enjoy it as well. You can use child size chairs of course, but most families do not have enough of these size chairs in their home to accomodate a party, so why not use pillows instead? The concept is exactly the same, but without the chairs. Play music while the toddlers walk around the pillows, have one fewer than the number of children playing, and when the music stops the kids have to sit on a pillow. The child without a pillow to sit on is out and then one pillow is removed. Play this until only one child and pillow are left.

It is possible to play fun toddler birthday party games and they certainly do not have to be complicated. Make certain that there is plenty of adult supervision so that all of the little ones are well cared for during the party. Keep the games short and sweet and have fun!
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Get even more fun toddler birthday party game ideas and other ways to make a great party for your toddler at ‘Toddler Birthday Party Ideas’ http://toddler-birthday-party-ideas.com
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