How to plan a garage sale route that actually works

Start with the closing times, not the distances

The biggest route mistake is optimizing for distance alone. A sale that closes at noon needs to come before a sale two blocks away that runs until 4 PM. When you build a route on GarageSaleFans, stops are checked against each sale's hours, and you'll see a warning whenever your estimated arrival lands after closing.

A good rule of thumb: put hard-deadline sales (half-day Saturdays, church sales that end at 1 PM) first, then fill the afternoon with all-day and multi-day sales.

Mark your Must Go sales before you leave

Not all stops are equal. Mark the sales you'd be genuinely disappointed to miss as Must Go, and let the Maybe pile flex around them. If the morning runs long, you can skip a Maybe without rethinking the whole route.

Budget your time per stop

Most garage sale stops take 10 - 20 minutes; larger multi-room sales can take longer. Set an expected visit time on each stop so your arrival estimates stay honest. Ten optimistic estimates in a row is how noon disappears.

Leave slack for the finds

The best stop of the day is usually the one that takes twice as long as planned. Plan for 80% of your available time, not 100% - treasure hunting rewards the flexible.