I’m a data driven person. I love to study data and look for trends or patterns. When I have a garage sale, I am uptight (some people might use a different word) about collecting info from the sale so I can analyze it.
This is how the operation works:
1) We write down all sales in a notebook, with a quick description of what it is, how much it sold for and who it belongs to, so they can get credit for the sale. I also track the sales by the hour they were made.
I don’t type the data directly into a computer because I don’t want to have to worry about people walking off with my laptop when my back is turned.
2) I transfer the data into Microsoft Excel so I can use it to crunch the numbers.
3) I use Excel to create pivot tables summarizing the results. Pivot tables are a tool for summarizing data and presenting the information in a simplified way.
One of the big benefits of using pivot tables is I don’t need to use a calculator to figure out how much money each person made. With pivot tables, I can easily summarize the garage sale detail in many ways. I’ve been collecting data for my garage sales for ten years. Below are some samples of the reports I can create.
Ten years of garage sale data
I’ve posted a copy of the Excel file with the Garage Sale Summary so you can take a look if you’re interested or use it for your own sale.
