PLATTSBURGH -- Margaret Garrand's staging area is her family-room couch.

That's where her yard-sale merchandise is accumulating, price stickers affixed.

"First thing," said the Turner Court woman, "is to have everything clean. No buttons missing; no rips or tears."

"And not broken," emphasized Garrand's sister, Therese Dudyak, who with Sylvia Brown organizes the garage sale at Lake Forest Retirement Community every year.

"Tip-top shape," Brown said.

That's just the start. There's a recipe for a successful yard sale, say the voices of experience, one that has simple ingredients but takes a lot of work.

PRESENTATION KEY

Garrand, who holds at least one sale each spring and another in autumn, starts at least three weeks ahead. She collects items in her home that she finds she doesn't really need, goes through her wardrobe. She invites her daughters, grandchildren, other relatives to add merchandise -- sales with stuff from multiple families draw bigger crowds.

Her husband, Jerry, isn't the biggest fan of the activity, but willingly sets up the tables in their two-car garage, carries out the goods.

Presentation is key, Mrs. Garrand said, speaking from 25 years of yard-sale experience.

"The tables are covered with tablecloths or sheets -- it makes everything nice-and-clean looking."

And she organizes according to category -- mens, womens and childrens clothes hung separately and with sizes together; housewares, books, toys in arrangements of their own.

"You don't just throw everything on a table," agreed Dudyak.

PRICING CRUCIAL

It's vital that prices be marked and visible, the ladies said. They include the initials of the seller, too.