Recently, I hosted a car boot sale in my village. After years of seeing people selling items on our local Facebook groups and leaving items simply outside their homes, I decided that I wanted to help make a fun event in our little community. One that could potentially help people, by raising money that they could use. 

The event was made in a few steps and I loved how much we all came together for it. During the pandemic, I had done a few events with the community, which I was so proud of. Yet, I was super proud of this one, because it was led by everyone, many who were willing to help others find their next bargain. 

I managed and ran the event all online, with word of mouth helping to spread it further. Therefore, I could make changes, help others and host the event from the comfort of my own home and in a fast fashion. Hopefully, with this all being so good, I am looking forward to more events in the future. Especially around Christmas time. 

Therefore, I wanted to share a few helpful tips to help you run an event of your own in your local area…

Find A Place That Everyone Can Get To: We hosted the car boot on the end of our drives, in our front gardens and even on local greens and neighbour’s drives. This made it easy to move items around, set up a map and to help each other feel safe whilst looking around the area. Pick a place that everyone can get to, with no set up fees to help make the money made go further. 

Use Online Services To Run The Event: Using a Facebook Event set up, I invited everyone in my local community, encouraging them to invite others to come along, which helped me be able to make event changes, provide updates and have an ease of access to people when needed. This made it run a lot smoother. 

Arrange A Good Date: Most people where I live like to stay in the village on a Sunday. This made picking a Sunday morning, a day and time when most car boots happen anyway, super easy to choose. Now, people are discussing hosting one on the last weekend of every month after seeing how successful it was, which made me super happy. 

Ask Before You Host: Before all of these steps, I did actually ask on the other Facebook groups if this would be of interest to people. There was a huge positive reaction, which was so heartwarming to see. This encouragement made me even more determined to host the event and seeing more and more people getting interested in it made me happier and happier. I hope that we host more in the future. 

Respect People’s Goods: Whether it is homemade cakes and jam or items that they no longer want or need, respect people's items and what they wish to sell. You can learn about new businesses, people living near you and find goods you never knew you needed by doing so. 

Honestly, in only a few simple ways I made a successful event, which took no effort at all. You can do this too and I hope to hear from you all in the future if you do so, as it would make me so happy to hear about the events you have run. 

Joey X