DIY Clothes Rack for Garage Sales

Got a garage sale coming up? Learn how to make a clothes rack for a yard sale below! This simple to build DIY clothes rack for garage sales is great for not only secondhand sales, but excess clothes storage as well!

Yard sale season is so close, I can almost taste it.

Nearly every Friday come spring, the Circus and I will load up and hit all the area yard sales.

And then on Saturday morning, we’ll do it again, courtesy of our chauffeur, Grunt Labor.

And of course, my friends and I have become quite popular for our own yard sales as well.

You have read The Yard Sale Chronicles post, right?

At least two or three times a year, we all get together and host a yard sale, generally at my house. We hang out in the garage in our matching t-shirts drinking beer, Arbor Mist or Sangria if we’re lucky enough to get Kathryn to make it that day. We laugh and carry on and on more than one occasion, we’ve had customers ask if they can hang out with us for the rest of the day just for the entertainment.

Yard sale days are a big deal around here.

And since we’ve done it so much now, we just keep getting better and better at them. We have great signs, our shit is organized and mostly priced.

And we all make a little money just for putting our shit for sale in the driveway, hanging out together and drinking.

If that isn’t a win-win situation, then I don’t know what damn well is.

My friend Jason recently had the grand idea of hosting a Secondhand Market. Basically, it was kind of like an upscale yard sale indoors. He did a great job organizing it and it went extremely well.

At our yard sales, we generally hang a dowel rod between one of the garage door openings to hang clothes on, but for the Secondhand Market, I knew we would need clothes hanging storage that would stand alone. I made some DIY clothes racks that were a super simple build and to top them off, I also made printable size dividers to use for the sale.

I’m sharing both the instructions for the homemade clothes rack and the printables with you!

How to Make a Clothes Rack for a Yard Sale

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These are a super simple build and inexpensive as well. I made three different sizes (height wise) of these racks. I’m sharing the instructions for the shortest one, 4′ tall, below. The other two I made were 4 1/2′ tall and then 5′ tall. You can make taller ones, simply by cutting your 2″ x 4″ end posts to whatever your desired height is.

Tools & Supplies Needed:

• 2 – 2″ x 4″ x 96″ Studs
• 1 1/4″ Round Dowel Rod – mine were each 8 ft. long, but you can choose whatever length you wish to fit your needs.
• Circular Saw or Miter Saw
• Drill and 1 1/4″ Hole Saw Drill Bit
• Hammer and Nails or Nail Gun and Air Compressor or Wood Screws

Steps

Step 1

Make your cuts first. Cut the 2″ x 4″ pieces down to the following lengths:

• 2 – 48″ long pieces
• 8 – 10″ long pieces

I used my miter saw to cut my pieces, but you can use a circular saw as well.

If you want to cut your dowel rod down to a certain length, you can do that now as well. I bought mine at 8 feet long and opted to leave them that long.

Step 2

Take each of your 48″ long 2″ x 4″ pieces and mark 1 1/2″ down on one end of each piece. Using your drill and the 1 1/4″ hole saw drill bit, drill out a hole at each mark you made. This will be the top of your clothes rack where each dowel rod will slide into.

Step 3

Take one of the 48″ long 2″ x 4″ pieces and lay it flat against the ground. On the opposite end of where you drilled out your hole, attach one of the 10″ long 2″ x 4″ pieces perpendicular, but lined up on one edge of the 2″ x 4″ as shown below.

I did this using my nail gun because it was close by and made the job go super fast. A good ol’ hammer and nails or wood screws will do the trick as well though.

Turn the 48″ long 2″ x 4″ on its side. Line up another 10″ long 2″ x 4″ piece and attach it as shown below.

Turn it again. Attach another 10″ piece.

Repeat one more time.

You should have four feet on your 48″ long 2″ x 4″.

Repeat this process with the other 48″ long 2″ x 4″.

Step 4

Slide the dowel rod through the top holes of each 2″ x 4″.

That’s all there is to the clothes racks!

How to Hang Clothes at a Garage Sale

Once you get all your clothes on the racks, if the dowel rod is sagging in the middle, then just move your end leg pieces in more.

This will stabilize the clothes rack and you’ll still have plenty of hanging room on the ends and in the middle.

When hanging clothes, it’s always a great idea to divide the clothing by gender (male/female), adult sizes, and children’s sizes. On top of that, it’s even better if you divide it by size. This makes it much easier for your yard sale customers to browse through the clothing and find what may fit them, instead of them getting frustrated that everything is so unorganized.

To organize and divide the clothing, be sure to grab this set of free printable size dividers right here!

Print off as many sets as you’ll need for organizing the clothing. I have a set for adult men, adult women, little boys and little girls clothing.

I hope you’ll find the racks and size dividers helpful for selling more at your next yard sale!

More posts you might find helpful:

The Best Yard Sale Tips – all the things I’ve learned about hosting yard sales for the better part of a decade.

How I Made $2K+ in Two Months Selling Our Clutter – find out my tips for getting the most money for your clutter!

Want to remember these clothes racks for later? Pin the image below then!

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