Why You Should Be Picking Up Patio Furniture During The Off Season

Chances are, you're spending your October nights brewing up hot cocoa and snuggling up with Fido on the couch. What you're not thinking about as you plow through your vintage fall holiday cartoon marathon is buying patio furniture. Maybe you should be, though. While doing this won't directly put pennies in your wallet (like, say, digging through the sofa cushions will), indirectly, the practice of buying lawn furniture in the off-season taps you into the penny-saved, penny-earned vibe. Depending on the store, you can expect to save between 10% and 20% at the start of the off-season, which begins at the end of August. As the off-season shopping season progresses, though, it isn't unusual to see savings of up to 70% or more as the winter snows start to fall.

The next logical question for you probably runs along the lines of "When is the off-season, exactly?" This magical time for buying lawn furniture begins when summer ends. You'll find the best deals on items for your outdoor living room starting after Labor Day. By that time, retailers want to move their summer season furniture off their showroom floors to make room for Christmas tea cozies and portable electric fireplaces. The urgency to get rid of the extra patio furniture crescendos as Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales begin. As the end of the year and the start of the New Year steam forward, you'll see even more clearance sales and even better prices. For shoppers like you, the sweet spot will be the intersection between finding the best prices and having the greatest number of patio furniture options to choose from.

You're going to have to play your cards right to make the most of the sales. It's likely that a good portion of stores' patio furniture stock has dwindled by the time the late-fall and early-winter sales roll around. The truth is, you buy lawn furniture in the spring to have a nearly unlimited selection. However, you'll want to be prepared to pay some serious coin if you want to take home any of those options.

As a fall shopper, budget is likely your greatest motivator and also your biggest hindrance. To offset some of the drawbacks you'll encounter as a late-in-the-season shopper, you'll need to use the right strategy to get high-quality items you actually like. For example, you may get a primo deal and a handsome patio set to boot if you're willing to buy the store's floor models. These pieces become available for sale when the store is ready to sell the current season's items. Buying the floor model at season's end can net you savings of up to 50%. However, if you've come into the store to shop the off-season sale, don't settle for the floor models you see first. Keep an eye out as you walk through the store. You might find the best deal of the season on a single patio chair that's tucked away at the back of the store.

It also helps to go into the store ahead of sale season and get to know some of the sales pros who work in your favorite stores. They can give you a heads-up when sales will be happening, and maybe even let you know which day floor models will be available to buy. You also need to be ready to jump on a sale opportunity. Any quality items that are still in the store, especially during the last days of the off-season, are going to go fast — so be prepared to live with your purchase without negotiation. Often, these late-in-the-year purchases are final, and items like floor models should be retrieved by the consumer by the agreed-upon pick-up date. 

Additionally, be prepared to play the long game. When you're designing your perfect patio in your mind, consider the lawn furniture you already have. Will you need to buy a whole set? Or do you just need certain items, such as a patio umbrella or ottomans? This gives you some flexibility when it comes to selection. In other words, you may want a full, brand-new four-chair outdoor dining set to totally change up the look of your space, but you could just buy new seat cushions for the set you already have or add an outdoor patio curtain to upgrade your seating area. This approach forces you to ask yourself what you really need for maximum savings at an off-season patio furniture sale without sacrificing the comfort you want.