The Week of the Garage Sale

I think this is the first week I have gone without posting since the start of my blog! Sorry about the interruption in service there, I was busy trying to make money by having a garage sale. Make no mistake about it, having garage sales are a ton of work. I made almost $200, which was fabulous, but I would hate to calculate my return per hour spent on planning, setting up, cleaning and manning the sale. That's why it is worth it to have some other benefits built in to the event...

1. I got to spend time with some of my favorite people in the world! My sister came over sign making night and we got to hang out and then I had several dear friends help set up, help man the sale and sometimes just stop by to hang out and chat. It was fabulous!

2. I got to meet a lot of my neighbors. As I wrote about recently, I have been just starting to meet the folks in my area. I don't consider myself much a social person, but there are real advantages to getting to know the folks who live nearby. One neighbor wants me to let her know when I have my next sale, since she will try to have one at the same time and we can double our signs and other efforts and hopefully get more folks to the sales. Another neighbor offered to lend a hand with one of my house projects. Another gentleman stopped by who used to live in my house back in the 80s. He was a lot of fun to talk to!

3. I cleaned out my garage. I hadn't realized how badly my garage needed a cleaning until I went to have this sale. It was pretty bad! I swept it all out and moved out all the lawn equipment to another spot for the sale. Now I am going to use this as an opportunity to reorganize as I put it back in.

4. It was an ego boost. I got so many wonderful compliments from so many folks on my house and garden. Since I am still in process of getting the house painted and getting the yard in shape, it was so, so nice to hear people letting me know that they liked what I was doing. I live in one of those "edge" neighborhoods. It has some beautiful homes, but also some rough looking ones. There are a lot of rentals, and while some are well cared for, some aren't. It is definitely an up and coming neighborhood, but there is still some "up" to go. I got the feeling that neighbors definitely appreciated the work I've been doing, which was nice.

5. We moved out a lot of "stuff." Most of my items were priced at $2.00 and under, so to make $200, I had to sell a lot of my former treasures. (Well, a lot of it was also my mother and sister's who both generously donated their stuff to the sale and said I could keep the money that was made from it.) Some of the things I sold were from my marriage, and it was great to see objects that bring me pain going to good homes and people who were exited about having them.

So, that is what I have been up to all week. I'll try to write a Fighting Foreclosure/Getting Nine Hundred Guide to Garage Sales later this week. In the meantime, I need to catch up on my blog reading!



Photo by: lesleyraez