Garage Sale Weekend!!

WHAT A WEEKEND!

It never ceases to amaze me the power of a garage sale. First, it forces you to clean up your house and get rid of crap that you know you will never use, and quite frankly never used in the 1st place! I really have to be in the mood for purging, and when I am, I can clean out a lot! I have to keep reminding myself that I am tired of living in clutter and if I can't think of a purpose for it right now, it's gone!! I also want to re-do our office area to be a more organized computer, craft, relaxing area and Mike said I couldn't do that until I got rid of a bunch of stuff... talk about the pot calling the kettle black! I basically have to beg, plead and cry to get Michael to get rid of some of the crap he has collected through the years.
I have a huge fear when it comes to Mike and his genetic tendencies toward pack-rat-ness. Shortly after Mike and I started dating, his grandmother passed away. I volunteered to help clean out her apartment....OH MY GOD!!! Boxes, floor to ceiling, with magazines in them. Boxes and boxes of yarn and fabric... crap crap crap!! And not taken care of crap.... smelly, moldy, I don't bother to take out the trash crap! And it doesn't end with his grandmother... his mother and sister are the same way. Now our garage is full of "priceless" crap that my husband cannot part with... comic books, old stuffed animals, magazines with one good article that he swears he will need one day. Somedays I just basically sit on Michael and force him to watch "Clean Sweep" on TLC. What those organizers say to the couples is so revealing sometimes!! I just love TV that is both therapy and entertaining!
Anyhoo... back to the garage sale... we stayed up very late Friday night setting up all of our stuff, "our" being: me, my mom, and sister, Karen. The next morning I wake up to Wes Hohenstein telling me that major storms, 2-3 inches of rain, were heading our way and would start around 9:00... crap crap crap... I am too tired and too worn out to not benefit from all of our hard work with a little cash! Mom and Karen think about canceling... I say we try until the rain starts. We agree a little is better than nothing.
Karen and I go to put the signs up. You would think we were topless in front of a fraternity offering free kegs of beer. People were screeching on their brakes, honking and pointing in the directions of the sign's arrows, smiling and giving up thumbs up!
Luckily we had our own little Walmart greeters back at the house to welcome the masses. Max and Kaitlyn, Karen's daughter, kept post on the driveway waving hello and goodbye to everyone. It was very difficlult for the little ones to understand why people were taking their toys away. Kameron, Karen's oldest son, had a little separation anxiety at one point and followed a kid to his car with his wagon of toys. We had to remind him that with all the money "HE" was making he could buy a really cool toy!
Then, the negotiating begins. The key to garage sales is always remembering that you do not want this stuff back into your home! I am not willing to give it away, but almost. If you show me that you are going to take a lot of my crap, I am more willing to give it to you for less. It was also fun to see the people moving from me, to my mom, then to my sister (who was the banker) to see who would give them the better deal! Little do they know that we are all psychically bonded and would know what the others said!
To make this long story just a little longer, we made over $600! And it never rained a drop! The sad news is, we probably only sold 1/3 of all the crap that was in our sale. So rather than pack everything up, we just moves the tables inside and agreed to try again next Saturday... greedy, aren't we?