Yard Sales

I am sitting here recuperating from bronchitis. Such a nasty thing! Bronchitis totally wears you out. I am an on the go kinda gal. I make lists, do the things on the list, check things off the list and then look at the list and make another list. Bronchitis does not allow for lists. Bronchitis says, "Sit! Stay! No list for you!". I really don't like that as I want to be productive and useful and helpful as much as possible. Prior to having bronchitis, I did have a list. Not just a little list a MAJOR LIST. This was a yard sale list.... a big yard sale list. Personally, I am not a yard sale type of person. I don't go to them as I do not want to buy other peoples junk. I have enough junk of my own which is why I decided to have a yard sale. The advantages of the yard sale is that you make some money from stuff you just have sitting around the house taking up space. Sounds like a great idea. We can all use a little extra money these days. I mean how much trouble is it really. You gather stuff up, you put it on some tables, you put an ad in the paper, people come and buy the stuff and ta-da you make some money. Easy enough right? WRONG! First of all, my house has three floors. Three floors of stuff to look at.... on a day to day basis you just don't realize how much stuff there is everywhere. No one needs that much stuff. I don't need that much stuff. So in order to have a yard sale you have to look at the stuff and make decisions. The basic strategy is KEEP, THROW OUT, SELL. Should be simple. WRONG. As you look at the stuff you remember where you got it or who gave it to you or how sentimental is it? And on the sentimental scale is it way up there sentimental or just a teeny bit sentimental. It all becomes quite tiring looking at all the stuff. Then once you sort it, you have to carry it either up steps, down steps or across the room to get ready for the day of the sale. At this point, you have piles of stuff now and to be honest I wondered why I thought this was a good idea. I have just spent days sorting through stuff in order to make piles of stuff. Egads! I feel like a hoarder! Have you ever seen that show "Hoarders"? It is perhaps one of the grossest shows I have ever seen. I makes me kinda sick so I really avoid watching it now. It is hard to believe that people actually hoard everything... and I mean everything including their garbage in their home. And, they don't want to let it go. Are you kidding? Even though I am not a hoarder like that I did wonder why there was so much accumulated stuff? So the purpose of the yard sale is to PURGE the stuff. So now I have these piles ready for the yard sale which is the next morning and is to begin at 8 a.m. Do you know what time you have to get up in order to be ready for an 8 a.m. yard sale? 4:00 a.m. as in the morning when it is still dark outside. At that moment I really wondered why I thought this was a good idea. But, I am in it now and have to follow through. So, with some great help, the piles of stuff were brought outside and put on the tables....in the DARK! And if you think that I put price tags on all of the stuff, you have got to be joking. No way! That would have taken forever. All I wanted to do was get this over with now. So, here we are in the dark putting stuff on the tables for the 8 a.m. yard sale and LOW AND BEHOLD here comes a guy with a flashlight (because it is DARK and it is 5 a.m.!) to look at the stuff! REALLY! To think that this is something that drives a person to get up that early in the morning. It is hard to believe. I never want to get up that early and if I did I wouldn't be driving anywhere to look at other peoples stuff. I would be drinking coffee, period, end of discussion! I guess this early morning yard sale hunt is like getting up in the middle of the night and going out on the beach looking for seashells after the high tide. I see the similarity but, call me crazy, the idea of finding a perfect conch shell on a pristine beach at dawn, with the tide softly tumbling in and lapping over your toes sounds a whole lot better than finding a shot glass from Kings Dominion on a table in someones front yard. Don't really see the awe in the yard sale venture. You know. So anywhoo, after the early bird came and went from the yard sale and the sun was finally coming out, we were deluged by the yard sale regulars! There were people coming from everywhere, buying everything. I guess we had "the good stuff". We even had repeat customers! Some of the people were really nice and something caught their eye and they were happy to buy it. But, then there was the other group of people, that apparently do this on a regular basis. I cannot even imagine how much stuff they have! Do you think we encouraged the "hoarders"? I mean some of these people were getting piles of stuff. I feel kinda bad if I added to their hoardingness...is that a word? Then there was another group of people that obviously use yard sales as their social event of the week. They chat and chat and stay and chat and come back and chat some more. I guess we were good chatters versus the other yard sales of the day. Kinda sad in a way. So we got bombarded and sold a bunch of stuff and we should be happy, right? Well, yes. BUT, at 4 p.m. after having been up twelve hours already, we had to put the unsold stuff away. That was THE worst part. After you drag it out of the house, you really don't want to drag it back in the house. You wish it would just disappear. But, you just can't leave it in the middle of the yard -- someone may steal it! Would it matter if someone stole it at this point? Would you really care? There is something inside that says, man, I could have gotten a quarter for that... I don't want someone to just take it. Okay, sure, good reasoning there.
A few years ago, my mom started giving stuff back to me that I had given to her. I thought it was kind of insensitive on her part. Why would she do that? I soooooo get it now. You live this life and you get stuff along the way. At the time is seems so important. You just had to have it. Couldn't live without it. But really, no one needs that much stuff to be truly happy. I know why my mom gave stuff back to me --- it did mean something to her and she just didn't want to throw it away. She knew I liked it if I gave it to her so she gave it back to me so I could enjoy it too. I really get it. So, at the conclusion of this yard sale, I found that I had learned alot of truths. It is true that having some sentimental items is wonderful.... things you can pass down to your children or family that will mean something for generations to come. I learned it is wasteful to buy so much stuff. You don't need it. I learned that having a yard sale is a really hard task and the benefit of making some money comes at another price...namely your sanity and well-being. And I learned if you have stuff that you really don't want there are places that you can donate to. Places like Goodwill, The Salvation Army and many other organizations that rely on donations to carry out their mission. They want your stuff and will come and GLADLY get your stuff. Finally, I learned the absolute truth about yard sales. I am never ever ever having another yard sale as long as I live. Now I will think down sizing and simplifying and appreciating what I have without excess. As my mom always said, if you don't use it three times a week you don't need it. So don't buy it or either get rid of it and give it to someone who truly does need it.
Until next time,
Anne