In September, Skip's family hosts our annual "Trash to Treasure" swap at his sister's house. Every year I think this will be the year that we will be organized. Every year I come crashing down to reality. Every year we start preparing mere days before the big event.
But this year is the worst. Stomach flu and general busyness has found us very ill-prepared. In just 2 short days, I will need to go through every nook and cranny in our house and find our "trash". We will look through and debate each item for any possible usage or significance. We will bargain with the kids about their sale items. We will haggle with them about the Beanie Baby they haven't touched in 3 years. Then we will swear to NEVER do this again.
I have several late nights ahead. Several hours of pricing, sorting,cleaning, displaying. I wonder if its worth it.
Then Friday and Saturday roll around and I realize why we put ourselves through this. I love meeting the people that come to look at our "trash". I love talking with Skip's family. I love watching the kids play outside all day. Listening to them "sell" their items. I love the jokes and stories told over McDonald's breakfast. I love snuggling in sweatshirts, then peeling them off as the day gets hotter. I love seeing families leave with their newly found treasures. I love laughing about the oddball things we try to sell--one year we had 4 toilets in the front yard!
Every year we look forward to the next garage sale and the time we get to spend together. Just wish me luck that we can find something to sell in this short amount of time. Any garage sale advice would be handy! What works for you? How do you stay organized throughout the year so you are not frantically scrabbling just days before?
This is so me. I would rather blog about having to get ready for a garage sale, than actually getting ready for the garage sale. Better run....
16 comments:
I wish I had some good advice for you, but the one garage sale I did was NOT a success! Let's just say I thought my "trash" was expensive trash! LOL!!
I hope it's a HUGE success this year. You sound like me...I'm always blogging about something I should be doing instead of doing it! Why is that? :):)
all growing up my family had an annual garage sale with family friends. WHAT GREAT MEMORIES! there is something about doing something like that together with loved ones every year that is just FUN! i love traditions. aren't they just THE BEST! hope you have a blast! and make some good spending cash!
LOL....we're having ours on Saturday, too!!! I'm going to work tonight on the signs. *sigh* I don't really have any tips, but I do know that all through the year I'm boxing up stuff I don't want and tossing it in the garage and then we stick it up in storage until yardsale time. Then we just drag it out and sort it into somewhat logical categories and put stickers on it. Then finally, we do a quick walkthrough the house and make sure there isn't anything random that we want to grab and throw in. LOL. You know how we love random at our place. *GRIN* GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR SALE!!! I hope we both make lots of money on all our junk!!! *grin*
Have fun!
I had a garage sale at my sisters house a last summer...
It was terrible nothing sold for the prices that I wanted the first day...
So I had to mark everything way down the next day!
People want things for really cheap.
Oh, and starting bright and early is key!
Those early birds are the best!
I sort year round...
Price it, box it, when boxes are full and pile is in my way, it gets sent away and brought back the night before garage sale when I unpack it and display.
Piece of cake.
:)
Yeah, I've got nothin'. I usually intend to have a sale and then get so sick of the stuff that we just take it to a thrift store and give it away. Tax deductions aren't so bad.
Your garage sale sounds like quite the adventure. I'm sure it will be worth the work.
I actually love having a garage sale. I used to have one every year in our old neighborhood. Now, we live in a Nazi HOA so I never know when the 3 days a year are - I don't really pay attention to their rivetting newsletters. So, I haven't had one in about 4 years. We take our junk to the goodwill a lot. I would love to come your your swap!!! I'm sure my garage would thank me for it!
I have TONS of advice, but I've never actually followed my own... We are in the same boat.
I just did all of that in a slow process before we put our house on the market. I swear I dropped a load of stuff at Goodwill once a week for about 2 months!! Good luck on turning you trash to treasure. :)
By the way, I should SO be writing my work reports right now. Or packing for our trip. Think I should try that one??? Sheesh.
LOL... I absolutely ABHOR garage sales. The kids love them, but they do all the work themselves. They haul out their toys... sit there with the stuff... and put it away when done. Works for me. :)
My son is quite the entrepreneur. The kid made $20 selling ice water one afternoon... and it was RAINING. LOL. One woman stopped and said, "I don't even want any water, but here's a dollar anyway." Too funny.
I'm having a yard sale this weekend! I've been trying to work a little on it every night after the Wog goes to bed, but I haven't managed to make a dent in it!
If I'd get my hiney off eBay buying new junk, maybe I could find more of my own to sell!
Good luck!
We don't even have garage sales, because it stresses me out too much! All of our stuff ends up at the Boys and Girls Club thrift shop! We might try to stop by...I'd love to see what interesting things you have this year! :)
NOW i know what i am going to do tomorrow...garage sale shopping. i forget how much fun it is to give my daughter a baggie full of change (good math lesson) and jump from sale to sale bargaining for little treasures along the way (key word little). she has an under the bed box for such little finds and loves to drag it out and go through it now and then...She lists garage sale shopping as one of her many "fun things to do on saturday" items.
NOW if i could just get her to part with a few things for our next garage sale, life would be even better!
I enjoy garage sales, but I have to be in the mood. I have had a few, but only when I was moving. I had a entire "garage sale pile" that took over an entire room when we moved to Texas from Indiana. And I priced them to GO. I was giving stuff away and then those people went and told their friends and I moved some serious merchandise! Anything that didn't sell, went straight to the goodwill. It really is a cleansing feeling! :)
I'm not much for garage sales, buying or selling. I'm too impatient and unlucky. I never come across the unbelievable finds.
I do have an idea for helping kids part with their stuff though. Faith needs to see and touch everything because it all holds memories. When I give her the camera and let her capture her "memories" and download them onto the computer, she says goodbye a little bit more easily.
Kate
I wish I'd read your post before you had one....I'm a little behind I think.
I am known around these parts (cute western music) as the Garage Sale Queen! I love having them and going to them. I am usually rather successful when I have them. I have been know to make over $1,300 in one day! Although they aren't all that succcessful, I rarely make less than $300 in one. Anyway, the key is being organized. Through the year, pull stuff as you don't need it - pile it in boxes in the garage. I store my stuff in the attic. As a box gets full, I put it up there. Then, weeks before (sometimes a month or two before) I pull it down and start categorizing it and labeling it. Eat the elephant one bite at a time. It takes time, but I think its worth it.
Hope your sale was successful.
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