one down, fourteen to go

That's right, only a few days in and I can already cross the first item off my 2013 summer bucket list: have a garage sale. Like I told you on Friday, if the weather was good, we were going to go ahead and have a "garage" sale in our driveway off the alley on Saturday. And, for once this spring, the weather cooperated. We spent Friday night getting the last of the preparations done, the last of the items priced, the signs made and locations to place them decided upon. We got up bright and early (6am) Saturday morning to haul the boxes from the sun porch to the backyard and set up each department. Two hours later we were officially open for business (after making a few sales to those pesky early-bird shoppers).

We had perfect weather for the sale- 70's and overcast. Saturday also happened to be the day our neighborhood was having a community festival, so there was lots of foot traffic and lots of people watching, making the day go by fast.

I know people think having a garage sale is a lot of work, too much work for most people. And it is, but I think it's fun work. Yes, it kind of sucked hauling the stuff down from the second story, and it sucked even more hauling it back up when we were done (these steps could have been avoided if we actually had a garage). And at times sitting outside got a little boring, but overall we got to sit in the nice weather for a day, meet some new neighbors, enjoy lunch with relatives and friends that stopped by, and make some money in the process. I also think it is really satisfying watching other people get excited about buying your  junk stuff or finding a good deal at your sale. For instance I had a brand new Anthropologie dress, with the $98 dollar price tag still on it (I got it at a thrift store). It was too big for me (I at one point had plans of taking it in), and I watched a young woman eye it from the sidewalk and then hustle over to it and excitedly snatch it up, barely taking time to look at it before she brought it over to me and paid for it. I made $8 and she left feeling like she just "scored."

Oh, and call me weird but I also find it really relaxing/ theraputic going through all of the crap and pricing it. It makes me feel good about all of the stuff I am purging from my house- see I really do enjoy the entire process.

In summary, we worked 12 hours, not including the pricing that went on in the weeks before, from 6am to 6pm on Saturday. And we made just under $165 which isn't too shabby considering we had no "big-ticket" items to sell. All things considered, yes, I definitely plan on doing another one, but hopefully I don't acquire enough things to fill a garage sale for a few more years....

Forgot to take pics, but here's a little diagram I made in the planning stages, 

now with the updated changes made to show how we actually set it up on the day-of.