Yard Sale- too much work!

With my parent's move and downsizing, they left a lot behind. Some of it was stuff that Amy wants for a future house/apt. and some of it I wanted but had to clean out some of my stuff to make room for it. So the yard sale actually took a whole week of work to make it happen. Luckily, we had mom and dad's empty garage to use while sorting through everything. Last Saturday we spent 4 hours cleaning and sorting through the storage unit. Then once it was clean and had lots of room, we started taking stuff from our garage and from mom's garage to put away. We then brought all the yard sale stuff to the empty garage and all week long we tried to sort it and group it. I put an ad in the paper stating 6-11 AM on Sat. So, at 4AM, Amy, Ryan and I went over and start pulling the stuff out and put it on mom's long driveway. We had so much stuff and it took us the full 2 hours to get set up. We had like, 20 bags and boxes of clothes and didn't have time to sort it. So that was an unorganized mess. But I sold all clothes for $1 a bag and if they wanted stuff, they had to dig for it.

Well, we got slammed at 6:00 AM. The vultures were waiting. And the first ones there are the "professional yard salers" who come for the bargains on the big items. That was okay with me. I really wanted to just clean up and get rid. Since the driveway was so long and I was the only adult working the sale (Ryan, Cameron and Faith were there too, but Ray and Amy had to work) I know I got ripped off. I cannot remember selling lots of stuff, some big items, some newer items, but they were gone in the end. Like I said, I don't mind if they really needed it, but I hate to think it was just to re-sell or for their own profit.

But at the end of the day, we had got rid of a lot and we had pocketed some money and the kids had sold lots of their toys and each earned about $10 of their own. Even Ryan got about $5 in tips for being helpful. I didn't try to make big profits and some people took advantage of that, but I had 2 different customers who insisted on paying more than I was asking. And we sold a lot of items for a quarter because the kids and I saved quarters in our FUN FUND jar all summer long to do one fun activity at the end of the summer (which we still don't know what we are going to do) so, all quarters all day from every sale, went into the quarter jar. Now we will just plan our fun day and spend our money. They were real good in the summer with daily chores while we worked, and even did a reading program with me that added quarters to the jar. I think we will do something in San Diego, but not Sea World. Maybe Legoland or maybe just the zoo and museum/ aquarium.

Now we will take all the leftover yard sale stuff to the church on Thursday and the church is having their annual "Rummage Give-away". I did advertise the give-away at my yard sale too. Now I will have to learn to stay away from yard sales to keep my house from getting crowded again. The cycle continues. Oh well, glad that is behind us.

This coming weekend will be just fun and relaxation. Amy is off, Robert, Ray and Brandie and kids are all coming to Blythe for a day at the river. We will take the waverunner out and spend the day on the beach. We plan to bbq some ribs and just kick back. Big Robert's birthday is Friday and little Robert's (Ray and Brandie's) is the 27th so we are celebrating both. Robert has not been "available" to celebrate a birthday for 12 years, so we are going big on this one. I will write more next week (and by then I should have pictures downloaded to add).