Garage Sale

Every January, our HOA sponsors a community-wide garage sale. They do all the advertising and encourage everyone to participate. I hate garage sales. First of all I have low tolerance for clutter and regularly make runs to DI as our stuff starts to encroach on our living space, limiting the availability of stuff to sell. Our family has grown but our square footage has not, so it is necessary. I often will think, hey I should try to sell this, but I hate the process of strangers rifling through my stuff, like for instance the infant car seat that I brought all three of my babies home from the hospital in. Putting a price on it just seems blasphemous. It's not that I want to keep it forever and bronze it or something. I've always tried to keep in perspective that life is about people, not stuff, so it is way way more satisfying to give it away to someone who needs it than have someone offer a quarter for it and resell if for all I know.

Anyway, I broke all my rules today and let the kids put out some of their things to sell that they have out grown. For the record, Power Rangers, baby books, and Cars branded stuff goes, Monster Trucks and stuffed animals stay. Unfortunately for me, the boys lost interest in their entrepreneurial endeavors in the first five minutes, leaving me to deal with the customers. They did not lose interest in the doughnuts and hot chocolate being sold by neighbors, however severely eating into our profits. In the end we (meaning I) sold about $35 bucks worth of stuff. I've had better paying jobs. The "find" of the day though was the Little Tykes Tree house being sold out of the Marriot's garage. I almost bought a similar play house for Christmas at a full retail price of over $200. Today's price: $10 delivered. Nice!