garage sale success!

Have you ever done a garage sale?  A BIG GARAGE SALE?  Then you know when I tell you that it was a looonnnnnnngggggggggggggg, very long day, that I mean it. 

I got up at 6am to be ready to open at 7am.  People were driving by at 6.30am hoping we were already open.  Nope.  Not yet peeps.  Give us some time to finish splashing the water on our eyelids and dreaming of coffee without madness and we will be out soon!

I have spent much of the last month, fifteen minutes here, an hour here or there, sorting through boxes, closets, drawers, reorganizing, culling items not used, and getting rid of stuff to sell.  I have worked full time for 17+ years and spent my hard earned money the last 15+ years "setting up house" for a mode and plan of being married and having kids. Neither of which has been part of God's plan for me.  None of my things I was culling and selling were "wedding gifts" or other "gifts", except one or two  or three things like a puzzle and Norman Rockwell ceramic bell.  Nearly 100% of the items I was selling were things I spent my hard earned money on.  Since I have finally realized that I have been living and planning for a life that is not what I live and neither of these things are part of my life, it is time, officially time, to move on and shape my life for what it is.

This process, was not always an easy process.  If you have never had to do something like this, you may not understand.  If JW Cotten isn't your great granpa, you may not know what it is like to keep stuff and not part with it.  I mean it!!!  Sometimes I simply had to will myself to do the right thing because it was the right thing to do and ignore the hurt to see the money spent and in reality, wasted.  You might think it is easy to part with things that you have never used or hardly used or spent money on that are still in prestige shape.  It's not.  

Who wants to get rid of pizza pans never used?  You see, I grew up eating Homemade Pizza every Friday Night.  Without Fail.  But making Pizza for one person isn't so much fun.  Especially when wheat is no longer apart of your diet.  Pizza?  But maybe someday you will have a bunch of people over and have a Pizza Party and so you keep them.  Lots of them because at home you never had enough pizza pans.

Who wants to get rid of 10 mini cheesecake springform pans never used?  I mean, it looks so fun to make mini cheesecakes or mini chocolate lovers chocolate cakes.  And that would be so easy and fun to do.  But you never have because after a long day at work or full week of work, its just not the fun thing to think about doing anymore.

Who wants to get rid of an Villa Maker indoor ice cream/sorbet/gelato maker, that has never used in 5 or 6 years since purchased brand new at Target?  I mean it is small, can make just a few servings and seems so neat to make ice cream or sorbet or gelato.  But I have never used it.  If I want sorbet, I get one scoop at either Paciugo or Baskin Robbins.  If I want gelato, I eat it at Jennifer's when she makes it.  If I want ice cream, I get a scoop for free on my Birthday from my Birthday Club Coupon from Marble Slab Creamery or Cold Stone Creamery.  I don't make Ice Cream other than for the Ice Cream Parties at church.  Who am I kidding?  Yah, just myself.  I have figured that out now.  I want to make something like this, but am I really going to eat all it makes, just me?  No.  [I later researched and should have sold this on eBay or Amazon because I could have gotten much more for it - like $65 - than the $7.50 it sold for on an asking price of $15!!!  These are the things that are utterly gut wrenching and difficult to think about and though I try not to, they still haunt me.]

Who wants to get rid of half your glass vase collection?  I have done many Bridal Showers, Baby Showers, Parties and have used my collection...but only once did I use my collection to this amount.  Though these are beautiful, things not used taking up space begin to feel like wasted stuff.  And stuff begins to feel like junk, no matter how nice it is.  You think I am joking?  Let's not mention that having all this stuff you can't use because you have to work to make a living doesn't help breed contentment, peace, and calmness.

I was the decorator for Sarah & Travis wedding...this is the Sweet Table we had at the reception following the wedding ceremony.  

I made three table cloths like this and bought nearly all the vases (other than a few already in my collection and 3 borrowed from friends) to do this arrangement.  There are 17 glass vases pictured here, which was not my any means my complete collection.  I kept 9 and sold 15 of them at the Garage Sale today.

...Yes, its a bitter sweet process.  

Even after all this, I still have more than plenty, way MORE than plenty.  I still have more work to do to create a home environment that fits my lifestyle, but I am working on it and am inspired by the beginning of this great process!

lovely Beveled Screen Glass & Wood Room Divider 

purchased June 2005 and sold today for $75!!!

The day started out very cold but as the sun came out it warmed up, though it continued to be windier then we needed and it drained your skin dry.  In the end after 9 hours and skin bright red it was a complete success!!!  We did $1800 together, of which I made $683 and spent $2 on a wooden silverware chest from Jo, so I netted $681.00!!!  Yes, much more than I thought I would and that is an incredible amount of money being that the screen pictured above was my only pricey thing other than a stereo that sold for $30.  This is $89 shy of being two house payments!  And that is exactly where the money is going to go, straight towards two extra house payments.  I am also going to take 10% and give it as a gift to those that helped me do this work because I did not do it alone.  :)  

I plan to do another garage sale at my place in 2-3 weeks and sell the 1/4 to 1/3 of stuff I brought home.  I also plan to keep up the work of simplifying and getting rid of what I do not need.