I am happy to report that my first garage sale was a success. I did not even want to have one, but Chris convinced me that these things tend to be worth while and besides, why not try to make a little extra cash before we head into a few years without a significant salary :). Our lease was up at the end of August, so we had a 3-day regional moving extravaganza which consisted of loading a moving truck in Columbus, unloading to store stuff at our parents homes in Cleveland and Pittsburgh, and then heading back to Columbus. We left behind the things we categorized as something we probably wouldn't need after 27 months away, but someone else might need right now. We spent the last few days in our home by cleaning and labeling these things and seriously questioning if selling them would even be worth the time and energy, especially after the exhausting move. But we soldiered on and posted our sale on craigslist, hung signs and balloons around the neighborhood, and decided we were ok with making only a little bit of cash. We woke up early Saturday morning to get everything out in our front yard before the 9:00 start time...and by 7:30, the craziness began. Apparently, if you are a serious garage sale buyer, you know to get there early so you have first dibs. Between about 7:30-8:30, you would have thought we were giving stuff away based on the amount of people we had! They bought tons of our furniture, cameras and art work before the sale had officially begun! One of our favorite parts of the early morning rush was when we heard these two older ladies squeal with delight after peeking in the front door, "THEY HAVEN'T EVEN TAKEN EVERYTHING OUT YET!!!!!". Chris was kind enough to let them inside to see what else we had. :) So, before 9:00, we had already made hundreds of dollars and met some very interesting people. Like the guy who used to collect blasphemous religious artwork, worked as an embalmer in a funeral home and can't work now because of an undisclosed disability. He bought some old art magazines Chris didn't even want to put out to sell since he thought there was no way someone would want them. And that's when we found the theme of the day: people will buy anything! I think my favorite "who the hell would want this" sell was the women who bought a set of 3 (not 4), used, dirty cork coasters. She zoned in on them like her life was complete when she found them. She asked me how much, and I felt a tinge of guilt when I gave her a price since my gut instinct was to say "just take those nasty things!". But hey, I can't argue with supply and demand, so I asked for 50 cents and she was happy to oblige. Day one continued on with barely a lull period. Tons of people came in their beat up pickups to add to the already large pile in their truck bed, or with their Lexus SUVs, or just by foot. And many of then knew each other! We found a lot of people who ran into someone they knew on our front yard. I didn't realize a perk of the sale would be to connect the community, but I felt good knowing it did. By the end of the day, we had made much more than anticipated and had a lot less stuff to bring into the house. Day two was not nearly as lively and it makes sense that it wouldn't be. The shoppers seemed to know all the good stuff would already be taken. But it worked out well since it gave us time to start cleaning out the house (we want every bit of our security deposit back!), and we got to chat with some return visitors. Our embalmer friend stopped by to again, a sweet couple who are thinking about joining the Peace Corps, and a dude who was very excited about showing us wood carvings he acquired from Tanzania and Mozambique. The amount of people we met with a connection to Africa and/or the Peace Corps was another pleasant side affect of the garage sale. I don’t know if it was the people we met, or the fact that we sold tons more than expected or maybe just because the weather that weekend was perfect. But after 2 days of selling, chatting, cleaning our rented townhouse, and saying goodbye to my home of 11 years, Columbus, I felt a moment of complete certainty. My life is going in the exact direction it should be. And it feels really good.
And now we are in our final leg of "Operation PC Prep". We moved from having our stuff in a 3 floor townhouse to almost everything into one bedroom at my Dad's house in Cleveland where we will stay until our departure. And you know what, I am liking this living with less thing. In fact, we're already talking about having another garage sale for the stuff we are storing when we get back from the Peace Corps. These are all things we thought we would want, but we're starting to see that may not be the case. And now we are confident that someone will want to buy them. :)
Tchau!
No comments:
Post a Comment