Aches, Floods, Hagglers, and Buzz Lightyear

You know you're out of shape when literally everything hurts after a 1.5 day garage sale. I'm pretty sure somewhere amongst the junk chaos, I was hit by a really big truck and drug about 50 feet. And then reversed over and hit again.

With all of that being said, I'd call the weekend a success! A damp success, but a triumph none the less.

With what I'm pretty sure was a rare, and near impossible, Illinois hurricane, we found ourselves quickly in an awkward position. The sale had been listed in the newspaper for 4 days leading up to Friday. It was on Craigslist, Facebook, etc... We were ready and armed with massive amounts of stuff. Cue unexpected weather alert sirens, gale force winds, and flash flood warnings. Awesome.

Do we open in a monsoon? Do we postpone til next week and eat the fee it cost to post it in the paper. Will people still show up, be upset and ring my doorbell with fiery torches and demand to see my junk???? AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

We quickly scrambled, rolled up our sleeves and moved furniture out of our sun room and to make a garage/sun room sale. Ah, maybe that's why my everything hurts? I kid you not, I moved furniture inside, and then outside when the rain stopped, and then inside again, and outside, for two days straight.

And although I'm semi-complaining and sharing the not so glamorous side of our experience (seriously, is there really a glamorous side to yard sales?), we still had a great turn out and made some good money. Well, 3 of us did out of the 5 participating. Not too shabby for a hurricane like sale.

And my words of wisdom after this weekend's experience are:

1. Have a rain plan. Whether it's to postpone or to allow for a larger space if needed, have that plan set ahead of time to avoid scrambling. I'd start scurrying and then I'd get overwhelmed, sit down, tell my hubs that I "just can't do this, it's too much", and then I'd pull up my big girl shorts and scurry again. Mentally AND physically draining.
2. Price everything, but know what you're really willing to take should they haggle. Which they will.
3. Don't slash your prices too early! My mom was slashing them at 9:30am until I told her to chill and slash after lunch. What's the rush?
4. We tried our best to organize by theme or room in the house with appropriate signage. A few people commented on how it was a great sale. Thanks to the awful weather, I can only assume it was due to our feeble attempts to organize because that place was packed in like sardines so I know it wasn't the "feel" of our space.

I think it's safe to say that it'll be awhile before we host another large sale at our place. And to all of my items that found themselves new, loving homes, I bid you farewell. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here anymore.

 

A boy came to the sale and left as Buzz Lightyear.

He was a happy shopper! $1 never soared so far down my driveway before.

 



 

Mom and Grandma debating the world's problems as they pertain to garage sales.

Um, not really.

 



Even the rain can't keep this Pig down. He was dying to meet and greet/ guard his stuff.

 



Ah, finally over and able to walk down the drive without dodging hagglers.