Sunday, April 17, 2011

The Weekend Report

Hello, friends. How was your weekend? Here's hoping it involved more relaxation than mine did, because this Saturday was the collision of a) The Professor and our boy being AWOL on a Boy Scout campout, and b) our yard sale. How's that for timing?


I did the yard sale with two more experienced friends: Melissa and Tsh. I spent bits of weeks and days decluttering, sorting, pricing, tagging, consulting helpful posts like this one.

The night before, Tsh and her husband and kids dropped by, and we fortified ourselves with this scrumptious pavlova, which you should all run to your kitchens and make this very minute. I'm just telling you this because I love you.

How did the sale go?


Well, it may or may not have coincided beautifully with a near neighbor's well-advertised yard sale (we both used Craigslist ads and ample neighborhood signage).

We may or may not have all been scrambling to get our stuff set up, sweating bullets and foregoing breakfast while our first customers milled about.

Another neighbor/friend, walking by at that hour, may or may not have been pressed into service.

I may or may not have sold all my maternity clothes to the perfect customer.



We may or may not have found frequent use for our rusty Spanish.

Tsh and I may or may not have made the exact same amount of money, and it may or may not have taken us at least six brain-fogged, food-and-water-deprived, attempts to calculate our earnings. How many writers does it take to divide up a pool of cash? 

That amount of money may or may not have approximated $140, which means we may or may not have earned minimum wage for our labors. (But compared to donating it all ...)

My brother-in-law, ever faithful, may or may not have carted a truckload off to Goodwill after the sale wound down.

I know! The whole thing is just so shrouded in mystery!

But here's one thing not shrouded in mystery, because I know someone's going to ask. How did we keep our collective three daughters and one dog safely occupied for five hours when they weren't, you know, rendering entrepreneurial service or indulging in cooperative, independent play? Answer: A babysitter, then a movie. Over and out.

7 comments:

JoAnn said...

So by all accounts, your garage sale "may or may not" have been successful. The doing of it is half (at least) of the fun. Getting the house cleaned out is the other half. good job!
Did I ever tell you about the all-church sale I helped organize in 1998 to help build the LSM offices in Anaheim? $12,000 taken in, minus the expenses, $11,700 sent to LSM. I have not had any desire to do another garage sale since then....

Maija said...

JoAnn, I was at the church-wide garage sale of 1998, and I remember marveling at how organized the event was (or at least, appeared to be). You did a great job! Too bad you aren't volunteering to do another one anytime soon.

Hannah said...

Yes, I participated in that sale as well. It was a huge group effort, wasn't it? I remember you being very capably at the helm. And you're right, the best part is getting the house cleaned out!

B. said...

haha, too cute!

Jenny said...

Every now and again, I toy with the idea of doing a garage sale. Your mysterious post leaves me wondering whether the effort required to pull off a garage sale beats my current method of donating it all to charity and taking the tax write-off.

So, would you do it again?

Hannah said...

@Jenny: Yes, I think I would, but I'd make sure Tim was around to help with the lifting and moving, etc. It really is a two-adult job, IMO. Also, I'd probably start pricing my items ahead of time, possibly AS I decluttered them, rather than waiting until two days before to start writing up stickers (while still peering into closets: "Have I been through these shelves enough times yet???")

Jenny said...

Alas, the ever-elusive "do a little at a time as I go" model never seems to work for me, although I'm certain it's the best and least-stressed way to do things. It's always the plan, of course, but procrastination and last-minute panic seem to reign nevertheless. *sigh*