No pictures but we did finally have that garage sale we’ve been talking about for a year! We spent all of Friday cleaning out the garage, deciding what we were going to sell and how to arrange it. Then, instead of putting everything away, we just prayed it wouldn’t get stolen in the night. We had about 5 hours of sleep before getting up again and putting all the final touches on the sale.
I think we made a good amount of money (for a garage sale) but we accomplished much more than that. We got rid of about half the stuff in the garage. That’s HUGE!! We can actually maneuver around where before there was only a path to the food!
The kids got in on it too. Jaime made cookies and sold them 5 for $1. Niah made lemonade and sold it for 25 cents a cup. Niah made $10 and Jaime made $36. It was awesome for both of them. Then we paid the kids for all the time and effort they put in to making the garage sale a success. Then we bought dinner because I was not about to cook after a garage sale. After paying tithing, the money was pretty much gone!! Good reminder to me that money goes as fast as it comes!!
Our neighbor Andrea (a really good cook, who also happens to be Mexican and cooks Mexican food!!) made lunch for us of homemade enchilada’s, rice and salad. It was AMAZING!! Good thing she did because by the time the food had come I was just realizing that I hadn’t eaten all day and I was starving. I love my neighborhood. We all really do take care of each other! Thanks guys!!
The garage sale was exhausting. It was so nice to be done and have the driveway cleaned off and the cars parked side by side. We went inside, cleaned up a bit and then started putting kids to bed. After the house was quiet and I collapsed into the couch, the reality of what I had just done hit me like a ton of bricks. 90% of the stuff at the garage sale was my moms stuff. And as I thought of all the things I sold, it just crushed me. My sane mind knew it was the right thing to do. The only thing to do really. But my emotional mind couldn’t handle it. I just cried. Then it sent me into this week long funk that took all my energy to control. I just wanted to curl up in a corner somewhere and have the world fall on top of me.
But it had to happen. The garage needed cleaning out and if we didn’t sell the stuff then we would have stuffed it into a D.I. trailer so either way people got the stuff for cheap. It was a good experience for the kids too. They had a good time selling their things too.
I’m ok now. Time seems to heal everything. So does ignoring. But it is nice to walk into the garage and be able to get to more than just the food. It’s also nice to open the front of the garage and see to the back!
Loosing my mom has been difficult in so many ways. Ways I never thought possible. Like a garage sale!
Anyway, too bad we didn’t get any pictures. It sure was a sight to see. I remembered from years ago reading an article that said the best way to display clothes at a garage sale was to hang them up. We have this metal rod that runs the length of the garage door. So we propped up the big door, took all the things in the house off hangers and hung up as much as we could along the length of the garage door. The clothes were mostly all ours. I think we figured we sold about 300 individual articles of clothing. It was insane! I probably have 300 more!
We were pretty gung ho about having another garage sale to finish off the stuff that didn’t get sold the first time. I think we’ll just reorganize the garage and call it good for now. My emotions won’t be ready for another sale until at least next summer!!
**SIGH**
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