I have been wanting to clean out the furnace room (our general storage room) for months. I knew I wouldn't get around to it until the summer. Last week I finally went on a cleaning jag. After two days of work I got it finished (I also cleaned out the refigerater and the stove including moving them away from the wall an cleaning the floor underneath--eeeeuuuwww). In the process I thought why are we keeping all this stuff? I decided we were going to have a garage sale to get rid of things like Dennis' old bowling ball, my skis & boots and lots of other silly stuff that was just taking up space. (There's still plenty of stuff left in the furnace room.) We also made chocolate chip cookies and lemonade to sell. I told the boys any profit we made they could keep for the trip to Hawaii coming up.We put signs up around the neighborhood and even listed the garage sale on craigslist. We held it this past Friday and Saturday from 9am to 1pm each day hoping that our junk might just be other people's treasure. Turns out our junk is pretty much other people's junk too. We did sell a few things each day but I would have to say that about half our profits came from the cookies and lemonade ($40--but still better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick as my mom would always say)! Still it was a fun adventure and something I have always wanted to try (although it is NOT on my "list").
It was very interesting to watch the different people that showed up from the "professional" garage salers to the neighbors just stopping by. Some people didn't even get out of their cars they just drove by slowly. Both days the weather was very nice so we just sat in lawn chairs and enjoyed the sunshine. I actually finished reading two library books.
Saturday afternoon when we were done, we just chucked the whole caboodle in the back of the van and hauled it to DI. I'm not sure all the work setting it up was worth the $40 profit. I don't think it is anything I will be doing again anytime soon or if I clean up the furnace room again. It does however always feel good to purge! Until I need something I got rid of that is!
6 comments:
I like to say "less is more" when I'm forced to make all of our junk fit somewhere. I'm getting better at de-junking all the time.
I would say 40 buckaroos is pretty darn good for selling mostly cookies and lemonade. I let my kids sell cinnamon rolls and milk to get ready for WDW and I think they made a whole 8 buckaroos and that's because one of our neighbor's took pity on them. I've never had much luck with yard sales, either. But, one must have the experience at least once in this life :)
How funny, I was just talking to my friend about yard sales yesterday. She had just finished her yearly yard sale and brought in $400! I've been thinking about having a yard sale, but I'm afraid mine would probably bring in about as much money as yours did. But like you said, better than a poke in the eye.
I have never had a garage sale. I figure I'll invest the time to get it to the thrift store and feel good about purging and hope that someone will benefit from the "lovely" cast off I sent DI way. Besides making change involves math and I don't want to go there unless I have to!
Sounds like you really did some good cleaning and purging. That feels Soooo good!
What trip to Hawaii???
(I'm sure you told me- but remember I'm getting old and senile:)
Oh yeah! Can you believe the missing gameboy surfaced! WooHoo!
Hey, you've been busy. I usually don't get those cleaning urges during the summer. Mike and I had our first garage sale this spring also. We net $100 which went to Mike to spent at garage sales the rest of the summer. It's a lot of work. I agree the best part is watching the people.
Man I'm tired just reading your blog. It sounds like cleaning out the furnace room and the good read were worth it. Those serious garage sale types are seasoned shoppers who know how to look and leave.
I hope the boys had fun with the cookies sale. It looks cute in the picture anyway.
Should buy them a couple of shave ice helpings in Hawaii.
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