"We" Are Having a Garage Sale

Nine months ago, DH looked at me and said "We should have a garage sale".

You see, with the kids moving out (this was when we thought we were only going to have one at home, as #3 had just left for college), he and I were realizing that we had a lot of crap, er stuff, that hadn't been used in years and wouldn't foreseeably be used enough in the future to merit the space it took up.

Besides, he'd like some newer better stuff, and that means first selling the existing stuff to raise funds for the purchase of the newer stuff. For instance, he's been lusting after a zero-turn mower for several years but owns both a lawn tractor with a 38" deck and a 5' (or is it 6'?) finish mower that is used with the John Deere tractor.   So, absolutely no zero-turn mower will appear at this little place here until both of the perfectly good mowing instruments we all ready own have been sold.

I agreed that a garage sale was probably the most effective way of cashing in on our still usable but not so wanted items.  However, being late in the summer and crazy busy with work, I didn't think having a garage sale before Labor Day was feasible.

So we set a date: Memorial Day weekend, 2013.

Guess what snuck up on us!  Yep, it's here.  The big weekend.  Garage sale time.  I'd been collecting clothes, books, and household goods all winter, piling them on the pool table in the basement (I wanted to put the pool table in the garage sale too, as it has mostly gathered junk in the 10 years we've owned it, but no, DH gave it to DS2 for his house he and a bunch of college buddies are renting for the coming school year.  Which means I'm stuck with a pool table taking up a third of the basement for at least three more months.)

Guess what I look like this week.  I drew a picture to help you guess.

That's me, with all the crap, er valuable items, I hauled to the garage yesterday for the coming sale.

Now I'll show you a picture I drew of what DH and the two DDs looked like most of this week while "we" were getting ready for the sale.  Except my walls aren't really orange, more like terra cotta.  At least, I think that's what the Home Depot called it in 2003.

I don't know if you can see, but they all have smiles on their faces as they 'relax' in the living room after work and school.  I, on the other hand, do not have a smile because I have not relaxed after work, I've cleaned a garage, hauled stuff from the basement, pillaged a barn for forgotten treasures and gone through closets for clothing that no longer fits.  

Have I mentioned that I hate putting on a garage sale?  Right now I'm in the 'just get it done and over with' phase.  Not at all enjoying it, and trying to focus on Monday, when it will be over.  Then hopefully I won't have to deal with putting on a garage sale for at least 5 years (the interval most often between "our" garage sales.)