Our neighborhood here in Texas always has an annual garage sale, so this year we decided to participate. I will insert here, my parents grew up during the depression and they became hoarders. When they died, they left behind a five bedroom home filled with over 3000 antique clocks and watches and junk like you wouldn't believe. We sold the clocks to an auctioneer which took over three semis to haul away. Then, there were four dumpsters used before the house was empty. I refuse to live that way. I shy away from any garage sales or auctions which my parents would go to all the time.
My husband grew up differently. His parents threw out everything when they no longer needed it. His mother loved garage sales and worked the circuit. He embraced our participation in the garage sale to the point where I was ready to kill him. He called me several times a day to make sure we had everything we could sell. I told him I would check when I could because I too was working. He made an Excel spreadsheet of our items and the suggested price. (He's a salesman by trade). We even went to his office to borrow tables to display our items. He took off Friday afternoon and the two of us cleaned out the garage; gathered and priced everything. Bring on Saturday!
We all got up at six on Saturday and placed everything to enhance their appeal. First customers came at 7:45 and quickly left. More of the same. After about an hour, we learned what we had for sale wasn't what people wanted. We had no children's clothes, toys, or games. People didn't want VHS tapes, nor did they want bookcases. They didn't want a set of drinking glasses or bar stools. We even tried "Manager's Special' buy these items for only three dollars! No go. By eleven, we had only sold $90 dollars worth of stuff of what we had priced out would've been at least $200.
We hauled our unwanted stuff back into the house and have called a local charity to schedule a pick up. Was the experience worth it? Nope! Guess we are not garage sale folks!
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