We had a yard sale today. We sat outside with all our unwanted stuff for five hours and made a whopping $25.00. Oh, I guess I should add that Jack also made $4.00 selling his Redskins paraphernalia and Ella raked in $3.25 selling handmade jewelry which she's been slaving over all week.
Was this a waste of time? Considering we made over $200.00 at our last yard sale two years ago, it would seem like a colossal waste of a precious commodity that so many of us have so little of. However, I like to look at the bright side of things - so here are some positive highlights of our day.
1. It turned out to be a great excuse to sit outside on a beautiful day, sipping coffee and reading the paper while doing absolutely nothing.
2. Our kids were repeatedly excited every time a car would drive down our street - so not once did we have to endure the complaints of "I'm bored" or "What do I do NOW?" or "I'm hungry". The sheer anticipation of a potential customer was enough to keep them entertained for several hours. Plus the fact that they each have extra cash in their piggy banks is a huge bonus.
3. Two lovely ladies who stopped by and lavished our dog with lots of affection turned out to be a former patient of mine from a year ago and her daughter. The patient didn't remember me due to her dementia, but the daughter was delighted to figure out why I seemed so familiar and we had a very nice time chatting about various things, including the recent demise of their beloved cairn terrier and the daughter's impending toe amputation. The elderly mother just kept petting our dog and saying how sweet she was.
4. We unloaded several unwanted possessions, including our bike rack that failed to keep my bicycle secured to the car during our beach trip this summer and a framed drawing of a sweet-face llama that I happened to like but that my husband found completely hideous. We did not, however, manage to get rid of my mother's 20 year old NordicTrack or the bread machine that we received as a wedding gift and have used a total of four times in thirteen years.
5. Ella managed to sell almost all of her hand-made jewelry, much to her delight. The cutest purchaser of the jewelry was our nine year old neighbor, who returned to our yard sale repeatedly with fistfuls of quarters to see what else he might be able to buy. He bought a necklace to give to his mother, a bracelet to give to an unknown recipient, an Orioles polo shirt for 25 cents for his dad and two pairs of Jack's old sneakers for free.
We also had posted some large items of furniture for sale on craigslist in the hopes of making some lucrative sales to subsidize the purchase of some new furnishings for our house - however, we did not have any takers. We did get about three responses via email for the furniture from obvious scammers, who offered to fedex us certified bank checks and to have their own shippers pick up the furniture because they were either deaf, blind, or somehow otherwise afflicted and unable to come view the furniture for themselves.
We've decided to use the $25.00 from the yard sale to do something fun with the kids tomorrow on Columbus Day. I put several bags of items in the back of the car to donate to Goodwill and we left a bunch of stuff by the curb with a big sign saying "Free Stuff!" in hopes that someone will come and throw it into their trunk. So far it's still sitting there.
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