Garage Sale Day!
Our friends Sue and Jois invited us to participate in their annual community garage sale this year. Eager to de-clutter our garage (and having no desire to host my own garage sale) I said we'd be happy to bring our stuff over and join in. After all, it seemed like a great way to kick-start my return to the Great Garage Project.
No sooner did I agree than I had second thoughts. And third thoughts. And fourth thoughts. A group effort like this is by its nature amorphous and mutable, with results greatly dependent on the weather, the goods, and who shows up. How will we keep everyone's items separate and work out the money? What if someone wants to buy things from different people and asks for a deal on the set? What if I price everything too high and no one even makes an offer? What if I price it all too low and make only $20 in exchange for several days of hot, sweaty effort? What if some jerk driving a Mercedes SUV belligerently offers me 25 cents for a DVD player, vacuum cleaner, and IKEA chair and accidentally I smack him hard across the face with my money bag, repeatedly, thus ruining everyone's day?
Worse yet, what if no one buys anything and we have to pack it all up into both cars and bring it back home and stuff it into the garage which I will then never ever be able to clear out again?!? THIS COULD BE DOOMED!
Obviously, a joint garage sale is entirely too unstructured for an obsessive-compulsive type like me. But I really wanted to get rid of our extra stuff. Few things make me happier than getting rid of stuff. So I...mostly committed to showing up.
(Truth be told, that's the best anyone can ever expect of me in a social context: mostly committing. That should be its own blog entry.)
However, despite knowing about this project for several months, I didn't start sifting through my garage for goods until the Sunday before the sale. This turned out to be unfortunate. Remember last November, when I went into the garage for the first time in months, only to discover it had been overgrown by a magical thicket? (Er, I mean invaded by morning glory vines.) No thicket this time, but instead an ever-present drip-drip-drip. In the midst of moving boxes I spun around to find the offending sound and gasped in dismay when I realized it was our water heater. Please, no.
24 hours and $1000 later (turns out there was a lot of valve work involved with the water heater replacement), I could go back to work. Of course, I didn't dive back in right away; I procrastinated until the day before the sale. Then I spent the entire day in the heat, going through boxes, dodging spiders, and sorting. Because I can't just "get the garage sale items" and leave it like that, I also had to sort items we were keeping and organize them into cabinets and such. I just can't help myself. While I got a lot done, when Kathy got home sometime that evening, I still hadn't priced everything.
I'm sure I was a joy for Kathy to come home to. I had spent the entire day with sweat dripping off my head, feeling nauseated, and thinking of every damn thing that could go wrong the following day. By this time, I hated everything in our garage and never wanted to see any of it again. This meant that our pricing session - which lasted in the driveway until nightfall - involved Kathy trying to calm me down about the next day, while I suggested dirt cheap prices for everything. I absolutely did not want to bring this stuff back home. We loaded the cars and ran some last minute errands.
The day before, I had ordered an Omron automatic blood pressure monitor so that I could figure out what was going on with me. Unfortunately, I chose two-day shipping. Just after I confirmed the order, I thought, damn, I should have chosen one-day, because otherwise it wouldn't arrive until Monday. But, maybe Margie and Norm would help me out, if it was that important. Turns out they were feeling helpful and the monitor arrived the next day, while I was working. I took my blood pressure after working like a dog in the garage and it was...normal. I took it again the next morning before we left - when Kathy was sure it would be high because I was acting like such a FREAK - and it was normal. Perhaps I just don't like going to the cancer center.
All my anxiety and spastic behavior, as it turns out, was for naught. The sale went remarkably well. As late arrivals, we scored a spot on the lawn, in the shade of a huge tree. I felt like I should pay money to Sue just for that bit of heaven. We were able to spend the day with friends and catch up. And, most excitingly, most of our stuff sold.
We did price everything too low, to be sure. On some of the more fabulous items, we weren't left with much haggle room because of that, so that's a lesson. Pricing things low never stops people from trying to get an even BETTER deal, as you may know, and I had to shake my head at some of the attempts. No, I will NOT take $5 for a slim-line DVD player with instruction book in perfect condition. No, I will not accept $2 for a brand new waffle iron-sandwich maker-grill combo with 3 sets of removable plates and all documentation. While I'm fine with haggling, I had to love the woman who picked out what she wanted, recognized that the prices were really cheap, and just paid for them. Perhaps I should have priced higher, but then you risk having people like her simply walk away.
The next day, we took our profits to Target and bought a Bissell SpotBot, further indulging my afore-mentioned floor-cleaning fetish. I'm such a glamour girl, I know. (This reminds me that when I got my first management job back in 1987. I bought myself a Eureka upright vacuum cleaner to celebrate my raise. Even I recognize that as a bit freakish.)
However, it isn't about the money. It's about the free space in the garage. I look at the bare spots and...well...fan me! A few more days of work in there (maybe a week, as I have some hard-to-get-rid-of items) and I can set up a workshop. Then I can fire up that laser-assisted miter saw and start to work on my next art projects. Or carry my fingers in an ice bucket to the ER. One way or the other, I'll be ready.
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